South Whidbey’s wrestling season started with a bang after the Falcons placed fourth out of 13 teams at the Return of the Seahawk tournament, hosted by Chief Sealth High School in Seattle.

Falcon sophomore Julian Fifield, who transferred from Vashon Island High School this year, won the 126-pound bracket with a pin over Auburn’s Brayden Sauve in 27 seconds.

South Whidbey junior Hunter Newman, a returning state participant, won the 145-pound bracket after pinning Sehome’s Chandler Heintz in 1 minute, 3 seconds.

Falcon junior Chase Barthlett placed second at 285 pounds after forfeiting his finals match to injury default.

Placing third were juniors Trevor Kleinfelder and Logan Madsen. Jack Nielsen, a junior, placed fifth at 152 pounds.

“Going into the tournament, I didn’t know what to expect from anybody except for (Newman),” said Falcon head coach Jim Thompson. “Some of these kids I’ve never seen wrestling in a live match. I thought we did exceptionally well against 3A and 4A competition, so I was really happy about that.”

Chief Sealth won the tournament with 169.5 points, while Mt. Tahoma finished second with 122. South Whidbey finished with 103.5 points.