Andre Bravo capped of a successful weekend of wrestling with an impressive 5 -2 win over Seth Garcia from Cleveland High School to capture the Championship at the annual GP West Invitational. Bravo was one of seven Blaze medalists at a tournament which is considered by many to be the toughest annual contest in Middle Tennessee.
Blackman finished the tournament in 4th place behind Soddy Daisy (3rd), Cleveland (2nd) and McCallie (1st). The fourth place finish was certainly welcome at this point in the year where we all start thinking about the post season and state championships. As a whole, it looked like Blackman had their best day this season on Saturday as many guys who struggled with finishing strong found ways to get their wins despite the many obstacles they had to face. All in all the Blaze looked tougher and more prepared than at any point so far.
Blackman had four in the finals but only one champion. Freshman phenom Landon Fowler wrestled extremely well against last year’s DII runner up Ethan Dendy. Landon was able to survive the early storm and wear Dendy down at the end but Dendy’s early lead was too much to overcome. Matthew Sells (ranked #2) and Tucker Russo (ranked #1) had a tense, low-scoring match in which Matthew gave the two time state champ from Soddy all he wanted. When time expired in regulation, the match was tied 3-3 and it looked like Matthew may have had the momentum, but Russo got a takedown late before time expired to win the sudden victory. Hunter Winters’s match against Ty Boeck was extremely exciting and close up until the last period of the match. Hunter wrestled very well and gave us a preview of what his future looks like! Andre Bravo had another low scoring match in the championship with Seth Garcia from Cleveland. Bravo was up 3-2 and got the much needed insurance takedown late in the third period to wrap things up on his march to the top of the podium.
All in all, a great weekend of wrestling! Our guys are coming on and hopefully this weekend’s performance is a prelude to a strong finish to the season!!
Medal match results:
1st Place Match
Ethan Dendy (McCallie) 11-2, Jr. over Landon Fowler (Blackman) 30-6, . (Dec 13-7).
Tucker Russo (Soddy Daisy) 26-0, Sr. over Matthew Sells (Blackman) 29-2, . (SV-1 5-3).
Ty Boeck (Soddy Daisy) 19-8, So. over Hunter Winters (Blackman) 22-10, . (Dec 13-9).
Andre Bravo (Blackman) 26-5, . over Seth Garcia (Cleveland) 17-10, Jr. (Dec 5-2).
3rd Place Match
John Williams (Siegel) 11-3, Sr. over Vincent Cross (Blackman) 21-10, . (Dec 9-8).
5th Place Match
Jalen Brown (Blackman) 28-9, . over Tony Wilson (Soddy Daisy) 13-14, Fr. (Fall 3:33).
Landen Patterson (Siegel) 22-6, Sr. over Jamil Hughes (Blackman) 9-9, . (Fall 1:39).
Check out some pics on the PHOTOS page. Blackman in action again Tuesday night at Stewarts Creek.