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	Dylan Duvernay	Pierson Comeaux	Jeremiah Yearby	William Simpson	Lawton Royer	Braylin Poston
School	De la Salle	Basile	Evangel	St. Michael	DeQuincey	Brusly
Seed	1	3	4	5	2	7
Class	10	8	8	10	9	9
Final Record*	38-10	17-6	12-3	16-4	14-14	15-19

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

De la Salle sophomore Dylan Duvernay pinned every Division III wrestler he faced during the 2021-22 season.  He pinned his first five in the first period.  Only his last two matches went into the second two-minutes.  In his 38 wins, only 10 wrestlers, all from Division I, lasted the "full six ."  Four of those wins were major decisions or technical falls.  A sixth-place finisher as a freshman in 2021, Duvernay traversed the whole podium spectrum (which is vertical, not horizontal) in 2022. 

Seeding Synopsis

De la Salle sophomore Dylan Duvernay started the season losing three matches in his first three tournaments, garnering a third-place and two runner-up finishes.  In those events, the Warrior Open, the Lakeshore Open and the Bulldog Brawl at Fontainebleau, he defeated six Division I opponents and one each from Division II and Division III.  Some might think that was a great start.  Some others might think it showed Duvernay was bested by three others and may be on the verge of a mundane season.  “Some others” would be wrong, though.  Duvernay’s losses all came via Sam Houston’s Tyson Roach (D1 1st).  Fifty-two others learned what it felt like to lose to Roach in the 2021-22 season.  But that was the caliber of wrestler it took to beat the young Cavalier.  The others who defeated him placed second, third and fourth at 106 lbs. in Division I (Jesuit's Bodi Harris, Lathan Hirschey of Live Oak and Luke Olsen of Airline).  Another, Teurlings Catholic's Brennan Romero (D2 1st), won the Division II championship.  At 113 lbs. he lost to Kael Reaux of Southside (D1 4th).   His other loss was to Parkway's Matthew Gallman, a young man who won 28 varsity matches and had only seven losses.  Duvernay placed fifth at the Trey Culotta.  He won the George Trygg Memorial and, more importantly, the Brusly Invitational, a predominantly Division III event.  He defeated the top-seeded Division II runner-up, Kaiden Triche of Rummel, three times.  He beat both of Brother Martin's 106 lbs. varsity wrestlers, and D1 #8 seed Colten Owens of Destrehan twice.  As a sophomore, he did all he needed to do to be the 106 lbs. top seed in Division III.

The rest of the 106 lbs. seeding is puzzling.  DeQuincy freshman Lawton Royer was seeded second with a 12-12 record.  Basile eighth-grader Pierson Comeaux was seeded third, whereas St. Michael sophomore William Simpson was seeded fifth, despite that Simpson had a fall over Comeaux in 1:18 at the Brusly Invitational.  Simpson was a runner-up to Duvernay at that event while Comeaux tied for third (via the 5-Match Rule).  Evangel eighth-grader Jeremiah Yearby did not lose to a common opponent of Comeaux and had a better record upon entering the state championships, yet was seeded fourth.  Royer did have a 5-1 record in Division III while Yearby was only 1-1.  Against Division I and II competition, though, Royer was 7-11 while Yearby was 6-1.  As for Comeaux – he had a win against Vinton’s Brayden Fontenot while Royer had a loss to the Vinton freshman.  Brusly freshman Braylin Poston was seeded seventh yet had a 5-2 Division III record.  He and Royer had losses to Holy Cross’ Dominic Durham, but Comeaux made it to the second period once.  Both had losses to St. Amant’s Johnny Laris.  Royer had two, though.  Poston also faced some serious competition, including Teurlings Catholic’s Daniel Daspit, Live Oak’s Lathan Hirschey, Catholic’s Grant Grizzaffi and Jesuit’s Bodi Harris.  The caliber of one’s opponents should matter.  Yet, in some manner, a bracket was created.  Royer was seeded second, Comeaux third and Yearby fourth.

