Daniel Bellet, John Mark Bellet and Mark Simpson are crowned Champions at the Black Horse Inv.

The Big Red wrestling team kicked off the 2010-11 season this past weekend with a strong showing at the Black Horse Invitational Tournament in Memphis. Despite competing short two members of their lineup, the grapplers finished 4th in a field of 23 teams, with 8 individual place winners. The team was led by a dominating performance from senior captain Mark "Eagle Claw" Simpson, who pinned 4 of his 5 opponents en route to a first place finish at 152 lbs. Also finishing first were the "twin diesels," Daniel and John Mark Bellet, who wrestled with tremendous power and poise to earn their first varsity tournament championships at 135 and 145 lbs., respectively. After narrowly losing a heartbreaking semifinal match in overtime to the eventual champion at 189, Ian "Head Butt" Sharbel wrestled back in typically ferocious style to finish third. Matthew "the Red-Headed Monster" Davidson dragon-rolled his way to a third-place finish after losing a close quarter-final match to the eventual tournament champion at 130 lbs. Cayce Ortale finished 4th at 119, Chris McClure 6th at 171, and Ryan Owen 7th at 103. The Big Red wrestlers open their dual meet season at home this Wednesday evening against Ravenwood. Y'all come out and watch the fights!