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	Davell Dixon	Raymond Howard	Kole Hayes	Charles Bouvay	John Simmons, Jr.	Jeremy Beamer
School	Rummel	Shaw	Teurlings Catholic	Plaquemine	Northside	Caddo Magnate
Seed	5	3	4	NS	2	8
Class	12	10	12	12	12	11
Final Record*	18-10	17-10	21-10	14-5	14-7	10-6

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

By the time the 285 lbs. state finals started, only three wrestlers who were not seeded first or second won championships.  Catholic's Thomas Domangue was the third-seed at 182 lbs. in Division I.  Shane Barbarin of De la Salle was a Division III third seed at 126 lbs.  And Graham Montet of St. Louis was the biggest seed-buster of them all.  Seeded fourth, Montet defeated #1 Christian Otzenberger of Calvary Baptist and #2 Luke Robertson of De la Salle.  Now, however, Rummel senior Davell Dixon stepped on the mat.  By the time he stepped off of it, the fifth-seed would have defeated the #4, #8 and #3 seeds, with the #3 and #8 seeds having taken out the #1 and #2 seeds for him.  Dixon reached the finals with aplomb, using less than two minutes to pin his first three opponents.  He would need the saved energy.  His finals match lasted over four times as long as his first three matches.

Seeding Synopsis

Tre`Von Williams of Rayne had an excellent 2022-23 season.  Before the Louisiana Classic the senior only had one loss (to a kid who quit after losing his first match three days later).  He won 24 matches, which included a Lone Survivor championship and a third-place finish at the Jacob McMillan.  He had wins over Airline’s Tayvon Patterson, Parkway’s Jake Morton, Erath’s Ryan Fobbs (D3 5th) and Kole Hayes (D2 3rd) from Teurlings Catholic.  At the LACL he fell to second-seeded Ashton Freeman (D1 2nd) in the semifinals and to Basile’s Anphrony Guillory (D3 1st) in the consolation finals.  He lost to Freeman again in the Ken Cole, but rebounded to place third.  He had wins over Shaw’s Raymond Howard (D2 2nd) as well as Hayes, and over John Simmons, Jr. (D2 5th) to place third at the Lafayette Metro.  He was obviously the one to beat at 285 lbs. in Division II.  Breaking a foot two days before the event, however, was not part of Williams' master plan.

Northside’s John Simmons, Jr. was seeded second.  Simmons had defeated Shaw and Hayes over his 11-4 season, both at the Ken Cole.  He placed third at the Rayne Invitational and the Lafayette Metro, and fifth at the Ken Cole.  One should bear in mind that he did not even start the season until January 15^th.

Howard was seeded third as he had a win over Hayes at the LACL.  He finished 6^th at the Ken Cole and was the District 9-5A runner-up.

Teurlings Catholic's Kole Hayes was seeded fourth due to a loss to Howard in the LACL

Williams, Howard and Hayes had one thing in common: they had each defeated the fifth-seed, Rummel’s Davell Dixon, at least once during the season.

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Quarterfinals

Williams got through two matches via falls averaging less than 2:00 each.  His dreams of a title were crushed in the quarterfinals when he lost a 5-4 match, in which he was assessed two stalling points, to #8 Jeremy Beaner of Caddo Magnate.  A six-minute match was asking too much of the Rayne senior with a broken foot, though, and he never recovered.  He lost his first consolation round match 1-0 to unseeded Jeremiah Rainey of North Desoto.

The fifth-seeded Dixon may or may not have known the top half of the championship bracket was in disarray when, against the 4^th-seeded Hayes, who pinned Dixon in 2:11 at the LACL, he scored a fall in a mere 60 seconds to advance to the semifinals.

The bottom half of the championship bracket was behaving itself, for the moment.

(8) Jeremy Beaner (CAD) defeated (1) Tre`Von Williams (RAY) 5-4

(5) Davell Dixon (RUM) pinned (4) Kole Hayes (TC) in 1:00

(3) Raymond Howard (SHW) pinned (6) Carter Davis (LKS) in 1:20

(2) John Simmons, Jr. (NS) pinned Darion Gabriel (CAR) in 1:37

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Semifinals

Dixon wasted little time taking control of his half of the bracket via a 36 second fall over Beaner.

At the bottom of the bracket Howard, whose Ken Cole loss to Simmons, Jr. came in a 4-3 TB-1 match, came out on top of another TB-1 match.  This time the score was 2-1. 

(5) Davel Dixon (RUM) pinned (8) Jeremy Beaner (CAD) 0:35

(3) Raymond Howard (SHW) defeated (2) John Simmons, Jr. (NS) 2-1 TB-1

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Consolation Rounds

Unseeded Charles Bouvay of Plaquemine defeated #6 Carter David of Lakeshore in 3:44 in the fifth consolation round.  In the CSFs Bouvay bested #8 Beaner in 2:12.

C3: Sterling Barthelemy (BC) pinned Whitton Van Hoy (BNT) in 4:46

C5: Charles Bouvay (PLQ) pinned Carter Davis (LKS) in 3:44

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Championship Consolation Rounds

Hayes put an end to an exceptionally good run by Bouvay, who won four consolation round matches, to place third. 

Simmons, Jr. had a tough time but prevailed over Beaner 3-0 to place third.

(4) Kole Hayes (TC) pinned Charles Bouvay (PLQ) in 4:29 to place 3rd

(2) John Simmons, Jr. (NS) defeated (8) Jeremy Beaner (CAD) 3-0 to place 5th

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Finals

Let us take a closer look at the fifth-seeded Dixon.  Yes, he lost to Williams, Howard and Hayes, and his being seeded fifth was appropriate.  Aside from those three, his losses came from the Beast of Pearl River, Gabriel Whittington, Bryant Breska of Chalmette (D1 3rd), Dennis Dougherty of Jesuit (D1 1st), Ashton Freeman of Zachary (D1 2nd & 2021 D1 1st) and Spencer Lanosga of Jesuit (D1 1st).  The 14 wrestlers he beat prior to the state championship included, well, nobody who placed in state in any division.  He placed fourth at the Battle of New Orleans and third at the District 9-5A tournaments.  He did not place at the LACL or the Ken Cole.  He truly saved his best for last.

Raymond Howard, who is only a sophomore, slew one of his 2021-22 demons when he turned the tables on Simmons, Jr. In the semifinals.  Dixon slew one of his in Hayes during the quarterfinals, and Beaner denied him the chance to do the same to Williams.  Howard had the advantage of having beaten Dixon twice, 6-0 in a dual meet and 7-5 SV at the Ken Cole.  This match would not be much different than the last one, aside from lasting a minute longer.  The two were tied 1-1 after regulation was over and the Sudden Victory round had expired.  On the bottom for the first tie-breaker round, Dixon could not escape but made sure Howard could not turn him, either.  Howard was warned once in the 30-second period for stalling before Dixon was awarded a point with five seconds remaining.  That was all he needed.  Howard was able to standup in the TB-1 second thirty seconds, but Dixon was able to haul him back to the mat.  Dixon was also warned for stalling, but only once, and he rode Howard the rest of the way to win a state title as the lowest seed in all divisions.

(5) Davel Dixon (RUM) defeated (3) Raymond Howard (SHW) 2-1 TB-1

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