2022 LHSAA State Wrestling Championships February 11th-12th 2022 Raising Cane's River Center Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Dare one say "dynasty?"  says one can.  "Legitimate dynasties are those who besides having won three or more titles also are teams pegged with personality, superstar talent and consistent winning seasons.  Well, Basile now has four consecutive Division III championships.  The school bred Gavin Christ and Isaac Cortez, both of who reek (in a good, week-old wrestling sweatpants, kind of way) of talent and personality.  They also have a Division II title from 1991.  What is more remarkable is that the school, according to Schooldigger.com has an enrollment of less than 500 students.  So that's about 125 per class, right?  Wrong.  The enrollment counts grades 4-12, so that means 55.55 students per class.  Compare that to the last Division III dynasty, Brusly, who from 2000 through 2015 won 12 Division III titles.  Schooldigger.com lists them with 700 student from 9th-12th grades.  That is 175 students per grade, over three times what Basile has.  The Bearcats have two 2022 state champions juniors returning for their senior year in 2022-23, as well as two 8th-grade placers (that's where the 0.55s of a student comes into play), two other juniors and one sophomore who placed in the top-six, they look primed for a fifth title.  Coaches Bryan McCoy, Dave Johnson, Carmen Cortez and now Isaac Cortez have plenty with which to work.

The Bearcats scored 248.5 points and beat runner-up De la Salle by 57.5 points.  Only their 2018 championship team, which had six state champions, scored more points than the 2022 Bearcats. Jayden Guillory, Luc Johnson, Christian Bergeron and Anphrony Guillory (in his fifth and final state tournament), won titles for the Bearcats.  Senior Andre Johnson and eighth-grader Pierson Comeaux were runners-up.  Junior Luke Fontenot placed fourth while eighth-grader Kye Smith, junior Parker Fontenot and sophomore Emery Lejeune placed fifth.  As a team the Bearcats won the Brusly Invitational, although only by a less than comfortable margin of 18.5 points over their main Division III competition, the De la Salle Cavaliers.  The Bearcats only had 12 scorers and the Cavaliers had 13, but the state championships are fickle and they shifted several wrestlers into new weight classes for the event.  They were runners-up to perennial Division II powerhouse Teurlings Catholic at the Jacob McMillan.  They placed third at the Lafayette Metro championships behind Teurlings Catholic and an always strong Rayne team, both Division II schools.  They also placed third at the Rebel Duals.

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Placing second for the second year in a row were Coach Mike Hillman's De la Salle Cavaliers.  They were led by senior state champion Colin Veron, who was aided immensely by two more state champions, sophomore Dylan Duvernay and junior Shane Barbarin.  Luke Robinson placed second, as did Jason Krail and Liam O'Connor, all three of whom are juniors who should return next season.  Senior Spencer Hughes placed third in a tough 2-0 match against Basile's Luke Fontenot.  Walking off the mat after one's last high school match with a win probably bested last year's runner-up finish.  Other placers slated to return for the Cavaliers are freshmen Jace Wagoner (4th) and Malachi Benetrix (6th). Hillman has brought the Cavaliers from finishing seventh in 2019 to taking home the runner-up plaque in 2021 and 2022.

The Brusly Panthers led by one point after the first day and when it was over placed third with 179 points - 12 less than De la Salle but 20 more than fourth-place John Curtis.  Sophomore Cameron Redditt won the only title foor the Panthrs and was voted the Division III Outstanding Wrestler.  Juniors Chris Miller and Huey Johnson were runners-up for the Panthers, who should return placers Braylin Poston (6th), Jase Davis (3rd), Adam Leblanc (5th),  Aujyri Harris (5th), Beau Rabalais (5th), Anthony Denova (5th), Allen Young (4th) and Silas Robichaux (6th) for the 2022-23 season.

Taking home the Division III Outstanding Wrestler award was Brusly's Cameron Redditt.  The Panther sophomore was seeded second but upset top-seeded and defending State champion Luke Caballero 9-3 in the finals.  Five weeks earlier Caballero soundly defeated Redditt in the Brusly Invitational finals via a 10-2 major decision.  Redditt scored four takedowns and an escape while holding the defending state champion to only three escapes.

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Division III Brackets in PDF

FINAL TEAM SCORES

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The John Curtis Patriots surprised a lot of people by placing fourth, which they had not done since 2017.  Two Patriots won titles from the second-seed positions.  Senior Sean King upended De la Salle's 145 lbs. top-seed Liam O'Connor 9-7 in a Sudden Victory round, and junior Brandan Dang defeated St. Louis' top seed Henry Milligan 6-2 at 220 lbs.  King is the only senior on the team, so look for the Patriots to make a stand again next season.

St. Louis, which placed fifth, had one state championship, but not really one they expected.  In between the top seeds Caballero and Milligan was the 170 lbs. fourth-seed Graham Montet.  Montet pinned top-seeded Christian Otzenberger of Calvary Baptist and survived an 8-7 match in the finals against De la Salle's Luke Robertson.  Milligan will return for the Saints, as will Montet.  But Montet will do it twice.

The sixth-place Hannan Falcon had back-to-back champions.  Junior Preston Gautier, the top-seed at 152 lbs., pinned defending state champion Michael Gilreath of Evangel and was followed by senior Grayson Pennison, who bested Brusly's Huey Johnson, IV, 13-4 MD to win his second state title.  Pennison became Hannan's first two-time state champion.

The remaining Division III state championship went to Bossier's Christian Johnson at 195 lbs.  Johnson, the #1 seed, fought a five-minute war with second seed James Baldwin of Dunham.  The match score was 16-14 before Johnson recorded a fall.  Not too bad for someone who aggravated an injury suffered during football season on December 21st and was not cleared to wrestle until two days before the tournament.

Random Photos

Basile Contingent	De la Salle Contingent	Brusly Contingent

Evangel coaches John Tademy and Mike Guerrero	Basile coach Isaac Cortez with Gabe Duplechin and 106 lbs. runner-up  8th-grader Pierson Comeaux

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