Blackman Sophomore Brooks Sacharczyk endured a tough loss in his 1st round match and rallied back to a 5th place finish at the at the USA Wrestling Pre-Season Nationals in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Wrestling at 160 lbs. in the junior division (9th and 10th Grade), Brooks ended up with a very tough draw. His first match was against the number one seed (and eventual tournament champion). When you drive 10 hours to Iowa for a wrestling tournament, the last thing you want to see is that you drew the number one seed first! That makes for a hard row to hoe!!
Brooks sucked it up and went on to win 4 in a row in the consolations and beat some quality kids from Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois. He lost the match to get to third and fourth place by only one point and ended up the trip by winning his 5th place match by PIN.
Two other Blackman wrestlers, Junior Landon Fowler and Senior Daniel Bradford also made the trip. Fowler and Bradford wrestled in the senior division (11th & 12th Grade) and both ended up getting all the competition they wanted. (There are some absolutely great kids who come to wrestle in this tournament.) Neither of them earned a medal this trip but the early season experience will provide big results here at home.
We are looking forward to getting all of our guys on the mat this season. Our first tournament will be the Blackman Pre-Season tournament on November the 18th at Blackman. Come and support the Blaze!!