Blaze Win Black Horse Invitational

posted in: High School Wrestling | 0
Blackman Blaze – 2019 Stewart Schay Black Horse Champions

“Where exactly is Blackman High School again?”  That is the question that so many of the spectators of the 25th annual Stewart Schay Black Horse Invitational wanted to know.

This weekend the Blaze turned more than a few heads by winning the Team Championship at the ever-tough Black Horse tournament held near Memphis, TN.  Blackman won the team race against two other very talented and well coached teams in Christian Brothers, a private school in Memphis, and Brother Martin, another private school in New Orleans.

In an extremely tight three-way team race, Blackman scored 266.5 points besting last year’s Black Horse champion Christian Brothers (261) by 5.5 points.  Not far behind, Louisiana State Champion Brother Martin took third with 242.5 points.

It is the first time that Blackman has won the team race at Black Horse.

Blackman had four champions and the outstanding wrestler of the tournament.  Senior captain, Brooks Sacharczyk, ranked #1 at 182 pounds, pinned his way through the tournament and looked completely dominant compared to the rest of the field.  Sacharczyk wrestled a total of five minutes and thirteen seconds and no one was even close to scoring on him.

Brooks Sacharczyk Looks for a Turn Against Theo Sewell

Blackmans other champions were Justin Bradford (120 lbs), Mason Sells (132 lbs), and Bowdy Boyce (285 lbs).

Bradford won his second Black Horse in a row with three pins and an impressive tech fall over Bartlett’s Steven Dindl in the finals match.  Dindl had no answer to Bradford’s relentless offense and never scored a point.  It was the second Black Horse in which Bradford beat two previous state medalists in order to win the championship.

Freshman Mason Sells was impressive in his first high school tournament.  He earned a tough win over the number one seed and junior state runner-up from Brother Martin in the semi-finals.  In the finals match, he got the first takedown over MBA’s junior state medalist Frank Perazzini and never looked back, eventually winning 7-2.

Senior heavyweight Bowdy Boyce (ranked 3rd at 285) won his second Black Horse title with a convincing win over fourth ranked Jared Dawson of Collierville.   Dawson is extremely dangerous and has a noticeable size advantage over Boyce.  In spite of that, Boyce was able to take advantage of his scoring opportunities and won the match 5-1.  Boyce also knocked off sixth ranked John Worley from Arlington along the way.

Justin Bradford Wrestles Steven Dindl from Bartlett

Freshman Grant Myers made his way to the championship match with a string of quality victories over some tough opponents.  Seeded third, Myers came out of the gate with two pins and pulled off a sweet semi-final win over the two seed, Brother Martin’s Dylan Moser.  In the championship match, Myers battled tough against Bartlett’s fourth ranked Kolin Koss but wasn’t able to get the win.  Still an impressive tournament and second place finish for Grant.

Blackman’s other medalists were:

106 – Adam Tibitoski – 4th
126 – Alex Rose – 5th
145 – Justin Brown – 5th
160 – Gabe Scruby – 8th
170 – Gabe Gomez – 3rd
195 – Jaylan Hughes – 3rd

There is much to be said about this group of placers.   Assistant Coach Eric Sacharczyk was happy overall with Blackman’s performance.  “We got a good workout in on Thursday night and our guys looked really focused”, said Sacharczyk.  “A couple of them still need to open up and wrestle…our tough guys were tough.”

Mason Sells Looks for a Takedown in the Finals

Blackman head coach Ronnie Bray said, “We were in a tight team race and having so many of our guys win their placement matches was absolutely important.”  “I’m so proud of every last one of our guys”, Bray went on.

Blackman overall had 11 medalists out of thirteen entries. (Eight semi-finalists, four champions and a runner-up.)  Austin Marlatt had a crazy tough bracket and ended up getting put out by the guys who finished second and third respectively.  Cole Hays showed much improvement going 3-2 and losing a tough one in the blood round…just missing a medal.  Sophomore Adin Heathcott entered as a non-scorer and had a good day going 2-2 and learning a ton.

Special thanks to all of our coaches, parents and managers!!  And extra special thanks to the host families at Houston High School!!  They took great care of us!  Everyone did an amazing job!!

Pictures from the Black Horse are available now on our PHOTOS page.

FINAL TEAM SCORES

1 Blackman  266.5
2 Christian Brothers 261
3 Brother Martin 242.5
4 Arlington 131
4 Collierville 131
4 MBA 131
7 Houston 107.5
8 Grissom 101
9 Stewart`s Creek 100.5
10 Bartlett 98.5

Blaze JV and Girls Teams Shine

While the varsity was in Memphis, the Blackman JV squad travelled to Clarksville for the Coyote Classic JV tournament.  With only eight wrestlers, the Blaze squad managed a third-place finish!

Getting quality matches for everyone is essential so dividing and conquering is what it takes!  Assistant Coach Dario Rudas took eight Blaze wrestlers to the tournament and ended up with two champions, a runner-up and two third place finishers!

Blackman Junior Julian Childress and Freshman Miles Workman both were champions of their brackets.  Childress stayed in control of the action in his championship match winning 4-2 over a very tough Colin Duffy from Independence.  “Childress coming to the top of the podium with minimal practice was impressive”, said Coach Rudas.

Workman pinned his way through the finals finishing off Pierce Scholato from Pope John Paul II with a pin in the first period. Rudas said, “Miles was manhandling kids with all pins and moving great on the mat and on his feet.”

Blackman JV Squad Gets Work Done

Sophomore David Wilkinson finished runner-up to a tough Marwuil Green from Overton.  Wilkinson looked tough and showed his potential.  Junior Tyler Pierce won four in a row in the consolations rounds to take third and sophomore Brayden James looked dominant going 4-1 with four pins after falling in the opening match.

Coach Rudas continued, “Honestly I was impressed in the first round by all of them.  I believe every single one of our guys got the first takedown.”

More results:

Paul Smith 1-2
Hugo Sanchez 1-2
William Walden 1-2

“I was also very happy with Tyler Pierce.  Pierce stormed back with a hard-earned 3rd place finish and showcased his Greco gains by transitioning them to folk-style.  It has really paid off for him.” Rudas finished.

Girls Do Well at Coyote Classic

And not to be forgotten, Blackman’s girls got in on the action and made a great showing at the Coyote Classic as well.

Sidney Silva – Champion
Allyson Colson – 3rd
Nena Brown – 3rd

Sidney won her championship with all pins over a tough opponent in Haley Rosser from Gibbs.  Girls Head Coach Andi Jones said, “Sidney’s finals match was intense.  They went back and forth in a hard-fought match and she won by fall.”

Blackman Girls and Coach Andi Jones

Colson and Brown both only lost one match and both had to battle back in the consolation rounds to finish third.  Colson’s loss was to the second-place finisher and Brown’s loss was to the eventual champion.

“It was another good showing this weekend,” said Jones.  “Overall it was a great day of wrestling and my girls really showed up this weekend.  I’m proud of my girls!” said Jones.

WOW!! That was a ton of news!!!  What a weekend for the Blaze.  On another note, our middle school and youth programs had over 40 kids wrestling this weekend in three different tournaments!!  Its great to be filled with Blackman Pride!!

Make sure you catch the high school boys in action this week!  There is a home match on Tuesday vs Stewarts Creek and Kenwood and an away match on Thursday vs Franklin and Ravenwood.  This coming weekend, expect to see Blackman at the super tough Cleveland duals down in Cleveland, TN!

Go Blaze!