Brother Martin takes team title at Catholic League District Wrestling Meet

NEW ORLEANS – In any sport, at any level, depth is a desired entity, a luxury.

In wrestling, Brother Martin is most certainly in the comfort zone.

The Crusaders have more depth than any team in the state and more good wrestlers than anyone in the state this season.

That was on full display again Saturday at Holy Cross for the Catholic League District Wrestling Tournament.

Despite being without four top wrestlers due to illness, the Crusaders captured eight of 14 weight classes en route to the title, outdistancing host and defending state champion Holy Cross by 45.5 points for the championship. Jesuit was a distant third in the meet seen live at CrescentCitySports.com.

Winners for Brother Martin included Connor Hoffman (106), Daniel Croy (126), Riley Horvath (132), Luke Cotton (138), Patrick Evans (145), Michael Clapp (182), Cameron Frederick (195) and Mack Brown (285).

Brother Martin head coach Robbie Dauterive was happy to have a district meet again and happy with his team’s performance.

“It’s been since 2001 or 2003 since we had a district meet but this is the way it should be settled,” Dauterive said. “This is the toughest district in Louisiana in wrestling. I like this format. I hope we continue with it. Eight champions, 12 in the finals, and the way we responded with the flu and what we’ve been through the last couple of weeks, I think we’re primed and ready to go for the state tournament.”

Holy Cross had a pair of champions, including Stafford Agee, IV (113) and Michael Lundin (120).

Jesuit had champions, including Nathan Koenig (152), Paul Treuting (160) and Perry Ganci (220).

Top-seed Eduardo Garcia (170) was a winner for Archbishop Shaw.

A total of 11 top-seeds won titles while Hoffman, Agee, IV, Clapp were second-seeds. Clapp scored a late takedown to upset Jesuit top-seed Thomas Arseneaux 4-3 in perhaps the best match of the tournament. Arseneaux is the likely top-seed in the state at 182 pounds.

“I knew that the one thing I had to do coming into this match was to stay close in the beginning,” Clapp said. “He’s a strong guy. I knew he was going to be tough but I wanted to keep it close and take my chances in this match. Coming from football, it’s always tough. Football-shape is nothing even close to wrestling shape. I’m kind of just finding myself.”

Rummel was without defending state champion Blake Mateu at 113 pounds due to knee and shoulder injuries while Caruso Signorelli also sat out for Holy Cross at that weight to heal up.

All teams head to Bossier Feb. 16-17 for the state tournament, where Brother Martin, Holy Cross and Jesuit figure to be the top three teams with St. Paul’s the other potential contender. The Crusaders won five straight titles before the Tigers stopped Brother Martin’s run with the Division I championship a year ago. It was a lesson learned for the Crusaders.

“I love it,” Dauterive said. “These kids are primed, we’re ready to go have a meeting. There’s no Mardi Gras. We have not worked this hard in a long time. I think last year, I shut things down a bit too soon preparing for the state tournament and we didn’t take our foot off the pedal this week and we’re not going to.”

Final Team Scores
1) Brother Martin 252
2) Holy Cross 206.5
3) Jesuit 130
4) Archbishop Shaw 85.5
5) Archbishop Rummel 52
6) John Curtis Christian 30

Individual Championship Matches
106—Connor Hoffman (BM) maj. dec. Jacob Frost (HC) 12-4
113—Stafford Agee, IV (HC) maj. Dec. Jake Spellman (BM) 11-2
120—Michael Lundin (HC) pinned Chris Montalbano (RUM) 2:58
126—Daniel Croy (BM) pinned Raheem Bonnet (SHAW) 1:36
132—Riley Horvath (BM) dec. Logan Lacoste (HC) 5-2
138—Luke Cotton (BM) pinned Mason Macaluso (HC) 1:04
145—Patrick Evans (BM) dec. Brady Butler (HC) 7-1
152—Nathan Koenig (JES) dec. Seth Alfonso (BM) 5-1
160—Paul Treuting (JES) dec. Caden Mumme (HC) 9-3
170—Eduardo Garcia (SHAW) dec. Mason Massicot (BM) 3-1
182—Michael Clapp (BM) dec. Thomas Arseneaux (JES) 4-3
195—Cameron Frederick (BM) dec. Logan Heffner (HC) 6-3
220—Perry Ganci (JES) pinned Kyle West (BM) 1:09
285—Mack Brown (BM) pinned Brady Maillet (HC) 1:19