Division I 152 Lbs.

Fini

Blue Jays win back-to-back championships with Koenig's second title

LHSAA State Wrestling Tournament

Division I, 152 Pounds

May 30th, 2018 | Written by: Editor

Weight Class Synopsis

Early Championship Rounds

3rd and 5th

Jesuit's Nathan Koenig celebrates his second Division I state championship

Place	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Name	Nathan Koenig	Grant Hughes	Charles Hudson	Brayden Wilson	Zion Marable	Noah Roux
School	Jesuit	St. Paul's	Comeaux	Central	Dutchtown	Brother Martin
Seed	3	1	2	6	5	4
Class	Senior	Senior	Senior	Senior	Senior	Senior

Weight Class Synopsis

St. Paul's senior Grant Hughes did what few Division I wrestlers do during a season - after starting the season at 145 lbs., he jumped up to 152 lbs. prior to the Trey Culotta, in which he placed second to Live Oak's Camdyn Ingram. That move allowed defending state champion Jared Thieler to move to 145 lbs. Thieler was injured at the Prep Slam and did not compete again until the state championships, but Hughes, having lost to Brother Martin's Patrick Evans at the Mandeville Open, stayed at 152 lbs. and did not lose to a Division I opponent. Hughes' had a 29-3 record against Louisiana competition. That record does not include seven wins and a first-place finish at the South Walton Border Wars, nor a third-place finish at the Prep Slam. A runner-up finish at Louisiana Classic put Grant Hughes at the top of the 152 lbs. wrestlers in the Division I state championships. Charles Hudson of Comeaux earned the second spot via two Louisiana Classic wins over Jesuit's Nathan Koenig, who was seeded third. Hudson had lost to Hughes in the finals of the Trey Culotta and the Louisiana Classic, 9-2 and 8-4 respectively. In this tournament, Hughes used major decisions of 12-3 and 11-3 to advance to a semifinals match with Dutchtown's Zion Marable, who was seeded fifth but defeated fourth-seeded Noah Roux of Brother Martin 7-6. Hughes previously defeated Marable 9-3, and this match was little different as Hughes advanced to the finals via an 8-3 decision.

Jesuit senior Nathan Koenig started the season as a defending Division I champion should He won his first four matches, in which he was not really tested, but then went 6-1 in finishing third at the South Walton Border Wars, losing to an undefeated state champion from Florida 10-7. He followed that with a seventh-place finish at the Kansas City Stampede, and there his season came to an abrupt pause, as a foot injury kept him off the mats for a month. Foot injuries are very tough to rebound from as confidence and timing take a while to reassert themselves in a wrestler's mind. He returned for the Louisiana Classic, the hardest tournament in the state. His fifth-place finish may have caused some people to "write him off," but despite his two losses to Comeaux's Charles Hudson, one via a fall in 3:47 and another 1-0 in the fifth-place match. Sixth was a promising result in that event, though. The two losses to Hudson were his only to Louisiana competition, against whom he had 18 wins. Both Hudson and Koenig look strong prior to their semifinals match. Hudson scored a fall in 1:57, a 13-4 major decision and a 12-5 decision. Koenig had two quick falls in 0:39 and 0:32 but had to work some in the quarterfinals for a 6-2 win over a surprisingly tough Brayden Wilson of Central. Koenig showed defending state champions do not like threats to their title with a 7-3 win over Hudson to advance to the finals.

Grant and Hughes had not met this season or last season and wrestled a very low-scoring, nail-biting finals match. Neither wrestler could score on the other in the first period. Eight seconds into the second period Koenig escaped for a 1-0 lead. The two again stymied each other for the remainder of the period. Hughes took 18 seconds to tie the match with an escape in the third period, and the match looked like it could be headed to a Sudden Victory round. But with 22 seconds remaining, Hughes attempted a double-leg shot. Koenig sprawled and as Hughes stood back up, Koenig slipped behind him. When Hughes tried to turn into Koenig, the Blue Jay snatched a single-leg, lifted it up and, put his head behind Hughes' shoulder and forced him down to the mat for a takedown with 12 seconds remaining. Hughes escape with three seconds remaining, but it was too late to score again. Koenig won his second consecutive title 3-2.

Hudson advanced to the consolation finals via an 8-7 match with Roux. Wilson had to win three matches to advance to meet Hudson, the last a 5-2 win over Marable, against whom he had split four matches during the season. Marable face Roux again in the match for fifth-place, and in another close one, the Dutchtown senior won 4-2.

Early Championship Rounds