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	Corey Hyatt	Hayden Harms	Luke Ohler	Jacob Schexnaydre	Cameron Walker	Nicholas Migliacio
School	Sulphur	Dutchtown	Brother Martin	East Ascension	Zachary	Catholic
Seed	1	2	4	5	3	6
Class	11	12	12	11	12	11
Final Record*	31-0	36-5	22-3	43-9	11-6	36-10

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

Last season (2020-21), Sulphur sophomore Corey Hyatt won the 2020 Jacob McMillan on December 20th.  A month later he took his 4-0 record to the Lamar-Dixon EXPO Center and won the Louisiana Classic.  Six weeks later, now 9-0, he was the top seed at the state championships, and he cruised through another five matches for his first undefeated season and Division I state championship. 

Holy Cross’s Jake Rando, Brother Martin’s Daniel Croy, Trent Mahoney of East Ascension – they were all three-time Division I state champions, but they all lost at least once during their sophomore, junior and/or senior years.  So did four-time winners in Division I, Paul Klein and Steven Shields of Brother Martin, Division II's Brock Bonin of Teurlings Catholic and Glenn Price of Shaw, and Division III's Alex Yokubatis of St. Louis, Gavin Christ of Basile and both Trevor and Austin Schermer of Brusly.   Not so for Hyatt,  Not yet, at least.  He has not lost since February 15^th, 2020, in the state championships C4 round against Catholic senior Macullen Mire.  That was a 5-4 match, and Hyatt was a freshman.  Mire placed fifth in the state championships.  The other kid to beat Hyatt in that tournament was Baton Rouge’s Jarin Meyer.  Meyer won the Division I title that year.

Undefeated for three seasons is yet a reality for Hyatt.  It may not be easy, yet he might have a hard enough time finding anyone who wants to challenge his as a senior.   

Seeding Synopsis

It is safe to assume that, being undefeated, #1 Sulphur junior Corey Hyatt won every event in which he competed.  It is a derivation of algebra’s transitive law: if A>B and B=C then A>C where A=Hyatt and B equals one opponent he beat and C is everyone else he face.  {This is the 40th of 42 weight class pages - a little empathy, please.)

Hyatt's 2021-22 tournament championship list prior to the state championships is as follows: Ronnie Suarez SPOT District, Jacob McMillan, Lone Survivor, CY Fair ISD, Louisiana Classic and the Ken Cole.  In those events and dual meets Hyatt defeated Basile’s Christian Bergeron (D3 1^st), Allen, TX UIL 6A runner-up Jayson Stahl, Eric Levert of Teurlings Catholic (D2 2^nd), Catholic’s Nick Migliacio (D1 6^th), Rayne’s Sean Dorsett (D2 4^th) and Jesuit’s Jackson Calderano.  In the LACL finals he defeated Dutchtown senior Hayden Harms 10-4.

Hyatt was 13-0 before he was taken the full distance at the CY Fair Classic.  His first three six-minute matches were against Texans.  They consisted of 15-6 MD and 12-4 MD scores, and a 6-3 win over Stahl.  Harms took him six minutes in the LACL finals, as did Levert in the Ken Cole finals, although that was a 15-3 MD score.  Levert and Harms were the only two Louisiana wrestlers to accomplish that feat, until the state championships when two more did.

In Hayden Harms’ 32-4 record prior to the state tournament, he lost the one match to Hyatt, a dual meet match to Brother Martin’s Luke Ohler (D1 3rd), a 6-5 UTB match against Dunham’s James Baldwin (D3 2nd) and a 5-4 match vs. Zachary’s Cameron Walker (D1 5th).  He avenged the loss to Ohler at the Louisiana Classic and had previously defeated Walker.  During the season Harms won the Griffin Open, the Spartan Invitational, the Zachary Big Horse, placed second at the LACL, fifth at the Ken Cole and then won the Greater Baton Rouge Championships.  He was an obvious #2 seed.

Zachary senior Cameron Walker’s nemesis over the season was neither Hyatt nor Harms.  It was Baldwin from Division III Dunham.  They had four close matches with scores of 5-3, 4-3, 8-2 and 6-3, but Baldwin always came out the winner.  He and Harms split matches during the season.  Harms won 6-5 in a dual meet, but Walker avenged that match 5-4 at the Ken Cole.  Usually a tournament win merits a higher seed than a dual meet win, but Walker had lost to Baldwin and Baton Rouge's Adam Landry, both of whom Harms defeated.  His most important match, re seeding at least, may have been a short one, as Brother Martin’s Luke Ohler had to forfeit during a dual meet due to an injury.  Walker's losses relegated him to the third-seed spot.

