WE ARE ADAPTIVE WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA

Place	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Podium
Name	Luc Johnson	Liam O'Connor	Preston Curtis	Lane Turnley	Tristan Wagner	Nolan McMichael
School	Basile	De la Salle	John Curtis	Kaplan	St. Michael	St. Louis
Seed	1	2	3	6	5	4
Record	33-1	44-7	24-9	22-14	24-17	20-12
Class	12	12	11	10	12	11

Basile senior Luc Johnson was the best wrestler at 152 lbs. in the state.  Quite often a Division III wrestler of Johnson's caliber might move up a weight class.  Johnson, however, possibly to help eliminate De la Salle from championship or runner-up contention dropped to 145 lbs.  He was pretty sure to find De la Salle senior Liam O'Connor there.  Without Johnson in that weight class, O'Connor would have been a heavy favorite to win a fourth title for the Cavaliers.

Defending Division III state champion Luc Johnson lost one match all season.  That was an 8-7 loss to Teurlings Catholic's soon-to-be state champion Hudson Sharon.  Johnson defeated Sharon in an earlier dual meet and later in the Ken Cole finals.  So he won everything else: the Trey Culotta over Brother Martin's Tai Leblanc, the Jimmy Vidrine over soon to be two-time Division III state champion Preston Gautier of Hannan, the Louisiana Classic over Covington's Anthony Hernandez and the Ken Cole.  He defeated Brother Martin's Nick Cusimano when he was still a darn good member of the Crusaders' team.  He beat the Division III state champion Gautier, and the top-seed at 152 lbs. at the state championships Jensen Bergeron of Lafayette (D1 3rd).  Nobody want Johnson in their weight Class.

Liam O'Connor, a senior at De la Salle, placed fourth in 2021 and second in 2022.  This season he was 41-6 entering the state championships.  One loss was to Brother Martin's Kent Burandt (D1 1st).  Two were to Teurlings Catholic's Brandt Babineaux (D2 2nd), one was to North Desoto's Dalton Compton (D2 1st).  Another was to a D1 state placer and a D1 wrestler who did not compete at the state championships.  O'Connor won the Warrior Open, the Lakeshore Open, the Bulldog Brawl, the Trygg Memorial and the Jimmy Vidrine Division III.  He placed second at the Titan Invitational, 4th at the Louisiana Classic and fifth at the the Trey Culotta.  He split matches with Chalmette's Leeland Webb (D1 5th) and defeated Catholic's Elijah Gilmore (D1 2nd) and Covington's Anthony Hernandez (D1 4th).

Quarterfinals

(5) Tristan Wagner (StM) defeated (4) Nolan McMichael (StL) 6-2

(3) Preston Curtis (JC) defeated (6) Lane Turnley (KAP) 8-5

(2) Liam O'Connor (DLS) pinned (7) Ian Barns (ROS) in 3:22

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Semifinals

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Consolation Rounds

C2: (7) Ian Barns (ROS) pinned Ethan Lentz (SHW) in 3:36

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Championship Consolation Rounds

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Finals

(1) Luc Johnson of Basile defeated (2) Liam O'Connor of De la Salle 12-2 MD Johnson started off the match with a 5-0 first-period lead.  O'Connor won the second period 2-1, In the third period Johnson ruled, scoring six points and not allowing O'Connor to score anything.  Johnson had his second Division III title with a 12-2 Major Decision.

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