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	Grayson Pennison	Huey Johnson, IV	Zachary Drake	Kagen Schexnayder	Parker Fontenot	Shreve Gage
School	Hannan	Brusly	John Curtis	Kaplan	Basile	St. Louis
Seed	1	3	NS	2	4	5
Class	12	11	10	12	11	12
Final Record*	33-4	6-7	10-11	15-7	21-13	8-11

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

As a sophomore in 2020, Hannan sophomore Grayson Pennison eked out a 16-15 state championship over Evangel eighth-grader Michael Gilreath.  In 2021 the two switched roles, with Gilreath winning a championship at 152 lbs. and Pennison placing second at 160 lbs.  They reversed positions again this year, making Pennison Hannan's first two-time state champion after a 15-4 MD over Brusly's Huey Johnson, IV. 

Seeding Synopsis

An argument could be made that it was Hannan’s Grayson Pennison who had the best season as a Division III wrestler this season.  He bested Basile’s Luc Fontenot (D3 1st) by winning 33 matches (Johnson won 27), and his four losses came to Division I opponents who placed 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 5^th at the state championships.  Two of those losses came at the Louisiana Classic, in which Pennison placed fifth, after losses to East Ascension's Santos Ramos (D1 2nd) and Landry Barker of St. Paul (D1 1st).  He did have two other losses - one to Fontainebleau's Raymond Favaza (D1 3rd) and one to the Florida wrestler who defeated Ramos at the Trey Culotta.  He was 2-1 against Covington’s Landen Carroll (D1 5th).  The Hannan senior, who won a Division III title in 2020 and placed second in 2021, won the Brusly Invitational and the Ken Cole.  He placed third, after his only loss to Carroll, at the St. Tammany Parish championships, and was a runner-up to a Florida wrestler at the Trey Culotta.  He had wins over Shaw’s Zalen Wilson (D2 2nd), Haughton’s Charlie Yocom (D2 2nd), Sam Riles of Brother Martin (D1 6th) and Michael Price of Catholic (D1 4th), among several other 2022 state placers.  He went six minutes with Division III wrestlers only twice and won both of those matches by major decisions.

Seeded second was Kaplan senior Kagen Schexnayder.  Schexnayder placed third at the Brusly Invitational, fourth at the Lafayette Metro and won the Rayne Invitational championship.  A 9-6 win over Brusly junior Huey Johnson, IV, and two wins over Basile’s Parker Fontenot, after losing his first match to the Bearcat, sealed his second seed spot.  Johnson, IV, and Fontenot were the third and fourth seeds.

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Quarterfinals

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Semifinals

Pennison pinned Fontenot in 1:21 in the Brusly Invitational finals.  In this match, he spent a while building a 12-2 lead before pinning Fontenot with six seconds remaining in the second period.

In the Rayne Invitational finals, Schexnayder defeated Johnson 9-6.  In this match the Panther did not allow the Pirate to score.  He led 2-0 after two minutes and, after a reversal, pinned Schexnayder in 2:57.

(1) Grayson Pennison (HAN) pinned (4) Parker Fontenot (BAS) in 3:54

(3) Huey Johnson, IV (BRU) pinned (2) Kagen Schexnayder (KAP) in 2:57

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Championship Consolation Rounds

All but forgotten in this weight class was John Curtis sophomore Zachary Drake.  Drake was 6-10 and had the misfortune of meeting Pennison in a first round match.  After a first-round bye in the consolation bracket, he handily defeated two wrestlers he defeated earlier in the season.  In the consolation semifinals, he turned the tables on the fourth-seeded Fontenot, who had pinned him in 1:23 at the Ken Cole, by taking a 4-0 first period lead, keeping the lead at 6-4 after the second period, and then refusing to be turned by Fontenot in the third period.  He scored an insurance reversal near the end for an 8-4 win. 

In the consolation finals Drake met Schexnayder, who had defeated him 7-2 in the Brusly Invitational.  In this match Drake also took a 4-0 lead, albeit that was in the second period after a scoreless first two minutes.  He let Schexnayder score seven points in the third period, but he scored five of his own to take third place 9-7.  One might do well to recall that Drake’s older brother John won a Division III title in 2021 and that his father and coach, Norman Drake, won a Division II championship in 1985 and, in 1987, became the only John Curtis wrestler to win a Division I state championship.

Zachary Drake (JC) defeated (2) Kagen Schexnayder (KAP) 9-7 to place 3rd

(4) Parker Fontenot (BAS) defeated (5) Shreve Gage (StL) 16-0 TF to place 5th

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Finals

Pennison and Johnson had not met previously, which might have been best for Johnson.  Pennison scored at will and only allowed Johnson four escape points en route to a 15-4 MD.  The senior became Hannan’s first two-time state champion.

(1) Grayson Pennison (HAN) defeated (3) Huey Johnson, IV (BRU) 15-4 MD

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