Seeded fourth was Brother Martin’s Luke Ohler.  Finally!  Ohler made his presence known statewide in 2020 as a sophomore when he placed second at the Ken Cole.  His quarterfinals 5-3 win over Byrd’s Cameron Vaughn was probably a large reason the Hornet senior was relegated to the eighth seeding spot at the 2020 state championships.  That worked out fine for Vaughn and Ohler.  Maybe even for defending Brother Martin state champion Mason Massicot, who, despite serious injuries, was not going to miss a chance to defend his state title if he felt only one synapse firing in his body.  Vaughn won the Division I state title, Ohler won the JV state title, and Massicot, despite losing to Vaughn in the quarterfinals and not placing, scored the six points require by the Crusaders to defend their Division I team championship by 5½ points. 

As a junior Ohler started 11-0.  He placed third at the Trey Culotta and second at the Black Horse.  He feasibly would have been seeded second or third at the state tournament but his season ended shortly after the LACL.

This season Ohler again started 11-0 and won the Cinco Ranch Big 12.  But he was injured in November’s Gulf Coast Clash and did not return to the mats until January 5^th.  Three days later he defeated Harms 4-3 but fell to Walker due to an injury.  Harms avenged the loss at the LACL and, due to the loss to Walker, Ohler was seeded fourth.  But he was finally "In The Show!"

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Early Championship Rounds

R1: (4) Cameron Walker (ZAC) pinned Xavier Reeves (GK) in 3:10 (1), R2: (1) Cory Hyatt (SUL) pinned Sam Gros (StP) in 2:49 (5)

Quarterfinals

The sixth-seeded Migliacio gave Walker more than he probably expected.  In the GBRs Walker defeated the Catholic junior 10-3.   This time Migliacio got within two points of Walker with 1:50 remaining, but Walker outscored him 3-1 to end the match. 

(1) Corey Hyatt (SUL) defeated (8) Aran Albach (CHL) 14-4 MD

(4) Luke Ohler (BM) defeated (5) Jacob Schexnaydre (EA) 10-0 MD

(3) Cameron Walker (ZAC) defeated (6) Nicholas Migliacio (CAT) 11-9

(2) Hayden Harms (DUT) defeated (7) Jackson Calderaro (JES) 9-1 MD

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Semifinals

In the semifinals, Ohler provided Hyatt with his toughest bout against a Louisiana opponent all season, a 7-1 match.

Harms and Walker had another tight contest.  Walker scored an escape to start the second period.  A minute later Harms scored a takedown, but Walker escaped again to tie the match 2-2 with seven seconds remaining in the period.  Walker ceded Harms an escape point to start the final period, but after that. neither wrestler could score again.  Harms prevailed 3-2.

(1) Corey Hyatt (SUL) defeated (4) Luke Ohler (BM) 11-6

(2) Hayden Harms (DUT) defeated (3) Cameron Walker (ZAC) 3-2

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Consolation Rounds

C2: Jayce Parks (PKY) pinned Elijah Bent (StA) in 2:13 (1), C3: Braden Paetz (WLK) pinned William Goff (SS) in 2:22 (2), C3: Andrew Schafer (DST) pinned Xavier Reeves (GK) in 2:24 (2)

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Championship Consolation Rounds

Fifth-seeded Jason Schexnaidre of East Ascension upset Walker in 2:15 to advance to the consolation finals against Ohler, who beat Migliacio 10-4 in the other CSF. 

Aside from his 10-0 MD quarterfinals win over Schexnaidre, Ohler also defeated the Spartan junior in 3:45 in the LACL.  This time Ohler shutout Schexnaidre again, 7-0, to gain the third spot on the podium.

Migliacio gave Walker a hard time in the match for fifth, but the Bronco senior survived 7-2.

(4) Luke Ohler (BM) defeated (5) Jacob Schexnaydre (EA) 7-0 to place 3rd

(3) Cameron Walker (ZAC) defeated (6) Nicholas Miglacio (CAT) 7-2 to place 5th

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Finals

In the Louisiana Classic finals Hyatt opened up a 6-0 lead after two periods, after which each combatant scored four points in the third.  In this match Hyatt opened up a 5-0 lead, which included two takedowns and an escape.  He gave Harms an escape point to start the third period and tacked-on another takedown for a 7-1 win.

(1) Corey Hyatt (SUL) defeated (2) Hayden Harms (DUT) 7-1

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