WE ARE ADAPTIVE WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA

Place	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Podium
Name	Landon Reaux	Watts Goodson	Landon Smith	Jesse Maneckshaw	Kye Karcher	Jose Rincon
School	Southside	Catholic	Holy Cross	East Ascension	Walker	Jesuit
Seed	1	2	6	5	4	3
Record	45-4	37-3	31-5	33-11	38-16	20-7
Class	12	12	10	11	10	10

Weight Class Synopsis

There are too many story lines in this weight class to highlight them all.  Some wrestlers went down to 120 lbs. to avoid Airline's Ernie Perry, III.  Some moved out of it because of the wrestlers who were in the weight class for that reason or because it was where they should be, were just too damned good.  In the end it came down to a defending state champion vs. a defending state champion, once removed.  (The top-seeded Reaux missed weight on the Friday of the 2022 state championships.)  Both suffered losses to a Division II wrestler and a Division I wrestler who could not compete in this event.  One of them, though, had, and won, a seasonal series' with the wrestlers who beat him.  One did not.  That, and not the locking hands call nor the rules-mandated starting position, in this writer's explanation of the outcome, made the difference.

Defending 2022 Division I state champion Watts Goodson had an amazing season.  He won the Brusly 8, the Gulf Coast Clash, the Hoover Invitational and the Greater Baton Rouge Championships.  His only blemishes were a 1-0 loss to Brother Martin's Jacob Elsensohn on December 7th, and he succumbed to a last second takedown to lose 9-8 to Sam Houston's Tyson Roach. 

Defending 2021 Division I state champion Landon Reaux of Southside also lost to Elsensohn and Roach during the 2022-23 season.  But the day after losing to Elsensohn at the Trey Culotta he whipped the young Crusader, mostly in the third period, in the finals.  He then defeated him soundly in the Louisiana Classic semifinals, albeit that was a very unfortunate match as Elsensohn was sidelined for the rest of the season after a third period injury.  As for Roach, Reaux knew him very well.  Reaux defeated him once in the 2020-21 season, twice in three matches in the 2021-22 season and four of seven matches this season.  Roach thumped Reaux 12-2 MD in their last match in the Ken Cole finals.  If ever a January loss was better than a February one, that was it.

Let us not forget that there were others in this weight class.  Holy Cross sophomore Landon Smith only lost to Harris, Walker's Kye Karcher, Elsensohn and Jesuit's Jose Rincon.  East Ascension's Jesse Maneckshaw won two tournaments, placed second, third (tice), fourth and fifth in other events.  Karcher only won one tournament but placed in the top-six in eight others.  Rincon won the Gulf Coast Clash and placed third at the Ken Cole.  Dutchtown's Cole Mire was in this weight class until January.  Tyson Roach of Sam Houston, the 2022 Division I state champion, was at 120 lbs. until the state championships.  Defending Division II state champion Brennan Romero was there, as was defending and now two-time D3 state champion Shane Barbarin.  Why would anyone want to be in the 2022-23 120 lbs. weight class?  Yet only one literally had his head scanned. 

Early Championship Rounds

R1: Quinn McDermott (BM) pinned Robert Sullivan (MND) in 3:26

R2: (3) Jose Rincon (JES) defeated Braden Sellers (FNT) 10-2 MD

(7) Gabriel Broussard (BR) pinned Jordan Breaux (EHR) in 1:19

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Quarterfinals

(1) Landon Reaux (SS) pinned Cole Mire (StP) in 2:51

(4) Kye Karcher (WLK) defeated (5) Jesse Maneckshaw (EA) 7-6

(2) Watts Goodson (CAT) pinned (7) Gabriel Broussard (BR) in 1:32

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Semifinals

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 Championship Consolation Rounds

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Finals

Southside's Landon Reaux won his second Division I championship by defeating defending state champion Watts Goodson 11-10   After the match Reaux said Goodson was "unbelievably strong."  It looked that way in the first period.  Goodson shot on Reaux and took him down in the first 20 second.  Reaux escaped and then Goodson took a 4-1 lead with one second remaining in the first period.  About 30 second into the second two minutes, Reaux switched Goodson in a manner that can best be described by Mike Myers on Saturday Night Live - "It was so smooth - it was like butter."  The match was now 4-3 in favor of Goodson, but the senior Bear escaped and took Reaux down giving him a four-point, 7-3 lead.  Then Reaux did it again - "Like butter."  Goodson scored an escape in the final second of the period to remain ahead 8-5.  Having scored three takedowns to Reaux's one, Goodson understandably started the third period neutral.  Four-point leads do not worry Reaux.  He took Goodson down in 10  seconds, but with 1:08 remaining Goodson reversed him, retaining his four-point lead.  Three seconds later Reaux reversed Goodson, so it was now a 10-9 match in Goodson's favor.  However, with 58 seconds remaining Goodson took a second injury timeout, and that meant Reaux was given the opportunity to choose the starting position.  He chose bottom, being down by one point, and then, with 23 seconds remaining, Goodson was called for locking hands, giving Reaux a technical point and an escape point.  Reaux was finally ahead in the match 11-10, and a stalling warning with two seconds remaining was not enough to merit points for Goodson.  By far it was the best match of the finals, and it was unfortunate that someone had to lose it.

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