Welcome back Blackman fans!!! A ton of stuff has happened since the last update here at BlackmanWrestling.com.
After placing 7th at the Bradley tournament, our team took some down time to enjoy the Christmas holidays, spend some time with family and mentally gear up for the push to region and state. It was very good time off!!! Practice resumed a couple of days after Christmas and Blackman’s coaching staff wasted little time getting everyone back in the right frame of mind!
Our January schedule is packed and we started things off with a Thursday night tri-meet with cross-town rival Oakland and Region 7 powerhouse Beech. Beech decided not to travel due to several key injuries so Blackman and Oakland made the best of things by wrestling a full varsity dual on top of at least 15 JV matchups. It was great for our younger guys to get some valuable mat time!! For the varsity dual, Blackman defeated Oakland 45-33. Blackman wrestlers Liam Elam, Daniel Bradford, Jalen Brown, Gabe Gomez, Landon Fowler & Matthew Sells all scored pins for the Blaze. Give credit to Oakland’s team as they are scrappy and tough.
Blackman had duals scheduled with Smyrna and McGavok the next night at Smyrna but Mother Nature had other plans as we were snowed out this particular Friday night. The bad luck persisted and the Wildcat Invitational was cancelled by Wilson County Schools for Saturday. Too cold and too much snow and ice in Tennessee means that everything shuts down. (and no stores have bread or milk)
Tennessee weather can be tricky and a few days later, all the snow is gone and we are back in business!!
Tuesday night Blackman faced Region 5 opponent and Cookeville and Stone Memorial at Cookeville. Both teams are solid but Blackman’s squad is on a different level right now. Blackman started off the night with Stone Memorial and came out guns blazing. Four straight wins to start the dual had Blackman up 22-0. Blackman would go on to win 11 out of 14 matches. Final Blackman 65 – Stone Memorial 18.
The match with Cookeville had region implications and Blackman couldn’t afford any missteps. The dual started at 145 with Jalen Brown earning a hard fought decision over Houmard. Landon Fowler, Matthew Sells and Ryan Heath followed up Brown’s efforts with PINS to stretch the Blaze lead to 21-0. Blackman lost the 182 bout by major decision and forfeited at 195. At 220, Dylan Heath caught a tough break and got pinned. At the half way point, it was Blackman 21 – Cookeville 16. At 285, Jamil Hughes pinned Cookeville heavyweight Hughes. Cookeville forfeited 106 and 113. At 120, Blaze freshman Wiley Van Voorst earned a major decision over Samuel Hadlock. At 126, Hunter Dallas was pinned by Harcum. Blackman’s Daniel Bradford majored Denny at 132 and Brooks Sacharczyk pinned Austin Hall to close out the dual. Final Score – Blackman 53 – Cookeville 21
Pictures from the duals can be found on our PHOTOS page.