Division I 126 Lbs.

Fini

Croy wins a second title for the Crusaders and himself

LHSAA State Wrestling Tournament

Division I, 126 Pounds

May 30th, 2018 | Written by: Editor

Weight Class Synopsis

Early Championship Rounds

3rd and 5th

Daniel Croy with his second Division I wall decoration

PODIUM PHOTO

Place	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Name	Daniel Croy	Peyton Bass	Jacob Spahn	Brandon Stein	Martin Helouin	Demetri Teddie
School	Brother Martin	Airline	Holy Cross	St. Paul's	Catholic	C. E. Byrd
Seed	1	3	5	2	8	Unseeded
Class	Junior	Junior	Senior	Junior	Sophomore	Sophomore

Weight Class Synopsis

Defending Division I state champion Daniel Croy owned the 126 lbs. weight class in Louisiana. His closest match against a Louisiana opponent was a 7-3 win over Holy Cross senior Jacob Spahn on December 15th. Croy had defeated second-seeded Brandon Stein of St. Paul's 10-1 in the Trey Culotta finals and scored a fall in 1:02 over third-seeded Payton Bass of Airline. Croy finished the season 30-0 against Louisiana competition, and 37-1 overall. His only loss was in the finals of the Prep Slam, and that was a close 7-5 match. His closest match in Louisiana was to an out-of-state wrestler. In the Louisiana Classic finals, he defeated South Walton's Ethan Pickren in a highly contested 3-2 match. (Pickren went on to place third in the Florida Division 1 class.) In his half of the Division I bracket, Croy scored a fall in 1:38 and defeated eighth-seeded Martin Helouin of Catholic in 3:13. In the semifinals he would face fifth-seeded Spahn who defeated fourth-seeded Hunter Broussard of Comeaux 5-1. Croy dominated Spahn in the semifinals with a fall in 1:09.

Sophomore Peyton Bass was 34-4 against Louisiana competition. He lost to Brother Martin's Lane Boudreaux and Rummel's Chris Montalbano each 10-5, Rayne's Cooper Simon 7-1, and his last loss was to second-seeded Brandon Stein of St. Paul's, 7-2. After byes in the first and second rounds, Bass' first match was a quarterfinals battle with talented John Ehret sophomore Gage Sonnier. He had to work for a 5-0 win that gave him a rematch against Stein. In an active match, the two were tied 8-8 after regulation ended, and it was Bass who scored a takedown in the Sudden Victory period to advance to the finals.

Bass initially tried to out-muscle Croy, but the Crusader junior was much too wily to allow that. A bear-hug/lateral attempt failed and Croy countered for the only takedown of the match. On bottom, Bass tried a Granby roll, but Croy stepped over it straight into a half-nelson, and then pretty much barb-wired Bass's head for a fall in 1:11. With the jubilation Bass exhibited after his semifinals win over Stein, advancing to the finals, even against Croy, probably did little to mar a great tournament for the Viking wrestler.

Croy and Crusader teammate Mack Brown (285 lbs.) were the only Division I champions who pinned all of their opponents. Croy averaged 1:52 per match and Brown averaged 2:45 (each had five matches.)

The Holy Cross senior Spahn made the consolation semifinals and finals very exciting in opposite ways. He had a point-fest in a 14-2 major decision over Byrd's Demetri Teddie, and followed that with a gut-wrenching 8-6 win in Sudden Victory over Stein. Stein had defeated Helouin via a fall in 2:49, but Helouin came back to place fifth with a 10-6 decision over Teddie.

Early Championship Rounds