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	Mason Elsensohn	Grant Herbert	Christopher Bacot	Nick Sauerwin	Brennan Chiasson	Mohammed Gaber
School	Brother Martin	Jesuit	Parkway	Holy Cross	Hahnville	Chalmette
Seed	1	NS	4	NS	7	NS
Class	12	11	11	10	11	10
Final Record*	45-0	17-13	36-13	21-10	10-6	40-14

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

In 2021 Mason Elsensohn came painfully short of winning a state championship.  He led the 113 lbs. Division I finals match longer than Airline's Ernie Perry did - 2:41 to 1:03.  The first 2:16 of the match was scoreless.  Elsensohn escaped with 1:44 remaining in the second period and Perry did not score the winning reversal until only 1:03 remained in the third.  Perry won his second title 2-1.  Yet the state championships have no memory.  And if they did, they do not owe anyone anything.  Elsensohn would have to earn it.

He did.  This season he lost all of one match, in mid-November, to a Texas kid who finished as an undefeated UIL 6A state champion.  Before that match he was 8-0.  After it he was 32-0.  Then came the state championships.  Why change now? 

Weight Class Synopsis

Following Perry's lead Crusader senior Mason Elsensohn put out a sign also.  It read “132 lbs.”  Catholic’s Watts Goodson, Lucas Maneckshaw of East Ascension and Dutchtown’s Cole Gros learned the hard way, yet learned, that 132 might be a nice place to visit, but was no place to live.  Unfortunately, many others did not have that choice. 

In his 40 wins Elsensohn captured the Raider 8, the Gulf Coast Clash, the Black Horse, his second Trey Culotta, the Louisiana Classic and the District 9-5A championship.  His closest competitor was defending Division II state champion Ethan Boudreaux of Teurlings Catholic (D2 1st).  The first two matches were close, 3-0 and 3-1, but in the next two Elsensohn just got better, winning via a 7-2 score and a fall in 3:19.  Those four matches were probably “payback” from the previous season in which the two split, but Boudreaux’s win cost Elsensohn an LACL finals berth.  Re 2022 state placers…well…how about state champions to make the list shorter?  He beat Watts Goodson (D1 1^st 126) twice via 9-3 and 8-0 MD scores.  He defeated Rummel’s Carter Burgess (D2 1^st 126) 3-0 and then 11-2 MD.  He beat North Desoto’s Daniel Olivier (D2 138) in 4:40 and Shane Barbarin of De la Salle (D3 1^st 126) in 3:51.  Basically, a tad over 25% of his victims won 2022 state championships.

Elsensohn pinned #5 Gros twice.  He pinned #4 Christopher Bacot of Parkway.  Elsensohn had not met #2 Jon Michael Cuba of Catholic.  As it turned out, he would not.  Not that it seemed important, but in a four-day span in late January he defeated Jesuit’s Grant Herbert 10-2 MD and 18-3 TF.

Catholic senior Jon Michael Cuba had an interesting season.  Varying from 126 lbs. to 138 lbs., he won 32 matches and lost only six.  The 32 garnered him a runner-up finish at the Warrior Open, eighth-place at the Gulf Coast Clash, sixth at the Hoover Invitational and fifth at the LACL.  He won the Greater Baton Rouge Championships with a 10-4 finals score against Dutchtown freshman Cole Gros.  His only losses came from Sam Houston’s Caleb Lavine (D1 4^th), Shaw’s Hayden Tassin (D2 3^rd) three times, Daniel Oliver of North Desoto (D2 1^st) and teammate Christopher Worley.  He placed better at the LACL than #3 Gros, and, while there, defeated #4 Bacot in 2:41.  While there he also defeated #6 Berend Grandt of Baton Rouge.  Until the GBRs he was under the RADAR a little but was a worthy second seed.

Gros had a phenomenal freshman year, even if it did have its peaks and valleys.  He started the season 15-0 in the first five weeks until Maneckshaw, whom he defeated earlier 8-3, defeated him in the Spartan Invitational finals.  In the next month, which included the LACL, he lost five matches, although two were against Elsensohn.  He came back well before the state championships, though, with runner-up finishes at the Ken Cole and the GBRs.  At the Ken Cole he had a win over #4 Bacot.

Bacot’s 31-12 record only included one loss to someone who was not seeded or did not place at least fifth at the state championships.  Six losses came from Elsensohn, Olivier, Boudreaux (the Rebel) and Burgess.  He won the Riot on the Red and the Lone Survivor, placed second at the David Beeson Memorial, the Big Cat Brawl and the North LA Regionals, fifth at the Ken Cole and sixth at the Trey Culotta.

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Early Championship Rounds

The beginning of the end of all seeding logic began in the second round when 14^th-seed (or “unseeded”) Grant Hebert of Jesuit upset #3 Cole Gros 7-6.  An escape with 1:20 remaining in the match, after he ruled the second period to take the lead but gave up a takedown leading to a 6-6 tie, was the difference.

