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	Hunter Hanson	Charlie Yocom	Jason Brown	Zack Necaise	Maximus Bonner	Dax Constantine
School	North Desoto	Haughton	Shaw	North Vermillion	Carencro	Rayne
Seed	1	2	NS	5	4	6
Class	12	12	11	12	12	12
Final Record*	26-2	26-9	14-12	24-12	14-9	8-6

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

The Griffins were 3-0 in the last three finals matches, and had another #1 seed in the finals at 160 lbs.  Last year Hunter Hanson placed second to John Paul Travasos of Teurlings Catholic in an 8-4 finals match.  They might have met again this season, but by the time North Desoto travelled south to the Louisiana Classic, Travasos had moved up to 170 lbs.  Hanson had enough trouble with Haughton's Charlie Yocom in the weight class.  This was the fourth time the two met this season, with Hanson winning the previous three 3-1, 5-1 and 6-3.  Perhaps because he had been there before, his 8-3 victory was his largest over Yocom, and while they would not go home with a trophy or plaque, the Griffins could say they went four-for-four-in-a-row.

Seeding Synopsis

Junior Hunter Hanson lost a mid-November match to a Louisiana opponent when he placed fourth at the Cinco Ranch Big 12 to Calvary Baptist’s Christian Otzenberger (D3 4th).  He would not lose to another Louisianan for two months.  In that time, he won the Little Rock Central Classic, went 5-3 at the Kansas City Stampede (oddly falling to the same Kansas wrestler each time) and won the Big Cat Brawl.  He defeated a defending Division III state champion and Haughton’s Charlie Yocom (D2 2nd), whom he would get to know well during the season.  He fell to Santos Ramos of East Ascension (D1 2nd) at the Louisiana Classic (Santos won the LACL and was voted the Outstanding Wrestler) and then to Landen Carroll (D1 5th)  of Covington just before the medal matches.  Yet he did defeat Carencro’s Maximus Bonner (D2 5th), which would come in handy later.  More importantly, he defeated Yocom again.  In the next two weeks he won seven more matches and the North LA Regional Championship.  That finals match was also against Yocom.  He was the obvious #1 seed at 160 lbs.

Charlie Yocom of Haughton was the #1 seed in the 2021 182 lbs. state championship.  He was upended, however, in the semifinals by an 11-10 score.  In the CSFs he was defeated 11-9.  In the match for fifth-place, after scoring five points to take a 5-2 lead, he was cited for unsportsmanlike conduct, and after a lengthy discussion between the officials, he was disqualified.  He took the DQ fine, with class, as he seemed to understand why that decision was reached.  This season started terribly for the Pirate via a 14-2 MD loss to Airline's Ty Parker.  That was in mid-November, though.  He rebounded quickly with back-to-back wins over a defending Division III state champion a few days later, and then split matches with a Division I opponent over four days.  That was in very early December and Yocom did not lose another match until his last of that month, in the finals of the Lone Survivor.  He dropped a couple of other matches during the remainder of the season to the likes of North Desoto’s Hunter Addison (D2 1st), Landry Barker of St. Paul (D1 1st) and Hannan’s Grayson Pennison (D3 1st).  Yocom placed second in the Lone Survivor, the Ken Cole and the North Louisiana Regionals.  His record entering the tournament was 23-8, but three of those losses came from Hanson.  He had wins over Evangel's Michael Gilreath (D3 2nd), Dax Constantine of Rayne (D2 6th), Parkway's Brandon Earnest, Sulphur's Landon Wright and Teurlings Catholic's Brayden Hebert, who took the 160 lbs. spot for the Rebels when Travasos moved to 170 lbs.  Hence, he was a pretty easy choice for the second-seed spot.

Teurlings Catholic senior Brayden Hebert had a very successful season for the first two months.  He started at 152 lbs. and placed third at the Rummel 8 and the Griffin Open.  He placed fifth at the Black Horse, defeating Brother Martin’s Samuel Riles (D1 6^th) who had defeated him twice previously.  After that he dropped to 145 lbs. and placed fourth at the Jacob McMillan.  Come the LACL, though, Teurlings Catholic adjusted their lineup due to a season-ending injury to Zack Watkins, initially the Rebels' 170 lbs. starter.  John Paul Travasos moved to 170 lbs., and Hebert was “promoted” from 145 lbs. to 160 lbs.  The LACL proved tough for Hebert, but he came back well at the Ken Cole, placing sixth.  He came back stronger in the Lafayette Metro, which he won over North Vermillion’s Zack Necaise (seeded fifth in this event), the one who defeated him for fifth-place at the Ken Cole.  Hebert also defeated Carencro’s Maximus Bonner in a dual meet.  Bonner had an 11-8 record against some stiff competition including Hebert, Hanson and Carroll, and was seeded fourth. 

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Quarterfinals

Hebert was seeded fifth over Rayne’s Dax Constantine, who was seeded sixth, as Hebert had defeated the #5 Necaise and D1’s Colin Pierre of Comeaux, who had both defeated Constantine.  But the two never met on the mat, and the senior Constantine proved better this time in 1:53.

