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	Graham Montet	Luke Robertson	Joshua Eames	Christian  Otzenberger	Anthony Denova	Austin Thomas
School	St. Louis	De la Salle	John Curtis	Calvary Baptist	Brusly	St. Michael
Seed	4	2	5	1	3	NS
Class	10	11	11	12	11	9
Final Record*	28-4	34-6	26-11	30-4	24-11	15-16

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

St. Louis sophomore Graham Montet did not care about a seasonal tie-breaker match between #1 Christian Otzenberger of Calvary Baptist and #2 Luke Robertson of De la Salle.  He did not care about Otzenberger getting the best of Robertson at the Louisiana Classic, nor that he had never competed against the top seed or third-seeded Anthony Denova of Brusly.  Nor did he care about two very close matches against John Curtis' Joshua Eames (D3 3rd).  It was by no means easy, but Montet got past the #5, #1 and #2 seeds to win St. Louis' only championship of the evening. 

Seeding Synopsis

This weight class was all about a tie-breaker between top-seeded Christian Otzenberger of Calvary Baptist and second-seeded Luke Robertson of De la Salle.  Robertson was a 152 lbs. Division III runner-up in 2021.  At 145 lbs. Otzenberger placed 3^rd in 2021.  The two met twice during the season – both times at the Louisiana Classic.  Robertson, seeded fourth, led comfortably 11-6 when he scored a fall over the fifth-seeded Otzenberger in 5:11 in a quarterfinals match.  Otzenberger came back to defeat East Ascension’s Jacobi Clement (D1 6th) in 2:39, Rockwall Heath’s Juan Salinas 10-0 MD, and then upset second-seeded John Paul Travasos (D2 1st x 2) 9-7 to reach the consolation finals.  Robertson defeated Shaw’s seventh-seeded Zalen Wilson (D2 2nd) 7-3 to gain a chance to place third.  In the match for third the northwestern Cavalier defeated the southeastern Cavalier 9-6. 

Aside from his third-place finish at the LACL Otzenberger placed third at the Cinco Ranch Big 12, losing to Division I state champion Rocco Horvath of Brother Martin in the semifinals, second at the Rockwall-Heath Invitational, second in the Little Rock Central Classic and won the Lone Survivor, the Big Cat Brawl and the North LA Regionals.

Robertson won the Trygg Memorial, the Brusly Invitational and the Titan Invitational.  He placed third at the Trey Culotta and fourth at the LACL.  During the season he lost to the Christian Brothers, TN Trey Culotta champion, Horvath (twice), Teurlings Catholic's Zack Watkins, Otzenberger and Eames.  He defeated Otzenberger once, Wilson, De Nova, East Ascension's Gabriel Bonin and Brother Martin's Ryan Corca (D1 4th). 

Brusly Junior Anthony Denova had a good season in a tough weight class.  He placed second in the Brusly Invitational and the Titan Invitational (losing to Robertson both times).  He was fourth at the Greater Baton Rouge Championships, falling to Catholic's Richard Carroll (D1 3rd) and Dutchtown's Tyler Addison (D1 5th).  He defeated Shaw's Jason Brown (D2 3rd), Eames (D3 3rd) and Lafayette's Shannon Fray. 

Montet, a sophomore at St. Louis, was seeded fourth after a very good season.  He won the Rayne Invitational, placed 3rd at the Jacob McMillan and the Brusly Invitational, and fourth at the Ken Cole.  His only losses came from Robertson, Travasos, Addison and Rayne's Tyquan Scott.  He also defeated Scott, as well as Eames, Haughton's Jason Zahm (D2 4th), Ledgerick Collins of Carencro (D2 3rd) and Loukas Naquin of Terrebonne.

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Unexpected segue on state seeding criteria  (I lasted 23 weight classes!)

