Troy Christian senior B.J. Toal flashed a big smile of relief Sunday afternoon at Trent Arena.

Part of the relief came from holding off returning state runner-up Armani Robinson of Greeneview 3-2 for the 182-pound Division III district title. The rest of the relief came knowing that his win had clinched the team title in a battle to the wire against Dayton Christian.

“It is a little bit of both,” Toal said after recording the winning takedown with 1:38 left in the third period of his title match. “This puts me on the good side of the bracket at state and it is really nice knowing we captured the district title again.”

The Eagles senior knew both would be a battle.

Toal’s takedown gave him a 3-1 lead, but Robinson escaped with 38 ticks left to cut it to one.

“I knew we both would grind it out and it would come down to the third period,” Toal said. “Armani is a good wrestler.”

Dayton Christian got titles from Hunter Bray (106), Christian Clary (113) and Jacob Danishek (145) to cut Troy Christian’s lead in the team race to 127.5-127. But the Eagles got titles from Jordan Marshall (152) and Toal to clinch with 135.5.

“Those last two matches were crucial,” Troy Christian coach Ty Morgan said. “We had two seniors going, so we had a lot of confidence; they knew what they had to do. We were concerned with Dayton Christian coming in, we knew they had a good team; all of our guys had to perform well and all of them stepped up for us.”

The Warriors also got a third-place finish from Alex Becker (132) and a second-place finish at 285 from Nathan Jackson to advance five.

“Two years ago, we weren’t even on the board and we had two qualifiers,” Dayton Christian coach Ted Bray said of his first year in charge of the program. “We have made a lot of progress in two years and I think we will keep getting better.”

Covington finished third with 110.5 points while Carlisle was fourth with 93 behind titles from Jason (132) and Jimmy (160) Sandlin and Marcus Smith (195).

“Last year I got pinned in the finals here,” Jason Sandlin said after claiming a 10-2 win over Troy Christian’s Chase Mayabb in the finals. “Winning district is pretty good; it helps get my confidence going heading into the state meet.”

Aaron Honious claimed the 285 title for Brookville with a wild 13-11 decision over Jackson as 17 local wrestlers advanced to the state tournament.

The 76th state tournament begins Thursday and runs through Saturday at the Schottenstein Center on the campus of The Ohio State University.