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	Thomas Domangue	Winn McConnell	Corey Holmes	Ethan Kelley	Kaiden Keller	(5) Jason O'Dell
School	Catholic	Jesuit	East Ascension	Central	Dutchtown	Zachary
Seed	3	1	2	6	4	5
Class	11	12	12	12	12	12
Final Record*	31-6	29-4	41-7	23-6	25-8	19-9

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

As it stood prior to the 182 lbs. finals, Catholic was two points ahead of Jesuit for second place.  The last time the Bears placed second in Division I was in 2012, when Domangue was in first grade.  Jesuit had three finalists remaining, though.  Senior Dennis Dougherty was an underdog at 220 lbs.  Sophomore Spencer Lanosga was a favorite at 285 lbs.  The other was top-seeded Winn McConnell.  A win by Winn (I had to) would just require either Dougherty or Lanosga win one of their matches for the Blue Jays to take home a plaque.  He faced third-seeded Catholic junior Thomas Domangue.  Domangue was Catholic’s only remaining finalist and if the Bears were to have a chance at finishing second, he had to deliver.  McConnell had defeated Domangue 7-2 and 5-2 in November.  After this match, though, the Blue Jays found themselves behind the Bears by six points instead of only two.

Seeding Synopsis

McConnell was 26-3 on the season.  His losses came from East Ascension’s Corey Holmes (D1 3^rd) and Division II opponents Reid Bourgeois (D2 2^nd) of Teurlings Catholic and Jude Monaco of Shaw (D2 1^st x2).  (He had defeated Bourgeois twice earlier, but as this was Division I, that did not matter.)  The loss to Holmes was in a dual meet, and he avenged it in a match for fifth-place at the Louisiana Classic.  McConnell won the Raider 8, placed third at the Border Wars and fourth at the Gulf Coast Clash, in which he defeated the third-seeded Domangue 5-2. 

Holmes was 36-6 prior to the state championships.  He won the Lakeshore Open, the Spartan Invitational and the Greater Baton Rouge Championships, in which he defeated Domangue in 5:24, avenging an 8-3 CSF loss to Domangue in the LACL.  He placed sixth at the Trey Culotta and the LACL but would probably have placed higher were it not for the presence of out-of-state opponents.

Domangue was seeded third due to the GBR finals loss to Holmes.  Aside form Holmes he had two losses to McConnell (D1 2nd), two to Monaco (D2 1st x 2) and one to Bourgeois (D2 2nd).  He won the Brusly 8, placed second at the GBRs, fourth at the LACL and fifth at the Gulf Coast Clash.

Dutchtown senior Kaiden Keller was seeded fourth.  He had a loss to Domangue (D1 1st) at the GBRs but beat some notables including St. Paul’s Jackson Peak and Zachary’s Jason O’Dell (D1 6th).  Keller won the Griffin Open and the Big Horse, placed second at the Spartan Invitational, third at the GBRs and tied for fifth at the Ken Cole.

Back to Top

Early Championship Rounds

R2: (4) Kaiden Keller (DUT) pinned Tyler Maher (LO) in 2:21

R2: (3) Thomas Domangue (CAT) pinned Ethan Albarado (PKY) in 1:42, R2: Joey Zeringue (StA) defeated (7) Jackson Peak (StP) 13-6

Back to Top

Quarterfinals

In their last match before the state tournament, a dual meet between Brother Martin and Jesuit, eight-seeded senior Crusader Christopher Sulli gave McConnell a match – one that went to a Sudden Victory round won by McConnell 13-11.  Quite the opposite happened in their quarterfinals match as McConnell bulldozed through Sulli in a 14-2 MD match.

Zachary’s fifth-seeded Jason O’Dell had lost to Keller twice before, 7-2 and 3-1, and this match was no easier for the Griffin senior.  Keller survived 5-2.

Holmes had pinned Zeringue in the last match of the regular season in 1:35.  He did not even spend a third of that time in this match. 

(1) Winn McConnell (JES) defeated (8) Christopher Sulli (BM) 14-2 MD

(4) Kaiden Keller (DUT) defeated (5) Jason O'Dell (ZAC) 5-2

(3) Thomas Domangue (CAT) defeated (6) Evan Kelley (CEN) 4-2

(2) Corey Holmes (EA) pinned Joey Zeringue (StA) in 0:28

Back to Top

Semifinals

In the GBR finals Holmes needed 5:24 to pin Domangue.  The match was tied 1-1 late in the third period before Holmes took Domangue down to a fall.  In this match the two were tied 5-5 entering the third period.  Domangue had the advantage being in the down position and scored an escape after about 45 seconds.  Neither wrestler scored again.  One could refer to a penalty point Domangue received with 48 seconds remaining in the first period as the difference in the match.  One should not, though.  Holmes took Domangue down in the first period after 1:04 had elapsed.  In the second period, after scoring an escape, Holmes took Domangue down nine seconds later.  In the third period Holmes had 1:13 with which to take Domangue down.  It just did not happen.

(1) Winn McConnell (JES) pinned (5) Kaiden Keller (DUT) in 1:50

(3) Thomas Domangue (CAT) defeated (2) Corey Holmes (EA) 6-5

Back to Top

Consolation Rounds

C1: John Lambousy (COM) pinned Tyler Maher (LO) in 4:31

C3: Ethan Albarado (PKY) pinned Ivan Mitchell (CHL) in 3:23

Back to Top

Championship Consolation Rounds

The four remaining top six seeds advanced to the medals matches, just not as expected.  The sixth-seeded Kelley, who won the Warrior Open and Titan Invitational, and placed second at the Jacob McMillan, upset #4 Keller 9-4 to make the consolation finals against the #2 Holmes.  Holmes had a much harder time with #5 O’Dell.  O’Dell won the Warrior Open, the Griffin Open and placed third at the Ken Cole, so he was not expected to be an easy match for Holmes.  Holmes had to ride-out O’Dell in the first Tie-breaker round and then score an escape in the second one to earn a 7-6 TB-1 win.

(2) Corey Holmes (EA) pinned (6) Evan Kelley (CEN) in 1:51 to place 3rd

(4) Kaiden Keller (DUT) defeated (5) Jason O'Dell (ZAC) via an injury default to place 5th

Back to Top

Finals

Domangue started the scoring with a first period takedown and, after a McConnell escape, the period ended with Domangue ahead by a point.  Domangue shutout McConnell in the second period, while he scored an escape and a takedown.  Both wrestlers managed two points apiece in the third period, but McConnell only scored escapes after enduring 81 seconds of Domangue riding him.  Domangue was the one to score seven points this time, and that was the most either scored against each other in their three matches.  Aside from winning a state championship, Domangue also put Catholic ahead of the Blue Jays by four points for the runner-up team plaque.

(3) Thomas Domangue (CAT) defeated (1) Winn McConnell (JES) 7-3

Back to Top