Seeded third was Brusly’s Anthony Denova, while the fourth spot went to St. Louis sophomore Graham Montet.  Why?   Denova was 22-9 upon entering the state championships (and the win number includes three Florida wrestlers).  Montet was 25-4.  The overall record winning percentage goes to Montet.  Against Division III opposition Montet was 9-1 and Denova was 5-3.  Advantage: Montet.  Denova’s losses were to some tough competition, including a Division I state champion, two Division I runners-up, a Division I third-place finisher, a two-time Division II state champion, a two-time Division III state champion, a 2021 Division III runner-up, a 2021 Division III third-place winner and a probable Division II finalist.  Montet’s losses were to the same two-time Division II state champion, the same Division I runner-up, the same 2021 Division III runner-up and to a “very hot/very cold” Division II 6^th placer.  Neither of them pulled off any great upsets, so call “losses to” a draw.  (Montet lasted 41 seconds longer than Denova against the one Division I runner-up, though).  Re a common opponent, Montet beat fifth-seeded Joshua Eames of John Curtis 3-1 while Denova beat Eames 2-1.  Montet won the Rayne Invitational and Jesse James Southwest Shootout.  He placed third at the Jacob McMillan and the Brusly Invitational.  And he placed fourth at the Ken Cole, which is generally regarded as the toughest non-state event to win aside from the LACL.  Denova placed second at the Brusly Invitational and the Titan Invitational.  He tied for third at the Griffin Open, placed fourth at the Greater Baton Rouge Championships and did not place at the LACL.  The tournament placement advantage: Montet.

Make no mistake – Denova wrestled a lot of really good wrestlers during the season, and that will help him in his upcoming senior year.  However, everything in their records says Montet should have been seeded third and Denova fourth.  The seeding came down to the fourth state tournament seeding criteria:  “Place finishes in common tournaments in current year. (Defined as a single tournament in which both wrestlers entered and competed at the same weight class.)”

Denova placed second at the Brusly Invitational and Montet placed third.  Yet they did not wrestle against one another at that event.  The final seeding basically came down to how the wrestlers were seeded and performed against each other in one tournament.

None of the “unexpected segue” was important, though.  Otzenberger was a senior so this would be the last high school match between he and Robertson.  That is what matter in Division III at 170 lbs.

Someone forgot to send Graham Montet the memo.

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Quarterfinals

Joshua Eames, the fifth-seeded John Curtis junior, gave Montet a tough 3-1 match in the Brusly Invitational consolation finals, and he made it even tougher for Montet this time, taking the Saint sophomore into a Sudden Victory period before falling 4-2. 

Semifinals

In the biggest upset of the Division III championships, the St. Louis sophomore Montet survived a first-minute five-point throw by Otzenberger and then reversed Otzenberger to his back and tacked on a penalty point to take a 6-5 lead after the first two minutes of the first semifinals.   Otzenberger never recovered.  Montet reversed Otzenberger after 90 seconds had elapsed and he scored a fall about 10 seconds later.

Robertson beat Denova 6-0 in the finals of the Brusly Invitational and scored another six-point win, 7-1, in their second semifinals match.

(4) Graham Montet (StL) pinned (1) Christian Otzenberger (CBP) in 3:39

(2) Luke Robertson (DLS) defeated (3) Anthony Denova (BRU) 7-1

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Championship Consolation Rounds

Otzenberger got past St. Michael freshman Austin Thomas in 1:24 to advance to the consolation finals.  Eames, having lost in the quarterfinals to Montet, went through Lake Charles College Prep freshman Van Ned in 24 seconds, then upset Denova with a fall in 1:20 to gain a match with Otzenberger.  Otzenberger was ahead 2-0 after the first minute and, after an escape by Eames, took the Patriot down again, this time to his back.  But Eames bridged Otzenberger over to his back and recorded a fall with one second remaining in the second period to take third.

(5) Joshua Eames (JC) pinned (1) Christian Otzenberger (CBP) in 2:59 to place 3rd

(4) Anthony Denova (BRU) pinned Austin Thomas (StM) in 1:39 to place 5th

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Finals

As one might have expected, Robertson scored the first takedown.  It was late in the first period but Montet was able to escape before the period ended.  As expected now in this weight class, the fourth seed dominated the second seed for the rest of the match.  Montet outscored Robertson five to two in the second period, with Robertson’s two points coming from a late reversal.  In the third period Montet started with two nearfall points to take an 8-4 lead.  Robertson reversed him shortly thereafter to make it an 8-6 match, but all Robertson was able to mange as time ran out was a stalling point.  Montet won the title by a point, 8-7.

(4) Graham Montet (StL) defeated (2) Luke Robertson (DLS) 8-7

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