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	Rayden Ingram	Kent Burandt	Ethan Viator	Avery Porche	Jackson Ballay	Gunner Guidry
School	Live Oak	Brother Martin	St. Paul	Comeaux	Jesuit	Holy Cross
Seed	1	2	3	5	7	8
Class	12	11	12	12	11	9
Final Record*	33-0	39-3	29-4	34-7	33-10	25-14

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

In 2021 the 152 lbs. Division I state bracket was a nightmare for anyone not seeded 5^th or 7^th.  Top-seeded Rayden Ingram of Live Oak, undefeated prior to the event, lost to the fifth seed and placed fifth.  Second-seeded Luke Battaglia of Jesuit placed third after falling to seventh-seed Jake Romig of Holy Cross (the eventual winner).  The third seed placed fourth.  The fourth and sixth seeds did not place at all.

Fast-forward to the 2022 state championships and Ingram is again seeded first and undefeated.  This time he was in the 145 lbs. weight class, the first of three contenders at 152 lbs. to drop down, albeit he had not lost to the others.  Would history repeat itself?  Could history be that mean?  (Any Saints fans here?)  In 2022, while some aspects were mean to others, history did not repeat itself for Ingram.  He won the weight class handily...maybe too handily (certainly for his competition)...via falls in 0:38, 0:47, a 17-0 technical fall in 4:00. and a finals fall in 0:57.  In doing so, Ingram became the Eagle's first Division I state champion.

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Seeding Synopsis

Live Oak senior Rayden Ingram was the fifth undefeated Division I top seed, so it is not surprising to know he won the Brusly 8, the Zachary Big Horse, the Battle of New Orleans, the Louisiana Classic and the Greater Baton Rouge Championships.  For good measure, know that he won all of the matches in dual meets held before and between those events.  He started the season at 152 lbs. and defeated Comeaux’s Avery Porche (D1 4^th), Fontainebleau’s Aiden Guy (D1 6^th), Dutchtown’s Foster Shank (D1 DNP but beat some tough opponents), Brusly’s Chris Miller (D3 2^nd) and Nick DiGeralamo (D1 3^rd).  Ingram dropped to 145 lbs. in early January and prior to the state championships defeated Catholic’s Elijah Gilmore (D1 6^th), Rummel’s Austen Shook (D2 3^rd), Ethan Viator of St. Paul (D1 3^rd) and Zachary’s Voltaire Sanders (D1 4^th).  A last second 13-10 win over DiGeralamo was the closest he came to defeat.  Only three other Louisiana wrestlers went six minutes with him, and he won those matches 11-0 MD, 14-2 MD and 11-2 MD.  One of his technical falls was reached in a mere 2:35.

In the “At Least I was Seeded Second Again” category was Brother Martin’s Kent Burandt.  Burandt was a state finalist in 2020 (seeded second) and 2021 (seeded 4^th), falling to Holy Cross' Evan Frost (D1 1st x 3), and Jacob Houser (D1 1st x 2), respectively.  The Crusader junior started the season a little “iffy” (although many would kill for such an “iffy” start to a season), with an early loss to Hudson Sharon (D2 2^nd) of Teurlings Catholic, placing 3^rd at the Cinco Ranch Big 12 while a Louisiana wrestler (North Desoto’s Division II state champion Lance Ferguson) won it, and not placing at the Gulf Coast Clash.  Come December he found his “A” game.  He went 13-0 and won titles at the Black Horse and the Trey Culotta.  His winning streak ended in the LACL semifinals against a Rockwall Heath, Texas opponent, but he rebounded to take third by defeating Ferguson 5-4.  After that he got past Jesuit’s #7 Jackson Ballay 7-4 and then won the District 9-5A championship.  During the season he also defeated John Curtis’ Sean King (D3 1^st), Holy Cross eighth-seeded freshman Gunner “Honestly, I do not care who you are” Guidry, Shook, De la Salle’s Spencer Hughes (D3 3^rd) and avenged his prior loss to Sharon.  His wins over Hahnville’s Jevon Gray, Jr. and Ferguson (albeit in Division II - see below) earned him the second spot.

The third seed went to Ethan Viator.  The St. Paul senior only fell to Gray, Ferguson and Ingram during the season.  He placed second at the Border Wars, third at the Battle of New Orleans and fifth at the LACL.  Viator owned a 2-1 season record against Gray, who was seeded fourth.  Gray won the Spartan Invitational, the Duplessis Invitational, District 7-8 -5A and placed sixth at the LACL. 

