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

Place	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Podium
Name	Tyson Roach	Bodi Harris	Lathan Hirschey	Logan Olsen	Aiden Krass	Landon Smith
School	Sam Houston	Jesuit	Live Oak	Airline	East Ascension	Holy Cross
Seed	1	2	3	4	7	NS
Class	10	9	12	10	9	8
Final Record*	56-2	34-3	36-7	34-8	35-21	8-4

*    Records include all wins but only losses to Louisiana wrestlers.  Forfeits and defaults are not counted.

It took Andrew Aucoin four finals matches to finally win a Division II state championship for the Sam Houston Broncos,  Aside from Aucoin, his mother, his coaches, other uncountable number of family and friends, nobody was happier than I was that he won.

Sophomore Tyson Roach needed just two appearances to win the first Division I title for the Broncos.  And he did so convincingly, with falls in 0:23, 1:14, 3:37 and a 16-4 major decision.

Roach was the only one who thought his title might be considered tainted because Southside’s Landon Reaux failed to make weight.  It was not in any manner.  It was unfortunate for Master Reaux, but he knew the rules.  Twenty-one other wrestlers thought differently than Roach.  They viewed Reaux's absence as an open spot on the podium.  Not the top spot, perhaps, but a spot, nonetheless.

Seeding Synopsis

Roach put up a 56-2 record and had lost to nobody in his bracket.  He had experience against #4 Logan Olsen of Airline (D1 4th), #5 Samuel Favaza of Fontainebleau and Jack Battaglia of Jesuit.  He won the Warrior Open over Olsen, followed by the Lakeshore Open over Dylan Duvernay of De la Salle (D3 1^st).  He won the Bulldog brawl (again over Duvernay), the Ronnie Suarez over Southside’s Kael Reaux (D1 4^th), the Jacob McMillan (Kael Reaux, again) and the Trey Culotta (Kael Reaux yet again).  He had a big win on December 1^st in a dual meet versus Southside.  Roach met, dominated and then pinned, defending Division I state champion and Outstanding Wrestler award winner Landon Reaux.  Roach went up to 113 lbs. for that match.  Reaux, however, would be a thorn in Roach’s side in their next two matches.  He scored a last second reversal to win the Louisiana Classic 9-8 and then beat Roach soundly (25-9 TF) the following weekend in the Ken Cole finals.  The LACL match was as close to a tie as possible sans OT rounds, and each had a blowout over the other.  Another Reaux win was not guaranteed at all, but Reaux would not be Roach’s problem at this event.

That title belonged to Jesuit freshman Bodi Harris.  Harris had an initial misstep starting the season, if one can call a loss to the outstanding Rummel freshman Kaiden Triche a “misstep,” but Harris remedied that problem twice as the season progressed.  He placed second at the Raider 8, sixth at the Gulf Coast Clash and added a runner-up finish at the South Walton Border Wars.  He won the Big Horse, placed third at the LACL and racked up impressive wins over Live Oak’s Lathan Hirschey (D1 3^rd), Brennan Romero of Teurlings Catholic (D2 1^st) – twice, Duvernay, Favaza, Johnny Laris of St. Amant and twice over Holy Cross’ super-seventh-grader Dominic Durham. 

The third seed went to Hirschey.  The Live Oak senior placed second at the Warrior Open, falling to Walker's Kye Karcher (D1 6th), was second at the Brusly 8, won the Big Horse (avenging his Warrior loss to Walker in the finals 6-4), placed third at the Battle of New Orleans, fourth at the LACL (losing to Harris) and won the Greater Baton Rouge Championships.  The Viking sophomore Olsen was the fourth seed.  He had the bad luck of meeting Roach four times, and two of those matches were in tournament finals – the Warrior Open and the Lone Survivor.  Olsen won the North Louisiana Regionals and was one win away from placing at the LACL.  Hirschey had a win over TC's Brennan Romero, whereas Olsen did not, so Hirschey was seeded higher. 

