Fini

St. Paul junior Peyton Ward capped of a 41-2 season with a Division I championship, breaking the 1-1 seasonal tie he was in with Brother Martin's "by no means a second-stringer anymore" Riley Horvath.

Photo
Place	1	2	3	4	5	6
Name	Peyton Ward	Riley Horvath	Jacob Chittom	Brad Mahoney	Parker Anderson	Gabriel Reed
School	St. Paul	Brother Martin	Parkway	East Ascension	Jesuit	Sam Houston
Seed	1	3	5	2	6	8
Final Record	43-2	37-4	42-8	68-6	38-8	35-14
Grade	Junior	Senior	Senior	Junior	Junior	Junior

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Synopsis

St. Paul junior Peyton Ward was 1-1 against Brother Martin's Riley Horvath, but they would get a chance to break that tie in the finals.  Ward's only other loss was to North Desoto's Richard Mack, III, who defeated Ward 4-3 in a Louisiana Classic finals in which many people thought Ward won with a round-ending double-leg takedown.  Yet his season was stellar.  He won the Dale Ketelsen Memorial, the South Walton Border Wars, the Prep Slam XII in Atlanta and the St. Tammany Parish Championships, placed second in the Louisiana Classic and third in the Trey Culotta.  To reach his second consecutive finals match, Ward pinned his first two opponents in 0:44 and 1:10.  He scored an 11-3 Major Decision over Sam Houston's Gabriel Reed in the quarterfinals and pinned fifth-seeded Jacob Chittom of Parkway in 2:17.

Brother Martin's Riley Horvath worked as hard as anyone the editor has seen to earn his spot in the Crusaders' starting line-up, and he did them proud.  He won the Mandeville Open, the Holy Innocents Prep Slam XII and the Catholic League District Championships.  He placed second in the Gulf Coast Clash (to an Alabama opponent) and second in the Trey Culotta Invitational (losing to a wrestler from Georgia).  He placed third in the Black Horse and fourth in the Prep Slam (losing to an out-of-state wrestler) and in the Louisiana Classic (losing to East Ascension's Brad Mahoney).  His other loss was to Ward in a dual meet, and beat him in a tournament, but Ward placed higher at the Louisiana Classic and beat Mahoney, which put Ward first and Mahoney in the second spot.  To get to the finals Horvath pinned his first two opponents in 1:01 and 1:00, had a tough 4-2 quarterfinals win over Jesuit's Parker Anderson and then a tougher time in his semifinals rematch with Mahoney, which Horvath won 9-7 in a Sudden Victory round.

[Take note of Horvath smiling on the podium.  Sure, he lost the finals match, but his team won another state championship and his getting to the finals was one major reason why.]

Early Rounds

R2: Brad Mahoney (EA) pinned Jake Romig (HC) in 3:22

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Quarterfinals

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Semifinals

Peyton Ward (StP) pinned Jacob Chittom (PKY) in 2:17

Riley Horvath (BM) defeated Brad Mahoney (EA) 9-7 SV

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Early Consolation Rounds

Consolation Finals

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Finals

(1) Peyton Ward of St. Paul's defeated (3) Riley Horvath of Brother Martin 5-1

Video

Apathy and avarice on the part of two entities have prevented completing a comprehensive pictorial article on the 2020 Louisiana state wrestling championships.

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