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	Shane Barbarin	Andre Johnson	Henry Hebert	Preston Curtis	Camden Gautreaux	Antonio Barraza
School	De la Salle	Basile	St. Louis	John Curtis	DeQuincy	St. Michael
Seed	3	1	2	7	4	8
Class	11	12	10	10	11	11
Final Record*	33-18	26-8	14-5	15-12	17-13	23-19

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

On February 11th the Division III 126 lbs. weight class already had two state champions.  Apparently, that was not enough.  After the last match of the season, the weight class had three.  De la Salle's Shane Barbarin, seeded third, squeaked by one in a SV semifinals match and scored all of his points in the third period prior to recording a fall to win the title.

Seeding Synopsis

Basile senior Andre Johnson won a Division III state championship as a top-seeded sophomore in 2020.  In 2021, Johnson, and several others, were waylaid by Erath’s Wiley Boudreaux, who defeated Johnson in the finals.  That was not a big surprise though as Boudreaux was the top-seed.

For the 2022 Division III state championships, Johnson was again the top seed.  He was in Boudreaux’s weight class again, but Boudreaux had moved to Southside, a Division I school.  Johnson had lost to and then defeated, and placed higher than, St. Louis’ second-seeded Henry Hebert in the Jacob McMillan Memorial.  Hebert, also a 2021 state champion, had not competed at 126 lbs. until the state tournament, but he placed third at the Brusly Invitational at 132 lbs.  He was also a defending Division III state champion.  That, and a win at the Rayne Invitation, was enough to seed him second and put De la Salle junior Shane Barbarin third.  Barbarin had a win over fourth-seed Camden Gauthreaux of DeQuincy, who had a win over #5 Michael Brame, II, of Evangel.  Sixth-seeded Lane Turnley of Kaplan, a freshman, placed second to Bryce Fontenot at 120 lbs. in the Brusly Invitational.  Brame placed third at Brusly at 126 lbs., placed in three other tournaments and had a better Division III record than Turnley (6-2 vs 4-2), which explains why Brame was seeded fifth and Turnley sixth.  Sophomore Preston Curtis of Joh Curtis, a runner-up in 2021, was seeded seventh, followed by St. Michael’s Antonio Barraza, whom Curtis defeated at the Brusly Invitational. 

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Quarterfinals

The quarterfinals went as expected, aside from Brusly’s Destin Woods being in them.  The senior Woods upset the freshman Turnley in 1:40.  Gautreaux pinned Brame in the first period, as he had done at the Parkway Lone Survivor.

(1) Andre Johnson (BAS) pinned (8) Antonio Barraza (HAN) in 1:34

(4) Camden Gautreaux (DEQ) pinned (5) Michael Brame, II (EVA) in 1:48

(3) Shane Barbarin (DLS) pinned Destin Woods (BRU) in 3:53

(2) Henry Hebert (StL) defeated (7) Preston Curtis (JC) 11-3 MD

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Semifinals

Johnson’s win over Gautreaux was no surprise, and the Basile senior assured his third consecutive finals appearance.  The bottom half of the bracket, though, was a different tale.  Against Barbarin, after a scoreless first period, Hebert received a penalty point and scored a reversal to take a 3-0 lead into the final period.  With just over a minute remaining, Barbarin scored a reversal of his own, and five seconds before the round ended, Barbarin was awarded a penalty point for stalling on Hebert’s part.  That led to a Sudden Victory period in which Barbarin, via an ankle-pick, used only 18 seconds to secure a spot in the finals.  Barbarin became the first of only four wrestlers in all three divisions to win a championship from other than the number one or number two seeding spot.  (The others were Graham Montet, a 4th seed at 170 lbs. from Division III St. Louis, Davell Dixon, a #5 seed at 285 lbs. for Division II for Rummel and Thomas Domangue, a #3 seed from Division I Catholic.)

(1) Andre Johnson (BAS) pinned (4) Camden Gautreaux (DEQ) in 2:34

(3) Shane Barbarin (DLS) defeated (2) Henry Hebert (StL) 5-3 SV.  Looking at the second to last photo above, Barbarin appears to have decided this was not his last win.

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Championship Consolation Rounds

Neither the fifth-seeded Brame, II, who withdrew from the tournament after his quarterfinals match due to an injury, nor the sixth-seeded Turnley, advanced to the placement rounds.  The seventh-seeded Curtis advanced to the consolation finals against Hebert via an 11-9 consolation semifinals win over Gautreaux.  The eighth-seeded Barraza bested Turnley in 1:38.

The defending state champion dispatched with Curtis in 1:39 to place third.  Curtis, a sophomore, defeated Brusly senior Destin Woods 13-7 and #4 Gautreaux, a junior, 11-9 to get to that match.

Gautreax pinned Barraza in 2:00 for fifth place.

(2) Henry Hebert (StL) pinned (7) Preston Curtis (JC) in 1:39 to place 3rd

(4) Camden Gautreaux (DEQ) pinned (8) Antonio Barraza (StM) in 2:00 to place 5th

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Finals

Johnson met Barbarin twice during the season, at the Brusly Invitational and the Louisiana Classic.  The #1 seed defeated the #3 seeded Cavalier by five points in each of those matches.  This match looked to be similar, particularly as Johnson was well accustomed to state finals matches.  He led 3-0 after two periods by virtue of a first period takedown and a second period escape.  With two minutes remaining, Barbarin chose a different tack.  A quick reversal made it a 3-2 match.  With 1:30 remaining Johnson escaped to take a 4-2 lead.  Yet with a minute remaining Barbarin used a single-leg to a double-leg to take down Johnson to his back, tying the match and then taking a 7-4 lead.  After a restart Barbarin sank a half that put Johnson on his back again.  This time the senior could not escape and Barbarin secured a fall in 5:29. 

(3) Shane Barbarin (DLS) pinned (1) Andre Johnson (BAS) in 5:29

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