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	Ernie Perry, III	Cole Mire	Jacob Elsensohn	Christian Worley	Anthony Perez	Trey Faherty
School	Airline	Dutchtown	Brother Martin	Catholic	Chalmette	StP
Seed	1	3	2	4	7	5
Class	11	11	10	10	12	12
Records*	27-0	44-7	48-3	34-5	36-6	25-5

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

Ernie Perry, III put a sign up in early December.  It read “120 lbs.”  That was in case anyone got lost wondering where the two-time defending state champion might be this season.  Many heeded the sign.  Some 27 others did not have fortune smile upon them in that manner. 

Actually, matching up with Perry in the state finals has been a boon for his opponents.  In 2020 he defeated St. Paul’s now two-time Division I state champion Jacob Houser.  In 2021 he beat 2022 state champion Mason Elsensohn of Brother Martin.  Cole Mire of Dutchtown, whom Perry defeated in the 2022 Division I finals, may be the next to benefit from that experience come Bossier City in 2023.

Twenty-two wrestlers had the pleasure of Perry’s company in the 2021-22 season.  While they might not have thought so at the time, they are probably better for the experience.  Except for the seniors, possibly.

Seeding Synopsis

Two-time Division I state champions who have never been defeated by Louisiana wrestlers are rather a snap to be a top seed at the state championships.  Tacking on a fifth-place finish at the Mid-America Nationals in Enid, Oklahoma, winning a Trey Culotta title and a third Louisiana Classic championship might explain why there were no 2022 or past Louisiana state champions, of any division, on his list of opponents.  That helps the other state champions, of course, but also opens doors for non-state champions to test their mettle.

Only one Louisiana opponent took Perry the full six minutes.  In fact, second-seeded Brother Martin sophomore Jacob Elsensohn did it twice, falling to Perry in the Trey Culotta finals 9-2 and in the LACL finals 6-3.  Nobody else in Louisiana…or Texas, Alabama or Tennessee, beat Elsensohn.  He won the Raider 8, followed by the Cinco Ranch Big 12, the Gulf Coast Clash and the Black Horse before meeting Perry in the Trey Culotta.  Before and after the Culotta, he met Dutchtown’s Cole Mire, a 2021 fourth-place finisher, in a duo of dual meets, winning 7-0 and 8-4.  He would beat Mire again in the LACL semifinals 7-4.  After the LACL, he defeated Jesuit’s Chase Haydel in a dual meet and then won the District 9-5A championship, beating Haydel again.

Mire was the third seed.  The Griffin junior placed third at the Warrior Open, losing to Jon Michael Cuba, and he was the runner-up at the Lakeshore Open, falling to Sam Houston’s Caleb Lavine.  Both of those matches were at 126 lbs.  He dropped to 120 lbs. for the Griffin Open, but it was a tad early as Teurlings Catholic’s Ashton Sonnier had not dropped to 113 lbs. yet, and he placed second at his home event.  However, as predicted by someone with an eerie gift, he started winning events.  He won the Spartan Invitational and followed that with a Big Horse championship.  In fact, after the November 24^th, 2021, loss to Sonnier, Mire’s only losses came from Elsensohn.  He placed fourth at the LACL (he lost to a kid from Texas in the consolation finals), but a week later won the Ken Cole, and a week after that he won the Greater Baton Rouge Championships.  Catholic sophomore Christian Worley was the fourth seed.  Mire defeated him in the LACL consolation semifinals 6-1 but Worley gave Mire a much harder time in the GBR finals, losing only 5-4.  Worley won the Brusly 8, placed seventh at the Gulf Coast Clash, fifth at the LACL and second at the GBRs.

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Early Championship Rounds

St. Amant junior Brandon Selman may have been tired of facing Mire, but he can take heart.  This was their third match of the season.  Mire won by nine points in their first, eight points in their second and only seven this time.  As shall be shown below, those little steps can add up.

R1: (1) Ernie Perry, III (AIR) pinned Matthew Krail (HC) in 0:38, (4) Christian Worley (CAT) defeated Sedaka Robin (SS) 15-0 TF

R1: (3) Cole Mire (DUT) defeated Brandon Selman (StA) 10-3

R1: (2) Jacob Elsensohn (BM) defeated Kolton West (LO) 16-1 TF

R2: (6) Chase Haydel (JES) defeated Asher Wilson (FNT) 11-5

R2: (2) Jacob Elsensohn (BM) defeated Mason David (ZAC) 8-0 MD

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Quarterfinals

Everyone behaved simply fine here, except Mire.  The #1 seed beat #8 in 0:40.  #2 beat #7 in 0:50.  #4 beat #5 in 4:20.  That gave #3 Mire a 3:30 window to score a fall over #6 Haydel, yet instead he won 11-4.  Well, perhaps one should blame Haydel.  Mire pinned him in the Big Horse.  Nobody pinned Haydel twice during the season.  He lost to Elsensohn four times and none of those were via falls.  This was not the tournament Haydel may have wanted, but during the season he beat East Ascension’s Jesse Maneckshaw (D1 4^th), Chalmette’s Anthony Perez (D1 5^th), Rummel’s Jake Brandstetter (D2 4^th) and Worley (D1 4^th).  One should not take the senior Blue Jay lightly next season.