As he had in the consolation rounds of the LACL, #2 Cuba had a hard time with unseeded Holy Cross sophomore Nick Sauerwin in a 9-5 match.

Baton Rouge's #6 Berend Grandt already had one win over Walker sophomore Asa Rutherford, and the senior Bulldog defeated Rutherford again in Round One.  Parkway's #4 Bacot had three wins over Airline's Waylon Carter and added a fourth in 1:46.  Both are juniors, so Carter may get more shots at Bacot in the 2022-23 season.

R1: (1) Mason Elsensohn (BM) pinned Dylan Amedee (EA) in 2:27

R1: (6) Berend Grandt (BR) pinned Asa Rutherford (WLK) in 1:31, Nicholas Sauerwin (HC) pinned Kyle Lunsford (FNT) in 2:57

R2: (4) Christopher Bacot (PKY) pinned Waylon Carter (AIR) in 1:46

R2: Grant Herbert (JES) defeated (3) Cole Gros (DUT) 7-6

R2: (2) Jon Michael Cuba (CAT) defeated Nicholas Sauerwin (HC) 9-5

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Quarterfinals

All heck broke out in the bottom half of the bracket in the quarterfinals.  Herbert “The Unseeded” decided to pin #6 Berend Grandt of Baton Rouge in 5:22.  At the very bottom #7 Brennan Chiasson of Hahnville took a 6-1 lead against #2 Cuba after the first period, and he did just enough not to let Cuba score in the second period, and then won the third period 6-4 to upset Cuba 12-5.

(1) Mason Elsensohn (BM) pinned Ethan White (ZAC) in 5:21

(4) Christopher Bacot (PKY) defeated (5) Logan Anderson (StA) 13-3 MD

Grant Hebert (JES) pinned (6) Berend Grandt (BR) in 5:22

(7) Brennan Chiasson (HNV) defeated (2) Jon Michael Cuba (CAT) 12-5

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Semifinals

Elsensohn took 3:12 to pin Bacot at the Trey Culotta.  As proven against so many others during the season, a second match with Elsensohn rarely yielded a better result.  This time Elsensohn needed just 0:41 to reach his second Division I finals.

It rarely fails.  One Blue Jay has a bad tournament and another appears out of nowhere to make up any lost team points.  In 2016 top-seeded Adam Larriviere placed 5^th.  Unseeded Brandon Greer made it to the finals.  The 2017 and 2018 teams did much better than expected, with three non-top seeds winning in 2018.  Unseeded Darren Ferrier placed fifth in 2019.  In 2021 unseeded John Michael Bourgeois placed third.

This year Bourgeois was seeded second at 113 lbs. but failed to place.  In comes unseeded Grant Herbert to face seventh-seeded Brennan Chiasson of Hahnville, who a round earlier put the second seed into the consolation rounds.  Chiasson scored a takedown in eight seconds and led 2-0 until only 14 seconds remained in the first period.  Herbert escaped and scored a takedown for a 3-2 lead.  In the second period, it was all Herbert, who scored a reversal in the first thirty seconds of the second period and a fall about a minute later.

(1) Mason Elsensohn (BM) pinned (4) Christopher Bacot (PKY) in 0:41

Grant Herbert (JES) pinned (7) Brennan Chiasson (HNV) in 3:29

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Consolation Rounds

C2: Hyatt Parker (COM) pinned Leum Warren (MND) in 3:16

C3: Mohammed Gaber (CHL) pinned Brycen Dupre' (StP) in 2:37

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Championship Consolation Rounds

Sauerwin faced #4 Bacot in the match for third place.  Bacot, however, held Sauerwin to a mere penalty point in a 6-1 win.

Chiasson and Gaber had met three times during the season.  Chiasson won the first match in 1:38.   Gaber won the second one via a fall and then Chiasson scored a 19-2 TF.  In this match Chiasson won the seasonal series 3-1 with an 11-2 MD.

(4) Christopher Bacot (PKY) defeated Nick Sauerwin (HC) 6-1 to place 3rd

(7) Brennan Chiasson (HNV) defeated Mohammed Gaber (CHL) 11-2 MD to place 5th

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Finals

In their previous two matches Elsensohn defeated Herbert 10-2 MD and 18-3 TF.  In this match the Crusader took the Blue Jay down three times in the first period to build a 6-2 lead.  A second period reversal by Herbert cut the lead to 6-4, but in the third period Elsensohn dominated, scoring a reversal, a takedown and two nearfall points while only allowing Herbert one escape point.  Herbert did defeat the #6, #3 and #7 seeds, though, for those who may have forgotten he is only a junior.

(1) Mason Elsensohn (BM) defeated Grant Herbert (JES) 12-5

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