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	Dennis Dougherty	Cole Baiamonte	Kristofer Mesloh	Jermaine Vessell	Blayden Laidlaw	Ian Lyons
School	Jesuit	Holy Cross	Parkway	Catholic	Sulphur	St. Paul
Seed	2	1	4	7	3	5
Class	12	12	11	12	11	12
Final Record*	15-2	19-1	29-5	21-8	27-3	26-5

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

After the 182 lbs. finals, the race for the runner-up spot became a whole new ball game.  Catholic’s Thomas Domangue put Jesuit’s Dennis Dougherty in a pretty tough spot.  Granted, he put Jesuit’s Winn McConnell, the #1 seed at 182 lbs., in a tougher spot when, as the third seed, he won the state championship.  That win put Catholic ahead of the Blue Jays by six points in the Division I team runner-up race.  Jesuit had two finalists remaining, and the Blue Jays knew that to win the runner-up spot outright, both of them had to win.  If one of them lost, the other would have to win by a fall just to share second place.

That put senior Dennis Dougherty in a tough spot.  While it was reasonable to expect that Blue Jay sophomore Spencer Lanosga would win his finals match at 285 lbs., there was no guaranty he would win via a fall, which meant Dougherty needed to win just to give the Blue Jays a chance to place second outright.  All he had to do was something that neither he nor anyone else had done all season.  He had to defeat Holy Cross’ Cole Baiamonte.  In two losses to Baiamonte this season, Dougherty had managed only one point per match.  But Dougherty was a Jesuit senior, and this was STATE.

Come the 285 lbs. finals match, all Lanosga had to do was win for the Blue Jays to take sole possession of the Division I runner-up plaque.  Dougherty did more than just win.  In doing so he became the second #2 seed to best an undefeated #1 seed, following St. Paul's Landy Barker at 160 lbs.

Seeding Synopsis

Holy Cross senior Cole Baiamonte was 15-0 prior to the state championships.  Only 10 of those wins were against Louisiana wrestlers, but they included two victories over Dougherty (D1 1^st), one over defending Division II state champion Joel Lanclos (D2 2^nd) and one over Catholic’s Jermaine Vessell (D1 5^th).  He won the Zachary Big Horse, the Las Vegas Holiday Classic and the Louisiana Classic. 

Dougherty started the season a full two weeks before Baiamonte but only had 14 matches under his belt, with his only losses coming from Baiamonte.  He had two wins over Lanclos, two over sixth-seeded Julian Tapia of Brother Martin, a win over fifth-seeded Ian Lyons of St. Paul (D1 5^th), #8 Jermain Vessell of Catholic (D1 4^th) as well as Rummel’s Davell Dixon (D2 1st @ 285 lbs.) and Shaw’s Chad Gooden, Jr. (D3 3^rd).

The third spot went to Sulphur’s Blayden Laidlaw.  Laidlaw’s only loss all season was to Lanclos in the Jacob McMillan finals.  He avenged that match in the Ken Cole finals.  Along with the Ken Cole title Laidlaw won the Ronnie Suarez SPOT District tournament, the Lone Survivor, the Rayne Invitational and the Jesse James Southwest Shootout.  He had two wins over #4 Kristofer Mesloh of Parkway, and wins over Division II’s Robert Breaux of Rayne, John Simmons, III, of Northside, and one over Gooden,

Mesloh was the fourth seed.  He had losses to Lanclos but had defeated Lyons at the LACL, in which he placed fourth.  He won the David Beeson Memorial, the Big Cat Brawl and the North LA Regionals, was the runner-up at the Lone Survivor and placed third at the Ken Cole.

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Early Championship Rounds

R2: (4) Kristofer Mesloh (PKY) defeated Ellis Hughes (EHR) 11-9 (2), R2: (6) Julian Tapia (BM) pinned Brian Cullen (EA) in 0:25 (3)

(7) Jermaine Vessell (CAT) pinned William Owens (ZAC) in 2:19

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Quarterfinals

St. Paul senior Ian Lyons, seeded fifth, upset #4 Kristofer Mesloh of Parkway in 3:09.  That was payback for a Mesloh fall over Lyons in 2:55 in the LACL CSFs.

Blayden Laidlaw, the third seed from Sulphur, had a monumental match with sixth-seeded Julian Tapia of Brother Martin.  The two were tied 7-7 through the Sudden Victory period.  In the first tie-breaker round Laidlaw took Tapia down to his back for a fall as the period ended.

Dougherty pinned #7 Jermaine Vessell of Catholic in his first match of the season.  He did so again in their second match.

(1) Cole Baiamonte (HC) pinned Eli Latilois (BR) in 1:03

(5) Ian Lyons (StP) pinned (4) Kristofer Mesloh (PKY) in 3:09

(3) Blayden Laidlaw (SUL) pinned (6) Julian Tapia in 7:30

(2) Dennis Dougherty (JES) pinned (7) Jermaine Vessell (CAT) in 1:53

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Semifinals

Baiamonte had few problems with Lyons, recording a fall in the second period.

Dougherty pinned Laidlaw in 5:06 in the second round of the 2021 LACL.  This time Laidlaw lasted the entire six minutes, but Dougherty was masterful in a 14-4 MD.

(1) Cole Baiamonte (HC) pinned (5) Ian Lyons (StP) in 3:38

(2) Dennis Dougherty (JES) defeated (3) Blayden Laidlaw (SUL) 14-4 MD

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Consolation Rounds

C2: Colt Fisher (SH) pinned Derrick Bennett (CHL) in 3:34 (4), C3: Gage Kelly (LO) defeated Ellis Hughes (EHT) 10-7 (1)

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Championship Consolation Rounds

The #3 Laidlaw had pins over #4 Mesloh from the Lone Survivor and the LACL.  Mesloh did not forget those matches and pinned Laidlaw in 2:32 to make the consolation finals.  There he met Vessell, who had pinned Lyons in 4:32 in the previous match.  Mesloh pinned Vessell midway through the second period to place third.

Laidlaw and Lyons also went midway into the second period before Laidlaw recorded a fall to place fifth.

(4) Kristofer Mesloh (PKY) pinned (7) Jermaine Vessell (CAT) in 1:57 to place 3rd

(3) Blayden Laidlaw (SUL) pinned (5) Ian Lyons (StP) in 2:17 to place 5th

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Finals

After a UTB loss in the 2021 state finals, extra mat time was probably not something top-seeded Cole Baiamonte wanted in this match.  Having defeated Dougherty 3-1 and 4-1 during the season, he might not have expected overtime periods.  Unlike the LACL finals, though, Baiamonte could not take Dougherty down in regulation, and after six minutes each wrestler had managed only an escape point and a penalty point.  It looks, via the photographs, that Baiamonte made a judgment error as the Sudden Victory period waned.  He tried a lateral drop.  Laterals are extremely hard to get against good wrestlers and are usually first period moves.  Fourth period laterals, when both wrestlers are tired and sweaty, usually ends with the wrestler trying it losing his grip on his opponent and thus falling to his back.  This looked to be the case at the end of the Sudden Victory period, and Dougherty jumped on the opportunity.  He scored a fall with five seconds remaining to gain an individual title for himself and ensure a tie with Catholic for a runner-up team finish for the Blue Jays.

(2) Dennis Dougherty (JES) pinned (1) Cole Baiamonte (HC) in 6:55

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