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	Brandon Dang	Henry Milligan	Roger Holmes	Joel Marchand	Emery Lejeune	Henry Travis
School	John Curtis	St. Louis	St. Michael	Hannan	Basile	Haynes
Seed	2	1	3	4	NS	NS
Class	10	11	12	10	10	10
Final Record*	15-4	10-1	22-17	24-12	7-11	14-14

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

John Curtis sophomore Brendan Dang was close to not competing at the state championships.  He lost a wrestle-off at 285 lbs., but as he had competed at 220 lbs. in January, posting a 3-2 record, he decided to try for that spot.  He won the 220 lbs. wrestle-off by one point.  It turned out to be a rather valuable one point.

Seeding Synopsis

St. Louis junior Henry Milligan was only 7-0 entering the state championships, but he had won the Brusly Invitational.  That, as well as a third-place finish in 2021, was enough to merit the top seed at 220 lbs.  At Brusly he defeated #3 Roger Holmes of St. Michael (D3 3rd) and #4 Joel Marchand of Hannan (D3 4th).   He previously defeated #6 Emery Lejeune of Basile (D3 5th).  Second-seeded Brendan Dang of Curtis (D3 1st), however, was not on Milligan’s victims list.

Dang was 11-5, but his losses all came to Division I and II opponents.   He placed second at the Trygg Memorial and fourth at the District 9-5A Championships.  Second was a fine seed for Dang in his first state championships appearance.  He defeated Marchand during the season, as well as Evangel's Christian Speight, and he split matches with Rummel's Jack Seither.

Third-seeded senior Roger Holmes of St. Michael placed third at Brusly and the Griffin Open, and fourth at the Greater Baton Rouge Championships.  He had 19 wins but 16 losses to go with them.  He also had a win over Marchand at the Ken Cole.  Marchand, only a sophomore, placed second at Brusly and the Bulldog Brawl, and third at the St. Tammany Parish Championships to earn the fourth seeding position.

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Quarterfinals

The quarterfinals went as seeded, although Dang probably did not expect to have to “survive” his quarterfinals match against the seventh-seeded sophomore from Basile, Emery Lejeune. 

Semifinals

The top-seeded Milligan spent a little more time dispatching with Marchand than he did in January, but he still ended the match in the second period. 

Dang had a much harder semifinals match against Holmes.  He needed to sore a takedown in the final minute to break a 7-7 tie.

(1) Henry Milligan (StL) pinned (4) Joel Marchand (HAN) in 3:23

(2) Brendan Dang (JC) defeated (3) Roger Holmes (BAS) 9-7

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Championship Consolation Rounds

Holmes pinned Marchand in 3:55 in the fourth consolation round of the Ken Cole.  He again bested Marchand in the second period to place third via a fall in 2:28.

Lejeune made it to the medal rounds, as did unseeded Haynes sophomore Henry Travis, who got past fifth-seeded Antonio Tolson of Lake Charles College Prep during the trip.  Lejeune won fifth-place with a fall in 0:48.

(3) Roger Holmes (StM) pinned (4) Joel Marchand (HAN) in 2:28 to place 3rd

(7) Emery Lejeune (BAS) pinned Henry Travis (HAY) in 0:48 to place 5th

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Finals

The first two periods were wrestled almost to a tie until Dang escaped with 1:15 remaining in the second period to take a 3-2 lead into the third.  The final period belonged to the John Curtis junior, though.  He escaped after 40 seconds had elapsed to take a precarious 4-2 lead, and he sealed his title with a takedown with 17 seconds remaining.  In 2021 John Drake became John Curtis' first state champion in eight years (2013).   This year the Patriots added two more and placed as high (4th) and with more points (159) of any team since 2013.

(2) Brendan Dang (JC) defeated (1) Henry Milligan (StL) 6-2

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