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	Richie Clementi	Conlan Enk	Grant Grizzaff	Kael Reaux	Jesse Maneckshaw	Kye Karcher
School	Brother Martin	St. Paul	Catholic	Southside	East Ascension	Walker
Seed	1	3	4	7	6	8
Class	9	10	11	9	10	9
Final Record*	38-0	29-4	29-7	32-12	48-15	36-11

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

Fulfilling preseason hype, Brother Martin’s Richie Clementi became the seventh freshman to win a Division I state title since 2000, and joined Airline’s Ernie Perry, III, and the former Holy Cross twins Evan and Jacob Frost to win a title at the end of an undefeated season against Louisiana competition.  Brother Martin’s Paul Klein (’15), Stephen Shields ('17) and Rummel’s Josh Ramirez (’18) also won Division I titles as freshman, but they each suffered setbacks from Louisiana opponents during the season.

Clementi did not just stay undefeated in Louisiana.  He was unbeatable in Texas, Alabama and Tennessee, as well.  His two closest matches were two-point wins.  One was 2-0 against an Alabaman.  The other was to Teurlings Catholic’s Ashton Sonnier (D2 1st).  Sonnier, at least, scored a takedown against Clementi in a 4-2 Black Horse Invitational finals match.

Seedings Synopsis

Clementi was the top seed, of course.  He was 33-0 and won the Cinco Ranch Big 12 in Texas, the Gulf Coast Clash in Alabama, the Black Horse in Tennessee, the Trey Culotta, the Louisiana Classic and the District 9-5A championship.  During his swath of mat carnage, he defeated the defending Division II state champion Sonnier three times, defending Division I state champion Landon Reaux of Southside and seven other state placers in all three divisions. 

Seeded second was Jesuit’s John Michael Bourgeois.  The Blue Jay junior was 18-3, with two losses to Clementi and one to Sonnier.  He won the Raider 8, placed second at District 9-5A and third at the LACL.  During the LACL he defeated St. Paul’s Conlan Enk (D1 2nd) and Southside’s Kael Reaux (D1 4th). 

St. Paul sophomore Conlan Enk was seeded third.  He placed third at the South Walton Border Wars, fourth at the LACL, and won the Battle of New Orleans and the St. Tammany Parish Championships.  A one point, 8-7 win, over Catholic’s Grant Grizzaffi at the LACL placed Enk third and Grizzaffi as the fourth seed.  Grizzaffi won the Brusly 8, placed fourth at the Gulf Coast Clash, second at the Hoover Invitational and won the Greater Baton Rouge Championships.

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Early Championship Rounds

R2: (5) Christopher Strong (AIR) pinned Gabriel Broussard (BR) in 2:26

R2: (3) Grant Grizzaffi (CAT) defeated Michael Finders (AIR) 11-2 MD

R2: (6) Jesse Maneckshaw (EA) pinned Lelyn Saucier (SH) in 1:47

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Quarterfinals

The expected people got to the quarterfinals, but only three emerged unscathed. 

Southside freshman Kael Reaux had a fairly tough, though very good season.  He started at 106 lbs., and as Southside is in Lafayette, that meant a close proximity to the Lake Charles area, and that meant Sam Houston’s Tyson Roach, to whom he fell in the finals of the Ronnie Suarez, in a dual meet and in the Jacob McMillan finals.  New Orleans, the geographical Louisiana antithesis of Lake Charles, was not far enough away as the two met in the Trey Culotta finals, which Roach also won.  Eight days later he was injured at the Lone Survivor.  When it was safe to go back on the mats, his cousin Landon had supplanted him at 106 lbs., and in his first match at 113 lbs. - “Hello Ashton Sonnier,” was not much to his liking.  Nor was Bourgeois in the quarterfinals of the LACL, who pinned Reaux in 0:15.

After two first period falls the seventh-seeded Reaux found himself against the #2 Bourgeois again.  Reaux did not forget the short thrashing he received from Bourgeois at the LACL.  He scored nine points against Bourgeois in the first 2:30.  Seven of those were nearfall points.  Bourgeois was able to score four of his own in the second period but only two in the third, and he became the second top-4 seed not to make the semifinals.  (Airline's Logan Olsen at 106 lbs. was the first.)

