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	Lance Ferguson	Hudson Sharon	Austen Shook	Aiden Carinio	Finley McGill	Kennedy Castille
School	North Desoto	Teurllings Catholic	Rummel	Benton	St, Thomas More	Rayne
Seed	1	2	3	4	7	8
Class	12	10	11	12	10	10
Final Record*	32-1	23-5	24-16	3-2	19-9	11-14

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

In 2019 North Desoto freshman Lance Ferguson was seeded sixth at the state championships, lost his round-one match to San Houston sophomore Bryce Bargery, and then went 4-1 in the consolation bracket, including a 23-second pin over Bargery, to place fifth.  In 2020 Ferguson was seeded second but was upset by Shaw’s Raheem Bonnet, who went on to win a title and Outstanding Wrestler award.  Ferguson placed third.  In the following year Ferguson was seeded second again and held his seed, falling to Carencro’s Tyrick Clay in the finals.   At the 2022 state championships there were still three places on the podium on which he had not stood.  Sixth and fourth, though, were not options for the senior.

Seeding Synopsis

North Desoto's Lance Ferguson started his season great with a Cinco Ranch Big 12 championship and a runner-up finish at the Heath Invitational in Texas, falling to Rockwall-Heath’s Zaren Anderson.  He then won the Little Rock Central Classic and five more matches before winning the Big Cat Brawl.  Then he lost in a pre-Louisiana Classic dual with Rockwall Heath, to Anderson, again.  And it was Anderson who defeated Ferguson in the quarterfinals of the LACL.  (Anderson defeated Brother Martin’s Kent Burandt in the semifinals but was whipped by Rayden Ingram of Live Oak 7-2 in the finals.)  Ferguson lost his first match to a Louisiana wrestler in the LACL consolation finals, falling to Burandt 5-4.  OK, well, that was the only loss by Ferguson to a Louisiana wrestler all season.  He followed the LACL with a North Louisiana Regionals championship and was the obvious top seed in Division II at 145 lbs.

Seeded second was Teurlings Catholic sophomore Hunter Sharon, who placed third in 2021 and seemed very pleased to have been seeded and to have placed third as a freshman.  This season he won the Raider 8 and the Lafayette Metro championship and placed fourth at the Ken Cole.  He had an early win over Burandt (Burandt avenged that at the Crusader Duals), and wins over Lafayette’s Jenson Bergeron (D1 2^nd), Zachary’s Voltaire Sanders (D1 5^th) and Acadiana’s Seth Choate.  He did, however, have an 8-1 loss to Ferguson at the LACL.

Rummel’s Austen Shook was seeded third, probably due to Sharon having a better overall record and because Shook lost to Jesuit’s Jack Seidel, whereas Sharon defeated the Blue Jay junior.  Shook’s season highlight was a Trygg Memorial championship over Destrehan’s Kurt Sharon and a fourth-place finish at the Battle of New Orleans, falling to Ingram (D1 1^st) and Ethan Viator of St. Paul (D1 3^rd).  Benton’s Aiden Carinio was seeded fourth, although all TrackWrestling had on him was a 3-0 JV record.  Someone knew something though.

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Quarterfinals

Everyone did as they were told in the quarterfinals.

(1) Lance Ferguson (ND) pinned (8) Kennedy Castille (RAY) in 1:10

(4) Aiden Carinio (BNT) pinned (5) Michael Stephens (BC) in 0:45

(3) Austen Shook (RUM) pinned (6) Kaleb Sanders (LKS) in 2:47

(2) Hudson Sharon (TC) pinned (7) Finley McGill (StTM) in 1:09

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Semifinals

Ferguson did as he was expected in defeating Carinio to make his second state championship finals match.  Shook gave Sharon more of a problem than he may have preferred in the first two periods of their semifinals match, possibly leading to a penalty point giving the Rebel sophomore only a 5-4 lead upon entering the third.  Sharon, though, dominated the third period 10-3 en route to a 15-7 major decision.

(1) Lance Ferguson (ND) pinned (4) Aiden Carinio (BNT) in 1:54

(2) Hudson Sharon (TC) defeated (3) Austen Shook (RUM) 15-7 MD

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Championship Consolation Rounds

Against the third-seeded Shook, Carinio looked to be a seed-buster after taking a 2-1 lead into the third period.  He chose to start the period standing as he had scored the only takedown of the match.  That fact lasted 16 seconds, though, as Shook scored a takedown and also received a penalty point to take a 4-2 lead.  Carinio tied the match with a reversal, but Shook escaped and scored another takedown to seal a 7-4 third-place spot.  Regardless of the score, these two combined for the most unexplainable photograph of the 2021 championships (below: second from left).

The fifth and sixth seeds, Belle Chasse senior Michael Stephens and Lakeshore sophomore Kaleb Sanders, did not make the medal matches.   Stephens had to forfeit his C2 match and Sanders was knocked off 4-2 by St. Thomas More’s seventh-seeded sophomore Finley McGill (possibly the coolest name of the championships).  McGill defeated #8 Kennedy Castille, a sophomore from Rayne, in 2:17, to place fifth.

(3) Austen Shook (RUM) defeated (4) Aiden Carinio (BNT) 7-4 to place 3rd

(7) Finley McGill (StTM) pinned (8) Kennedy Castille (RAY) in 2:17 to place 5th

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Finals

That Hudson Sharon looked happy at placing third in 2021 might have been caused by walking off of his last match a winner.  Forgotten in that smile was his 6-3 loss to Ferguson in the 2021 semifinals.  Things were not that close in their only meeting of the 2021-22 season, an 8-1 Ferguson win at the LACL.  While their rematch was not really worse, neither was it better.  Ferguson scored two takedowns and three nearfall points to Sharon’s one escape to take a 7-1 lead after the first period.  Sharon won the second period 3-2, but entering the final two minutes, being down 9-4 is a tough nut to crack.  It may have shown as at 1:31 Ferguson was awarded a penalty point.  On the TW score sheet, in neither red or green, and centered, reads “punch (1:31).”  Then Sharon was awarded two penalty points.  Ferguson responded with an escape and a takedown which led, with the score now 13-6 in Ferguson’s favor, to a fall with 10 seconds remaining in the match.  If it is any consolation to the Rebel fans, Ferguson is a senior and Sharon only a sophomore.  He now has four place spots available on the podium.  But 4^th, 5^th and 6^th  are not options. 

(1) Lance Ferguson (ND) pinned (2) Hudson Sharon (TC) in 5:50

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