(1) Hunter Hanson (ND) pinned (8) Marcus Vasquez (RUM) 1:23

(4) Maximus Bonner (CAR) pinned (5) Zack Necaise (NV) in 5:43

(6) Dax Constantine (RAY) pinned (3) Brayden Hebert (TC) in 1:53

(2) Charlie Yocom (HAU) pinned Gerjuan Taplin (BRD) in 1:30

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Semifinals

At the LACL Hanson defeated Bonner 8-1.  The Carencro senior did not make this one much easier, and the Griffin prevailed again via a 10-2 MD.

Yocom soundly defeated Constantine in their only meeting, a January 20^th dual meet, via a 17-2 technical fall.  This time the Haughton senior was ahead by only seven points when a fall was called.

(1) Hunter Hanson (ND) defeated (4) Maximus Bonner (CAR) 14-2 MD

(2) Charlie Yocom (HAU) pinned (6) Dax Constantine (RAY) in 4:19

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Consolation Rounds

Jason Brown.  Junior Jason Brown.  Junior Jason Brown of Shaw.  None of these rang a bell for anyone.  Junior Jason Brown of Shaw with a 9-11 record he wanted to improve, A LOT, may have rung a bell to Jason Brown.  It probably rang louder after his 9-5 loss in the second round to Carencro’s Maximus Bonner gave him a 9-12 record.  Northside freshman JeQuatez Cole was the first to meet THAT Jason Brown, to his chagrin as well as a fall in 2:44.

C3: Angel Hernandez (CM) pinned Colin Howell (StTM) in 2:42

C3: Jason Brown (SHW) pinned JeQuatez Cole (NS) in 2:44

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Championship Consolation Rounds

Remember the Brown kid mentioned above?  During the season he won two consecutive matches three times.  Well, those were regular season matches.  Perhaps someone should use “the addiction of winning state championship matches” as a doctoral thesis.  After his win over Cole, he won via an injury default over Broadmoor senior Gerjuan Taplin (the score was 2-2 prior to the injury).  That pitted him against #3 Hebert, and Brown scored all he needed, five points, in the first period in a 7-4 win.  A rematch with Bonner, who defeated Brown in round-two, awaited in the CSFs.   After a scoreless first period Brown escaped in the second and with 11 seconds remaining scored a takedown.  In the third period Bonner escaped and scored a takedown to tie the score 3-3, but he left a whopping 1:20 on the clock, which was more than enough time for Brown to score an escape and prevail 4-3.  One more seed awaited - #5 senior Zack Necaise of North Vermillion.  Necaise defeated Constantine in the CSFs as a lower seed is supposed to do.  Necaise dominated Brown in the first period, even if only scoring two points.  After scoring a reversal in the second period, in which Brown decided to start on the top, Necaise also seemed much stronger.  Brown scored a late reversal of his own to make it a 4-2 match entering the third period.  Necaise took some injury time between the rounds but decided to continue.  In the third period Necaise chose to start standing.  Brown started aggressively and got in deep on Necaise, but the senior collapsed him for a takedown and put Brown on his back for two nearfall points and an 8-2 lead.  Necaise basically gave Brown an escape a few second later.  That proved to be a mistake.  Necaise took a shot and looked as if he had everything he needed to score a double-leg takedown.  But Brown had an arm over Necaise’s head and would not let Necaise finish the move.  Brown pulled Necaise back to his back and was able to sit through on a headlock.  The match ended with a fall in 4:11.

This was a third-place match.  It is not of less importance to the Louisiana Wrestling News photographers because of that, but it came at the end of two long days and the finals were yet to come.  Hence, one can see why, with an 8-2 third period score, the photographer may have taken an eye off of it for a little while and missed Brown’s winning move.  (I did what I could to capture screen shots from the TW video and sharpen them with my TopazLabs A.I. Sharpener program.) 

Bonner and Constantine had not met during the season, but Bonner had defeated Necaise once whereas Constantine had not.  It showed in this match as Bonner prevailed in 3:59.

The photos below were taken from the TrackWrestling video.

Jason Brown (SHW) pinned (5) Zack Necaise (NV) in 4:11 to place 3rd

(4) Maximus Bonner (CAR) pinned (6) Dax Constantine (RAY) in 3:59 to place 5th

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Finals

In three matches North Desoto’s Hunter Hanson and Haughton’s Charlie Yocom had some wars.  In the Big Cat Brawl finals Hanson won 3-2.  In the second round of the Louisiana Classic Hanson pulled away a little with a 5-1 win.  In the North Louisiana Regionals Yocom came closer but still fell 6-3. 

Hanson saved his best match for last.  He scored a quick takedown in the first period, but Yocom came back with an escape and the round ended 2-1 in Hanson’s favor.  Yocom chose to start standing in the second period, but neither could score a takedown until 25 seconds remained.  It was Hanson who scored again, and he tacked on two nearfall points as well, ending the second period with a 6-1 lead.  Hanson chose neutral to start the third period, but it was Yocom scoring a takedown with 45 second remaining.  It was not enough, however, and Hanson reversed Yocom as the match ended.  Hanson, who had made it to the finals in 2021 only to fall to John Paul Travasos of Teurlings Catholic, had his title.  He will be favored to win another in 2023.  Yocom should still be proud as he was the first Haughton wrestler to reach a finals match since 2018.

(1) Hunter Hanson (ND) defeated (2) Charlie Yocom (HAU) 8-3

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