It was no surprise that Southside’s Landen Reaux and Sam Houston’s Tyson Roach made their second consecutive finals appearances, using three falls and two technical falls to get there (Reaux also received a forfeit in the semifinals).  What was surprising was the finals match.  Having lost to Roach in December at 113 lbs., at 106 lbs. Reaux used a reversal with 13 seconds remaining to win a 9-8 LACL championship, his second.   In these finals, it was not unexpected that Roach took a four-point lead after 50 seconds.  The surprise came after that as Reaux scored nine unanswered first period points to lead 9-4 after two minutes.  In the second period he outscored Roach 7-5.  For all we know Reaux may have been resting after the first-period nine-point flurry – much like an aging Jimmy Connors used to do when, after he took a 2-1 set lead, he would happily lose the fourth set on purpose to rest-up for the fifth and deciding set.  If so, the strategy worked as Reaux, starting on the bottom, scored five points in the first minute of the third period and then put Roach on his back again until the match ended.  Reaux won via a 6:00 24-9 technical fall.

Do not bet heavily against not seeing these two in the Division I state finals.

Teurlings Catholic’s freshman Brennan Romero (#3) placed third by defeating Matthew Gallman (#5) of Parkway in 3:35.  Kaiden Triche (#3) of Rummel defeated unseeded Blake Andre of Shaw in 3:30 to place fifth.

TC’s Ashton Sonnier has only lost to Brother Martin’s Richie Clementi all season, and he technically earned this title.  Literally, he technically earned it with scores of 15-0, 15-0, 15-0 and 16-0.  In four matches he shut-out his opponents in under 5:00 each.  The only surprise in the winners’ bracket was Rummel’s sixth-seeded Stephen Kimball’s 10-7 semifinals win over Rayne’s #2 seed Gaven Guidry. 

Guidry made it to the consolation finals but was upset by Parkway’s fourth seed Christopher Strong.  Southside’s Kael Reaux (#5), rumored to be Landon Reaux’s cousin, placed fifth over defending Division III state champion Luke Caballero (#3) of St. Louis.

On November 22^nd someone wrote that Dutchtown’s Cole Mire would get his share of tournament wins this season.  That was after placing second at the Griffin Open.  Four days later he won his first title at the Spartan Invitational.  Two-and-a-half weeks later he did so again at the Bronco Open.  After a second loss to Brother Martin’s Jacob Elsensohn, and one to a Rockwall Heath, Texas wrestler, Mire had to settle for fourth at the LACL, but Brother Martin and Rockwall Heath were not at the Ken Cole.  There were, however, 26 other kids vying for the championship.  Mire breezed to the finals via falls in 0:48, 3:24 and a 15-0 TF.  On the bottom half of the bracket, TC’s Brennan Boyer also easily advanced to the championship match with falls in 2:41, 2:42 and a 15-0 TF.  Mire controlled the finals though, leading 3-0 entering the third round, in which Boyer scored an escape but was taken down a half-minute later.  The final points went to Boyer via a reversal with 10 second remaining, and Mire prevailed 5-3.

Being true to his seeding, Sam Houston’s Pollex Coleman defeated #6 Mason David of Zachary in 1:22 to place third.  Fifth seed Brayden Lobrano of Parkway defeated non-scorer Aaron LeMaire of TC 9-4 to place fifth.

Shaw’s Glenn Price defeated Southside’s Wiley Boudreaux in their second finals meeting in eight days.  Price advanced to the finals with two 16-0 technical falls and a pin in 3:09.  Boudreaux used only one technical fall (15-0), a 10-2 major decision and a fall in 2:43 to setup a rematch of the LACL finals.  Price, however, did not wait for the third period in this match as he scored a fall in 3:22.

Caleb Lavine (#3) placed third with a fall in 3:23 over #6 Coen Begnaud of TC.  Andre Johnson of Basile, the fourth seed, placed fifth with a 5-1 decision over #7 Cole Curry of Rummel.

That top-seeded Ethan Boudreaux of TC won the title surprised, well, nobody.  He cruised into the finals with falls of 0:57, 2:29 and a 19-5 major decision.  What was surprising was the reemergence of Dutchtown freshman Cole Gros.  Gros started the season in outstanding form by winning the Warrior and Lakeshore Opens and placing second to East Ascension’s Lucas Maneckshaw at the Spartan Invitational.  That loss, via a fall, two subsequent losses via falls to Brother Martin’s Mason Elsensohn and a tough 13-12 loss to St. Amant’s Logan Anderson seemed to show, for a young wrestler of his caliber, that he was in a bit of a tailspin.  At the LACL, in which he was seeded fifth, a two-point loss to an unseeded wrestler in the Round of 32 and, after three wins, a 16-11 loss to the eighth seed, could not have helped his confidence.  But something did at the Ken Cole.  After falls in 1:37 and 3:41, he defeated second-seeded Carter Burgess of Rummel 14-10 in the quarterfinals.  He continued his “seed-busting” with a 10-5 semifinal win over the third seed, Christopher Bacot of Parkway.  The streak ended against the seasoned defending Division II state champion Boudreaux via a 16-3 major decision, but Gros may have raised his Division I state championships seeding considerably with his performance.