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Early Championship Rounds

If he wants one, Olsen will have to wait until next season for another shot at Roach.  Unseeded Holy Cross freshman Landon Smith took care of that by defeating Olsen in the second round 8-1.  Brother Martin freshman Trey Trainor also scored a minor upset via a fall in 5:42 over #7 Aiden Krass of East Ascension.

R1: (6) Colton Owens (DST) pinned Cole Mire (StP) in 5:13, R1: (8) Johnny Laris (StA) pinned Benjamin Frizzell (LAF) in 3:03, R1: (4) Logan Olsen (AIR) pinned Gavyn Meadows (ZCH) in 3:00, R1: Trey Trainor (BM) pinned Ronnie Leslie (COM) in 6:00

R2: (8) Johnny Laris (StA) defeated Taylin Nix (SUL) 9-0 MD

R2: Landon Smith (HC) defeated (4) Logan Olsen (AIR) 8-1

R2: Trey Trainor (BM) pinned (7) Aiden Krass (EA) in 5:42

R2: (2) Bodi Harris (JES) pinned Cameron Bertonaire (MND) in 3:14

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Quarterfinals

Favaza will have to wait until next season also for another match with Roach, as Smith continued disregarding protocol by knocking off the fifth seed 7-3.

(1) Tyson Roach (SH) pinned (8) Johnny Laris (StA) in 1:14

Landon Smith (HC) defeated (5) Samuel Favaza (FNT) 7-3

(3) Layton Hirschey (LO) pinned (6) Colton Owens (DES) in 3:59

(2) Bodi Harris (JES) defeated Trey Trainor (BM) 7-5

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Semifinals

There was, of course, a drawback to defeating the #4 and #5 seeds, and Smith found that out when he met Roach in the semifinals.  The unseeded Smith fared well by trailing only 3-2 after the first two minutes, but Roach seized control in the second period and scored a fall in 3:37. 

Harris defeated Hirschey twice at the LACL, coming from behind in the quarterfinals and winning rather handily in the consolation finals.  In the first round of this match Hirschey seemed to impart to the freshman that this was his fourth, not first, state championship tournament, as he ran-off three takedowns, added three nearfall points and allowed Harris only three escapes to take a 9-3 lead.  That sentiment lasted about 15 seconds into the second round when Harris seemed to answer that this might be his first state championships, but he had never lost in one.  Harris outscored Hirschey 6-1 in the second period, although he still trailed 10-9 as it ended.  Hirschey chose to start standing and Harris used all of 25 seconds to score seven more points, and then matched the three Hirschey mustered.  After a 10-4 period Harris advanced 19-14.

(1) Tyson Roach (SH) pinned Landon Smith (HC) in 3:37

(2) Bodi Harris (JES) defeated (3) Lathan Hirschey (LO) 19-14

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Consolation Rounds

Having lost in the second round to Brother Martin’s Trainor, #7 freshman Aiden Krass of East Ascension, won three matches, including a 10-4 win over #5 Favaza, to make it to the consolation semifinals, where he was beaten Hirschey for the third time this season. 

Olsen benefitted from a bye and then went through Mire, Trainor, #6 Colton Owens of Destrehan and then avenged his prior loss to Holy Cross' Smith in 2:48 in the consolation semifinals.

C2: (7) Aiden Krass (EA) pinned Benjamin Frizzell (LAF) in 0:50

C2: Cole Mire (StP) pinned Kason Carmena (CNT) in 2:17; C3: (4) Logan Olsen (AIR) defeated Cole Mire (StP) 3-1

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Championship Consolation Rounds

Hirschey outscored Olsen in the first period 4-1 and, after Olsen escaped in the second round, took him down and scored a fall in 1:36.

(3) Layton Hirschey (LO) pinned (4) Logan Olsen (AIR) in 1:36 to place 3rd

(7) Aiden Krass (EA) received a forfeit from Landon Smith (HC) to place 5th

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Finals

Roach scored fast and often, building up a 5-1 lead after the first period and a 9-2 lead after four minutes.  Harris was able to score a reversal in the third period, but it was not close to enough as Roach had already scored five points and reversed Harris to finish the match on top.

(1) Tyson Roach (SH) defeated (2) Bodi Harris (JES) via a 16-4 MD

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