(1) Ernie Perry, III (AIR) pinned (8) Pollex Coleman (SH) in 0:40

(4) Christian Worley (CAT) pinned (5) Trey Faherty (StP) in 4:20

(3) Cole Mire (DUT) defeated (6) Chase Haydel (JES) 11-4

(2) Jacob Elsensohn (BM) pinned (7) Anthony Perez (CHL) in 0:50

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Semifinals

Worley gave Perry his toughest match of the tournament, and was the only opponent who took Perry not only into the second, but the third period. 

Remember the part about the “little steps,” above?  And before that how in their three previous matches, Brother Martin’s Jacob Elsensohn had defeated Cole Mire three times: 7-0, 8-4 and 7-4?  It does not take a math genius to derive that a continuous decrease in the Elsensohn margins of victory will eventually cross an x-axis and result in a margin of victory on Mire's side.  The Dutchtown junior decided to accelerate that process by taking an early 2-0 lead, increasing it to 4-1 after two periods, and then putting a factorial sign behind it with a 4-2 third period, resulting in an 8-3 semifinals win and the chance to meet Perry in the finals.  (Factorials are cool, which is why I recall the symbol – an exclamation point.  Limits are cool.  Differential equations are not cool, nor are journalists who say, “That was not in so-and-so’s calculus.”  There should be limits on that (FactorialSymbol).)

(1) Ernie Perry, III (AIR) pinned (4) Christian Worley (CAT) in 5:37

(3) Cole Mire (DUT) defeated (2) Jaob Elsensohn (BM) 8-3

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Consolation Rounds

C2: Jess LeBlanc (SUL) pinned Brayden Forman (ACA) in 1:40

C2: Asher Wilson (MND) defeated Brayden Lobrano (PKY) 5-4

C2: Kolton West (LO) pinned Jermarcus Thomas (DST) in 4:29

C3: Asher Wilson (FNT) pinned Sedaka Robin (SS) in 3:00 C3:Mason David (ZAC) pinned Jess LeBlanc (SUL) in 0:55

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Championship Consolation Rounds

One loss was all Elsensohn was going to take in the tournament, and he defeated Worley 10-2 MD to place third.

Seventh-seeded Anthony Perez of Chalmette, who placed two spots lower than his fourth-seeded spot in 2021, decided to get those seeding spots back this year.  He did so by knocking Haydel out of the tournament in the match prior to the medal matches via a fall in 4:13.  One must think that seemed fair to Perez, as Haydel had defeated the Owl senior 5-4 in a dual meet and 8-3 in the second round of the LACL.  Perez probably took a little pleasure in defeating St. Paul senior and fifth-seeded Trey Faherty 11-7 to place fifth.  Faherty pinned Perez in 5:22 in December.  

Faherty deserves some mention as in his senior year, prior to this event, he fell only to Mire and Worley (which explains his being seeded fifth), and to D2 runner-up Brennan Boyer of Teurlings Catholic.  He placed second at the Border Wars and won the St. Tammany Parish championship.

(2) Jacob Elsensohn (BM) defeated (4) Christian Worley (CAT) 10-2 MD to place 3rd

(7) Anthony Perez (CHL) defeated (5) Trey Faherty (StP) 11-7 to place 5th

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Finals

I missed the 120 lbs. finals match trying to find cufflinks that matched my arthritis.  Afterward I asked Master Mire what happened.  He started to mention, not verbatim, mind you, that he erred, and Perry used the situation to his maximum benefit.  I told him that he might not really have made a mistake – Perry can just make it seem that way.  I did not know then that the two met twice in the 2019-20 season.  Perry won in 3:17 and 3:31 – he is freakishly consistent sometimes.  More importantly, at the time I did not recall whom Perry defeated in the finals in his freshman year (Houser), or that Elsensohn would win a state title two matches hence.  This loss may bode well for Mire.

(I apologize if the reader expected more about Master Perry but he did not exactly leave me with much about which to write.  One need not guess much about at which weight he might compete in his senior year.  It will be whichever one he chooses.  Caveant luctatores.

(1) Ernie Perry (AIR) pinned (3) Cole Mire (DUT) in 1:24

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