Burgess rebounded to place third with a 13-4 MD over Ethan White of Zachary and Bacot placed fifth via a forfeit from St. Amant’s Logan Anderson.

Basile’s Luc Johnson was the second LACL runner-up to claim the Ken Cole title (Ashton Sonnier at 113 lbs. was the other one).  The top-seeded Bearcat pinned his first two opponents in 1:05 and 1:02 and scored a 14-2 MD in the semifinals over Rummel’s #4 Cameron Gandolfi.  The final was expected to be a rematch of a LACL quarterfinals match with Parkway’s David Viers.  Johnson won that match 6-4 in a Sudden Victory period.  Viers, however, was upset by TC’s #3 Brandt Babineaux 3-1.  Babineaux’s other three matches were won by falls in 2:30, 0:54 and 5:08.  The Rebel freshman gave the Basile senior all he wanted, only allowing a takedown and a reversal, but Johnson would not let Babineaux score at all, prevailing 4-0.

Viers did not return to competition after the Babineaux match due to a minor injury (he later won the NW LA Regionals).  Shaw’s #7 took advantage of his consolation semifinals forfeit to defeat Division II rival Gandolfi in 2:01.  Via the forfeit by Viers, Lafayette’s Chase Bernard placed fifth.

Everything looked good in this weight class until the semifinals.  Then nothing went according to form.   Fourth-seeded Sean King of John Curtis defeated #1 Hudson Sharon of TC 14-10, and #3 Avery Porche of host school Comeaux defeated #2 Jonathan Weissbach of Parkway 9-3.  Porche’s other wins were a fall in 2:48 and a 17-3 TF.  King used a fall in 5:32 and gutted out a 7-5 SV win over #5 Voltaire Sanders of Zachary.  The finals were close but Porche prevailed 6-2.

Sanders came back to improve his state seeding potential to take third with a 11-6 win over Sharon.  Weissbach took 5^th via an 8-5 win over #7 Seth Choate of Acadiana.

Shaw’s Todd Ritter was upset in the LACL in the first round as a #1 seed.  He did come back strong to place third, though.  No such surprises awaited him as the top seed at Comeaux.  It was not easy, though, after his second-round match win in 0:37.  His next two matches were 6-4 and 4-1 decisions.  Hannan’s Preston Gautier, seeded third, won his first two matches in 2:36 and 3:38.  He then scored another fall in 5:52 over #2 Foster Shank of Dutchtown.  The expected #1 seeds in Divisions II and III put on a show, just at different times.  Ritter’s show was in the first five minutes when he led 10-2.  In the last period, though, Gautier escaped, scored a penalty point and followed that with a takedown and three nearfall points, coming within a point 10-9.  Ritter managed a reversal and a subsequent penalty point was not enough for Gautier.  Time ran out and Ritter had a 12-10 victory.

Shank advanced to the consolation finals but finished fourth after a 6-4 loss to #6 Jensen Bergeron of Lafayette.  Fifth seed Owen de Boisbanc of TC placed fifth when Miles Edwards of Mandeville was disqualified.  The reason for the disqualification is unknown, and speculation is discouraged.  De Boisbanc was leading 11-3 at the time.

Hannan won a championship when #1 Grayson Pennison defeated #2 Charlie Yocum of Haughton 11-3 MD.  Pennison advanced to the final match with pins in 1:11 and 3:21 and a 14-7 decision.  Yocum did it with three falls of 3:12, 1:54 and 2:59.  Interestingly, the semifinals were Division III vs. Division III and Division II vs. Division II.  Pennison’s fall came over North Vermillion’s #5 Zack Narcisse while Yocum’s semifinals fall in 2:59 came over #3 Brayden Hebert of TC.

Neither of the wrestlers who lost the semifinals matches advanced to the consolation finals.  They were relegated to the fifth-place match and Division III prevailed as Narcisse scored a fall over Hebert in 1:23.  The match for third pitted Catholic’s unseeded Sam Boulet against unseeded Parker Fontenot of Basile.  Boulet took third with a 7-1 decision.

Dutchtown’s Tyler Addison was a surprise LACL finalist who came from the sixth-seed spot.  That earned the Griffin a top-seed at the Ken Cole and he took advantage with wins in 0:44, 1:19 and 10-2 MD to reach the final.  He was joined by Shaw’s third-seeded Zalen Wilson, who had a tough 6-4 SV win in the second round over Joshua Eames of John Curtis, followed by a quarterfinal fall in 2:22.  A semifinal fall in 5:36 over #7 TyQuan Scott of Rayne followed.  Scott reached the semifinals via a 1:00 fall over #2 Charles Travasos of TC.  In the finals it was Wilson who stayed “on fire,” downing Addison via a 13-5 major decision. 