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Early Championship Rounds

R1: (8) Gunner Guidry (HC) pinned Ryder Foreman (LAF) in 3:42

R1: (7) Ethan Viator (StP) defeated Ian Williams (CHL) 11-7

R1: Daven Calvaruso (EA) pinned Jacury Johnson (ZAC) in 4:25

R2: (7) Ethan Viator (StP) defeated Daven Calvaruso (EA) 18-3 TF

R2: (2) Kent Burandt (BM) pinned Seth Lewis (FNT) in 3:01

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Quarterfinals

Comeaux’s #5 Avery Porsche scored the first upset re the top-eight seeds when he pinned #4 Gray in 0:27. 

The only points scored against Ingram all tournament were by the Holy Cross freshman Guidry.  After Ingram scored a first period takedown, followed by two nearfall points, Guidry reversed him and put him on his back, feasibly for 45 seconds before Ingram got out and reversed Guidry.  For three seconds, though, Ingram was trailing in the state championships.  The lessen learned, Ingram did not let Guidry, or anybody else, score again.

(1) Rayden Ingram (LO) pinned (8) Gunner Guidry (HC) in 4:17

(5) Avery Porche (COM) pinned (4) Jevon Gray, Jr. (HNV) in 0:27

(3) Ethan Viator (StP) defeated (6) Jonathan Weissbach (PKY) 11-4

(2) Kent Burandt (BM) defeated (7) Jackson Ballay (JES) 10-1 MD

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Semifinals

Ingram completed the first phase of what he failed to do in 2021 by defeating Porsche to make the finals.

Burandt did the only thing he knows how to do in a semifinals match at the state championships.

(1) Rayden Ingram (LO) defeated (5) Avery Porche (COM) 17-0 TF

(2) Kent Burandt (BM) pinned (3) Ethan Viator (StP) in 1:50

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Consolation Rounds 

Neither #4 Gray nor #6, senior Jonathan Weissbach of Parkway, made it past their first (fourth-round) consolation matches.  The fourth-seeded Gray fell to Fontainebleau’s unseeded Seth Lewis, who defeated Gray during the season.  Weissbach fell to Seth Choate of Acadiana, whom Weissbach had defeated twice during the season.  That match, the third meeting between Weissbach and Choate, could be referred to as:

Weissbach deserves some mention, and not only because I remember him from the Trey Culotta finals.  The state finishes of the seven people to whom he lost is impressive: D3 1^st, D2 1^st x2, D1 4^th, another D1 4^th, D1 2^nd x 2 and D1 3^rd prior to his match with Choate.  He won the Riot on the Red, the Beeson Memorial and the Lone Survivor, placed second at the Trey Culotta, the Big Cat Brawl and the North LA Regionals, and placed fifth at the Ken Cole.

C1: Ian Williams (CHL) pinned Jay Johnson (ZAC) in 1:28 C2: Sean Bell (AIR) defeated Daven Calvaruso (EA) 10-7

C2: Sean Marquette (COV) pinned Nathanial Hall (DST) in 2:24, C3: Ian Williams (CHL) pinned Connor Blanchard (TER) in 3:47

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Championship Consolation Rounds

Taking advantage of the Seths’ (Lewis and Choate) knocking off Gray and Weissbach were #7 Ballay and #8 Guidry.  Ballay dispatched Choate in 1:58, faster than the 3:12 when the two first met in Round One.  Guidry knocked off Lewis, for the second time this season, 3-0.  Their first match was in the CSFs of the Big Horse, which Guidry won 6-4 SV. 

Both lost in the CSFs, though.  Ballay lost to Porche in 3:47.  Guidry fell to Viator 6-4, which was a better showing by the freshman than in the first match between the two, a 12-6 dual meet win by Viator.

In a hard-fought consolation finals match it took a third-period Viator takedown and almost 1:30 of riding for Viator to live up to his seeding in a 4-2 win.

Ballay and Guidry met five times prior to the fifth-place match.  Ballay won the first three via falls in 1:52, 3:26 and a 3-2 decision (does anyone notice a trend?).  Guidry won the last two 9-7 and 9-8 (does anyone notice a marginal reversal in that trend?).  Ballay won their sixth match via a fall in 2:47.

(3) Ethan Viator (StP) defeated (5) Avery Porche (COM) 4-2 to place 3rd

(7) Jackson Ballay (JES) pinned (8) Gunner Guidry (HC) in 2:47 to place 5th

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Finals

Trust that Kent Burandt does not like finishing second in a state finals match.  Unfortunately, nothing was going to stop an incredibly determined Ingram from winning a state title in his last chance.  Any doubt of that was quickly dismissed.   There were sixteen falls recorded in all three divisions during the finals matches.  Three were first round falls.  Ingram’s was the only one that took less than a minute.

(1) Rayden Ingram (LO) pinned (2) Kent Burandt (BM) in 0:57

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