(1) Richie Clementi (BM) pinned (8) Kye Karcher (WLK) in 1:13

(4) Grant Grizzaffi (CAT) defeated (5) Christopher Strong (PKY) 3-1

(3) Conlan Enk (StP) defeated (6) Jesse Maneckshaw (EA) 8-4

(7) Kael Reaux (SS) defeated (2) John Michael Bourgeois (JES) 9-6

The Parkway senior Strong merits some attention.  Prior to state he had losses to Ernie Perry, III, of Airline (D1 1st x 3) and Ashton Sonnier of Teurlings Catholic (D2 1st x 2).  Those were expected, though.  What was not expected were two losses, 10-5 and then 9-8 at the Lone Survivor to Sam Houston sophomore Pollex Coleman.  He won the Riot on the Red, the David Beeson Memorial and the Northwest Louisiana Regionals, placed fourth at the Trey Culotta (losing to the same Tennessee wrestler twice) and third at the Ken Cole.  He was 29-4 with wins over Kael Reaux of Southside (D1 4th), Evangel's Joseph Gilreath (D3 3rd), 2021 D3 champion and 2022 runner-up Luke Caballero of St. Louis and Rayne's Gaven Guidry (D2 2nd).  Seeded 5th for the state championships, he fell to Catholic's #4 Grizzaffi 3-1 in the quarterfinals and #8 Kye Karcher of Walker (D1 6th) 7-2, just one match from the medal rounds.

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Semifinals

The freshman Reaux might have expended too much energy defeating Bourgeois because he gave the third-seeded St. Paul sophomore little trouble.  Enk scored two points in the first and second periods, and then six more to vanquish Reaux 10-0 MD.

Clementi had little problem with Grizzaffi.  He had defeated the Catholic junior four times previously.

(1) Richie Clementi (BM) pinned (4) Grant Grizzaffi (CAT) in 1:26

(3) Conlan Enk (StP) defeated (7) Kael Reaux (SS) 10-0 MD

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Consolation Rounds

C2: Michael Finder (AIR) pinned Brennan Mays (SUL) in 2:13, Lance Webb, Jr. (CHL) pinned Gabriel Broussard (BR) in 0:43

C2: Bryson Mays (DST) defeated Gary Bass (HC) 6-4

C3: Cole Comeaux (StA) defeated Kentrell Plain (ZAC) 12-3 MD

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Championship Consolation Rounds

Bourgeois’ tournament got little better after one win in the consolation bracket.  Sixth-seeded sophomore Jesse Maneckshaw of East Ascension, whom Bourgeois pinned in the second period to place third at the LACL, took a page from Reaux’s playbook and knocked Bourgeois out of the placement matches via a 2:54 fall.  Maneckshaw went on to defeat Walker freshman, 8^th-seeded Kye Karcher of Walker, 14-7 to place fifth.

After falling behind the junior Grizzaffi 2-0 in the first minute, the Southside freshman gave him a war in the second period.  Grizzaffi won it 7-5, and then the two went 2-2 in the third before Grizzaffi put an end to the match in 4:42 to place third.

(4) Grant Grizzaffi (CAT) pinned (7) Kael Reaux (SS) in 4:42 to place 3rd

(6) Jesse Maneckshaw (EA) defeated (8) Kye Karcher (WLK) 14-7 to place 5th

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Finals

The sophomore Enk was the only one of the three highest seeds that Clementi had not faced during the season.  The Crusader freshman, however, did not see that as any reason to treat him differently.  Clementi took Enk down in 30 seconds and added five more points in a 7-0 first period.  On the bottom to start the second period, the freshman scored a reversal in 25 seconds, which led to a fall 44 seconds later.  Division I will have two wrestlers in the hunt for four state championships in 2023 - Clementi and Airline's Ernie Perry, III.

(1) Richie Clementi (BM) pinned (3) Conlan Enk (StP) in 3:09

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