Last weekend, Blackman wrestlers loaded up and headed to Brentwood for the annual G.P. West Invitational. The tournament is the final regular season individual tournament on the Blaze schedule.
This year, the field was not quite as tough as years past. Noticeably absent were Cleveland, the full McCallie squad and Union County, Kentucky. However, Arlington, Summit and Soddy Daisy were on hand and those teams will give you all you want.
The Brentwood tournament is always busy and this year, the event was held on seven mats split into two gyms. This made keeping up with everyone especially challenging. In addition, teams were allowed to enter more than the traditional 14 wrestlers. This gave Blackman the opportunity to get a few more guys some much needed experience but keeping up with who is winning and losing is almost impossible!
For the second year in a row Blackman ended up in 4th place out of about 20 teams. The Blaze bested last year’s team score by 10 points finishing up with 183.5 points (about 20 points behind 3rd place Summit). Certainly this was not a bad showing but the team definitely left some points on mat.
Blackman placed 5 guys into the semi-finals matches but senior Matthew Sells was the only one to make it to the finals. Sells captured the 160 pound Championship with his win over Summit’s Kobey Desselle.
Blackman ended up with seven medalists including the one champion in Sells. All in all, a good tournament as always .
Medal Match Results:
1st Place Match
Matthew Sells (Blackman) 26-0 won by fall over Kobey Desselle (Summitt) 26-8 (Fall 1:20)
3rd Place Match
Daniel Bradford (Blackman) 25-5 won by major decision over Jacob Kilgore (Soddy Daisy) 19-7 (MD 11-2)
Jalen Brown (Blackman) 23-6 won by decision over Stanton Davis (Mccallie School) 5-2 (Dec 6-4)
Landon Fowler (Blackman) 25-3 won by fall over eli haynes (Stewart`s Creek) 5-2 (Fall 3:32)
Branson Boone (Oakland) 22-7 won by decision over Dylan Heath (Blackman) 20-5 (Dec 12-6)
Jamil Hughes (Blackman) 16-5 won by fall over Steven Losoya (Overton) 15-8 (Fall 3:01)
5th Place Match
Brooks Sacharczyk (Blackman) 23-6 won by decision over isaac Asselih (Brentwood High School) 22-9 (Dec 7-5)
Pictures from GP West can be found HERE
Blackman will be in action this Thursday night at Blackman taking on Stewarts Creek, Tullahoma and Riverdale.