Early Championship Rounds

There were only two first-round matches.  Evangel eighth-grader Jeremiah Yearby, the fourth seed, pinned Kaplan freshman Joshua Fruge in 0:36 while Basile eighth grader Pierson Comeaux pinned John Curtis sophomore Landon Schlette in 1:06.  For Yearby, this was his second state championships appearance, having placed 6th at 113 lbs. as a seventh-grader in 2021.

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Quarterfinals

Seventh-seeded Brusly freshman Braylin Poston fouled up the bottom half of the bracket with a fall in 1:46 over the second-seeded Royer of DeQuincy in the quarterfinals.  All of the other wrestlers followed the seeding.  Poston had to be different.  When all was said and done he defied the seeding committee and ended up with a well-earned medal.

(1) Dylan Duvernay (DLS) pinned Nathan Rayburn (HAN) in 1:45

(4) Jeremiah Yearby (EVA) pinned (5) William Simpson (StM) in 3:36

(3) Pierson Comeaux (BAS) defeated (6) Grant Habetz (StL) 19-6 MD

(7) Braylin Poston (BRU) pinned (2) Lawton Royer (DEQ) in 1:46

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Semifinals

Poston could bask in the glow of his upset of Royer Friday night, but on Saturday any dreams of the finals were quashed in 4:00 by Basile eighth-grader Pierson Comeaux.

(1) Dylan Duvernay (DLS) pinned (4) Jeremiah Yearby (EVA) in 3:11

(3) Pierson Comeaux (BAS) pinned (7) Braylin Poston (BRU) in 4:00

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Consolation Rounds

Royer's loss to Poston made earning a medal a little tougher for the DeQuincy sophomore.  After a bye he faced St. Louis freshman Grant Habertz in the consolation rounds.  It was only Habertz' sixth match of the season.  It was Royer's 26th, and he took full advantage of his edge in experience, pinning Habertz in 0:47 to guarantee a place on the podium.

Championship Consolation Rounds

As he did in the quarterfinals, Yearby defeated Simpson in the match for third place.  But whereas Yearby had his way with Simpson in their first match via a fall in 3:36, he had to work for the third spot on the podium.  He did it, but only via a 4-2 score.

Before the Royer family takes out a “hit” on me, allow me to say Lawton had a fine freshman season, especially since his 24 matches before the state championships were spread fairly thin.  He was off for 10 days in the first half of December.  After the Lone Survivor ended on December 30th, an event in which he placed a very respectable fifth, he had two weeks off before his next event, which happened to be the Louisiana Classic.  If one’s name is not Miller*, Klein, Perry or Frost, that is a daunting tournament for a freshman.  Following that with the Ken Cole is not easy either.  Frankly, being on a team with only one other member, and thus not being a big draw for dual meet events, makes finding matches harder.  After the loss to Poston, Royer came back with a win in 47 seconds before falling to Yearby in the consolation semifinals.  But he walked off of the mats in his first state championships with a smile, having avenged his quarterfinals match loss to Poston via a 9-6 win to place fifth.

(4) Jeremiah Yearby (EVA) defeated (5) William Simpson (StM) 4-2 to place 3rd

(2) Lawton Royer (DEQ) defeated (7) Braylin Poston (BRU) 9-6 to place 5th

*  Go back.  Way back.  As in Ironman back.

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Finals

The weight class worked itself out just fine for most of the entrants, as young as they are (two eighth-graders, four freshmen and four sophomores).  Yearby and, in particular, Simpson, being a sophomore, should have had a route to the finals that did not involve Duvernay.  Seeding politics, though, were not a concern for the De la Salle sophomore.  After a first-round bye he pinned his first two opponents in 1:45 and 3:11.  Sixth in the 2021 Division III 106 lbs. weight class, Duverney ascended to the top spot on the podium with a 2:34 fall over the Basile eighth-grader to win the first championship of the evening.  Before recording the fall the Cavalier scored seven points in the first period and two in the second period.

(1) Dylan Duvernay (DLS) pinned (3) Pierson Comeaux (BAS) in 2:34

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