Untitled 1

Fini

Division II - 113 pounds: Strozier tops first and second seeds for Panther's first 2016 title

March 25th, 2016 | Written by: Editor

Evidently Parkway's Garrett Strozier had enough of abiding by seeding over the last two years. Seeded fourth in 2014, he placed fourth. Seeded third in 2015, he placed third. The Panther senior was seeded fourth again this year, but he seemed not to care as he scored a technical fall and a fall in his first two matches, ousted the top seed, Rayne's Cooper Simon, 10-4 in the semifinals, and then defeated second-seeded Brandon Willis of Rummel 6-4 for the title.

Synopsis

Parkway's Garrett Strozier had a very good year for a fourth seed. Two of his five losses were to Gavin Christ of Basile at 120 lbs. (Christ won the Division III title at 120 lbs.), and two others were to Division I competition. His albatross was a loss to third-seeded Dane Langley of Teurlings Catholic, who lost to second-seeded Brandon Willis of Rummel, who did not defeat Langley as efficiently as top-seeded Cooper Simon of Rayne did. Strozier, though, placed second at the Evangel Eagle Open and the Jacob McMillan, won the Lone Survivor, placed fourth at the Ken Cole and won the North Louisiana Regionals. Perhaps to his benefit, though certainly to their detriment, he did not meet Simon or Willis during the regular season.

Simon started off really well at 106 lbs. by winning the Warrior Open, including a win over Central's defending state champion Austin Gouedy. Gouedy got him back in the Central Wildcat finals, though, and Simon found 113 more to his liking after that. He won the Spartan Invitational over Jacob Spahn of Holy Cross, the Jacob McMillan over Comeaux's Dylan Ames, and he placed fourth in the Trey Culotta, losing to Rummel's Blake Mateu, St. Paul's Cole Houser and Brother Martin's Luke Cotton, all of whom would later be state champions.

Willis' season was equally impressive. The Raider senior won the Jefferson Parish Invitational, placed ninth at the Trey Culotta and placed fourth at the Louisiana Classic. During the season Willis split matches with St. Paul's Cole Houser and Comeaux's Dylan Ames, and defeated Jacob Spahn of Holy Cross. His other losses were to Division I opponents in the Trey Culotta, and dual meets against Brother Martin and Jesuit, and to Gavin Becker of Division III North Vermillion (in the Louisiana Classic consolation finals).

Third-seeded Dane Langley of Teurlings Catholic lived up to his seeding, but had to beat Simon 8-7 in the consolation finals to do so.

"Best of the Rest" goes to Ryan Nguyen, a sophomore from Belle Chasse. After a tough 12-10 first round loss to Carencro's fifth-seeded Alex Slaydon, Nguyen won three consolation matches before falling to Simon in the consolation semifinals. In the match for 5th place, however, he defeated #8 Lawson Turner of St. Michael 8-4. The Warrior freshman had defeated Slaydon in the third round of consolations.

Placers

Place	Name	School	Seed	Year
1st	Garrett Strozier	Parkway	4	12
2nd	Brandon Willis	Rummel	2	12
3rd	Dane Langley	Teurlings Catholic	3	12
4th	Cooper Simon	Rayne	1	10
5th	Ryan Nguyen	Shaw	>8	10
6th	Lawson Turner	St. Michael	8	9