Travasos rebounded to take third with a 6-4 win over #8 Graham Montet of St. Louis.  Scott placed fifth via a 13-10 decision over Parkway’s #4 Brendon Earnest.

Jude Monaco of Shaw was unfortunate that Rockwall Heath’s best wrestler at the LACL was seeded 8^th, but the Eagle got over his 7-5 quarterfinal loss to defeat a couple of highly regarded Division I opponents in Jesuit’s Winn McConnel (12-2 MD) and Catholic’s Thomas Domange (5-1) to place third.  At this event he was fortunate to get to meet two of his likely Division II opponents for the first time.  He advanced to the semifinals with a 3:26 fall over one and, in the final (after a 4:22 semifinal win) he defeated TC’s Reid Bourgeois 7-2.  Bourgeois made the championship match after receiving two byes, wining a 3-2 match over a very tough Jason O’Dell of Zachary, and then a semifinal fall over Division II opponent Garrett Louviere of Rayne, whom he defeated in the 2021 Division II 182 lbs. final.

O’Dell, seeded 7^th, worked his way back with two falls in under a minute, a forfeit and another sub-minute fall over fifth-seeded (but not scoring) Rayne junior Kayden Carrier.  Carrier also advanced to the consolation finals via a forfeit, although he won two matches to get there, so there was no match to determine who placed fifth and sixth.

Sulphur defending Division I state champion and top seed Corey Hyatt wrestled three matches to make the Ken Cole finals.  It took him less than a round to do so - as in less than one round for all three matches.  He scored falls in 0:17, 1:24 and 0:17.  That is a combined time of 1:55.  No doubt he was saving energy for the finals match as he did go “the full six” there.  That was against TC’s Eric Levert, the second seed.   Levert took longer to record his three falls to reach the finals – 1:02, 5:22 and 3:15.  The 5:22 match was fortuitous as it was against Shaw’s Nigel Whitehead and should seal the top seed for Levert at the Division II state championships.  Levert also beat a very solid James Baldwin of Division III’s Dunham.  But that was not enough to get by Hyatt, who was undefeated last season and has not come close to losing this season.  Hyatt won via a 15-3 MD.

Baldwin, seeded sixth, beat Zachary’s Cameron Walker in the quarterfinals after Walker had relegated third-seeded Hayden Harms of Dutchtown into the consolation bracket.  Baldwin apparently did not want anyone else to do his job for him, so he defeated Harms in the consolation semifinals 6-5 UTB.  Walker got another shot at Baldwin in the consolation finals, but the Dunham junior prevailed 6-5.  Harms took an important fifth-place match over Jesuit’s #4 Jackson Calderero in 2:59.

The seeding was correct in this weight class even though TC’s defending Division II state champion Joel Lanclos had six losses and Sulphur’s Blayden Laidlaw only had one.  Laidlaw’s loss was to Lanclos in a 7-5 SV Jacob McMillan final.  The two were determined to make these finals.  Lanclos did so with pins in 1:06, 2:46 and via an 11-3 MD.  Laidlaw did it in 3:11, 1:52 and 1:25.  Laidlaw avenged the earlier loss in an 8-4 decision.  Lanclos’ top spot at the Division II state championships is safe and Laidlaw just solidified his hold on the #3 spot in Division I.

Mesloh, as predicted, took third place with a fall in 2:54 over Chad Gooden of Shaw.  Fifth-seeded Garrett Billeaud of North Vermillion took fifth via a forfeit by Northside’s John Simmons, III.

These finals were a foregone conclusion, and the winner would be guaranteed the top seed at the state championships.  Lanosga pinned all three of his opponents to make the finals.  Freeman pinned two and defeated the other 15-2 MD.  The same thing happened at the LACL, at which Freeman recorded two falls and a decision and Lanosga three falls to reach the finals.  In the LACL, however, Lanosga showed an aggression not seen in a lot of 285 lbs. matches that last six minutes.  He scored often in an 11-5 win.  This match, however, was more typical.  There were no takedowns, reversals or nearfall points.  Freeman, in the second period, and Lanosga in the third, scored escape points in regulation.  Freeman, however, took 45 seconds to score his escape while Lanosga took only seven seconds to do the same in the third period.  They both scored escape points just after 20 seconds had elapsed in the first two tiebreaker rounds.  As Freeman scored the first points in the match he was afforded the choice in the UTB round.  Naturally, he chose the bottom.  Advantage Freeman?  Suddenly what must have been an excruciating match to watch for eight minutes became exciting again.  And it became more exciting as Lanosga thwarted Freeman’s attempts to escape for a third time.  Freeman fell short of that goal and Lanosga won the match 2-2 UTB.

Third and fourth places went as seeded, barely, as Rayne’s #3 Tre`Von Williams defeated #4 Anphrony Guillory of Basile 3-2.  Unseeded John Simmons, Jr. of Northside placed fifth with a 4-3 TB-1 win over Shaw’s Raymond Howard.