Fini

Daniel Croy dominated his third Division I finals match against sophomore Peyton Ward of St. Paul's.  The Crusader senior has won three consecutive Division I titles and had two seasons in which he was undefeated in Louisiana.

Place	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Podium
Name	Daniel Croy	Peyton Ward	Caruso Signorelli	Jacob Yawn	Peter Kelly	Cameron Richards
School	Brother Martin	St. Paul's	Holy Cross	C. E. Byrd	Catholic	Covington
Seed	1	3	5	2	4	Not Seeded
Class	Senior	Sophomore	Junior	Sophomore	Sophomore	Senior
Final Record*	23-2	24-7	19-6	44-11	24-11	24-14

*    Louisiana opponents only, not including any types of forfeits, byes or junior varsity events.

Weight Class Synopsis

Brother Martin's Daniel Croy was undefeated in his sophomore and junior seasons, and, it goes without saying, he won Division I state championships.  Croy had a great senior year also, and he won a third Division I state title, a rare thing to do as only fellow Crusader's Paul Klein and Steven Shields have done that in the "modern era."  His season was marred by two losses to a pesky Division III wrestler from Basile, Gavin Christ.  But Croy is not alone, as Christ marred the record of everyone he faced in the 2018-19 and 2017-18 seasons.

As far as everyone else was concerned, Croy dominated the field.  In his 23 wins, aside from his twelve pins, he only had two matches in which he did not win by at least seven points.  The first was a 6-2 over Rummel's Chris Montalbano, and the other was a 6-0 win over St. Paul's Peyton Ward, who he had previously defeated by a 15-0 technical fall and whom he would meet in the finals.

Of the top six seeds, he had beaten #3 Ward and #5 Caruso Signorelli of Holy Cross 14-3 MD.  On his side of the bracket he had not tangled with Catholic's #4 Peter Kelly, but Signorelli prevented that match from happening.  As for #2 Jacob Yawn of Byrd and # 6 Austin Martina of Dutchtown, they would have to go through each other and #3 Ward to face Croy.  In Division I, 132 lbs. was the weight class to avoid at all costs.  Yawn was seeded second because he had defeated Ward.  Ward had beaten Eccles and Kelly, and Kelly beat Signorelli early in the year, accounting for the 3rd, 4th and 5th seeding spots.

After a first-round bye Croy recorded a second-round fall in 0:39 and a quarterfinals fall in 2:17.  Fifth-seeded Signorelli, having defeated #4 Kelly 6-1, gave Croy a match in the semifinals, but Croy prevailed 9-2.

Ward also received a first-round bye and recorded a second-round pin in 1:45.  He pinned Sulphur's Mikey Marshall (who defeated #6 Austin Martina of Dutchtown) via a fall in 3:49 in the quarterfinals.  In the semifinals, Ward upset the second-seeded Yawn with a fall in 3:12.  No doubt Croy remembered that in a span of only eight days, the St. Paul's sophomore went from allowing Croy to score 15 points to just six points. 

Early Championship Rounds

R1: Braedon Csaszar (ACA) defeated Jacob Cardwell (StA) 9-6 (Thinking of Miss Raven Guidry, the editor could not resist publishing the second photograph of Mr. Csaszar)

R1: Calvin Singer (GK) defeated Tanner Broussard (BRB) 8-7

R1: Jackson Knapper (FNT) pinned Stephen Gourges (CHL) in 4:18

R1: Mikey Marshall (SUL) defeated Cameron Richards (COV) 12-6

R2: (5) Caruso Signorelli (HC) pinned Calvin Singer (GK) in 0:30

R2: (4) Peter Kelly (CAT) pinned Evan Kelley (CEN) in 1:14

Mikey Marshall (SUL) pinned (6) Austin Martina (DUT) in 3:42

R2: (2) Jacob Yawn (BYR) pinned Gust Kritsonis (BR) in 0:36

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Quarterfinals

(1) Daniel Croy (BM) pinned Devin Inguagiato (DST) in 0:39

(5) Caruso Signorelli (HC) defeated (4) Peter Kelly (CAT) 5-1

(3) Peyton Ward (StP) pinned Mikey Marshall (SUL) in 3:49

(2) Jacob Yawn (BYR) defeated (7) Andrew Stevens (JES) 14-1 MD

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Semifinals

(1) Daniel Croy (BM) defeated (5) Caruso Signorelli (HC) 9-2

(3) Peyton Ward (StP) pinned (2) Jacob Yawn (BYR) in 3:12

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Consolation Rounds

C2: Sheriff Hartly (ZAC) defeated Jacob Cardwell (StA) 6-3; C2: Evan Kelley (CEN) pinned Stephen Gourges (CHL) in 2:35

C3: Cameron Richards (COV) pinned Evan Kelley (CEN) in 2:24

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Championship Consolation Rounds

(3) Caruso Signorelli (HC) defeated (2) Jacob Yawn (BYR) 4-0 to place 3rd

(4) Peter Kelly (CAT) defeated Cameron Richards (COV) 12-9 to place 5th

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Finals

(1) Daniel Croy of Brother Martin defeated (3) Peyton Ward of St. Paul's via a 14-5 Major Decision

The two finalists sparred for the first minute-and-a-half before Croy scored the first points of the match when Ward tried a "shuck and spin" which Croy sat through, catching Ward's head and spinning behind him.  Ten seconds later Ward tried a Granby roll which for a second put Croy on his back, but Ward was only able to manage an escape.  With only eight seconds remaining Croy scored another takedown via a single-to double-leg shot which pushed Ward out-of-bounds but Croy was savvy enough to make sure both of his feet were within the circle.  Croy brought a 4-1 lead into the second period.  Ward won the toss and deferred, and Croy started on the bottom.  He escaped from Ward in 25 seconds when Ward rode a crab-ride much too high and Croy kind-of just let gravity pull Ward off of him.   Just over 10 seconds later Croy scored another takedown with another single-to-double takedown.  With about 45 seconds remaining Ward stood-up and turned around with an arm across Croy's stomach, knocking Croy off balance and scoring a reversal.  Again, Ward momentarily put Croy on his back, but had to settle for just the two reversal points.  Croy negated Ward's reversal by 'hipping over' Ward as Ward tried to take Croy down to the mat after the Crusader stood up on him.  Facing a 9-3 deficit entering the final round, Ward chose to start on the bottom.    Before 10 seconds had elapsed Ward reversed Croy by pulling Croy's head down scooting his hips out from under Croy and "hipping over" Croy for two more points.  Shortly afterward Croy escaped from behind when Ward over-rode another crab-ride.  Croy took him down again with a duck-under from his knees.  After a stalemate Croy locked-up Ward's head and shoulder and pulled Ward backwards by jumping over his back, securing Ward with his legs and scoring two nearfall points.  When the final whistle blew Croy had a 14-5 major decision and his third Division I title.

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