Six South Whidbey wrestlers made the championship match in their weight divisions at the Iron Sharpens Iron Tournament on Saturday, allowing the Falcons to run home with the team title.

In addition to two first-place finishes by seniors Andy Madsen and Calvin Shimada, nine other Falcons finished in the top three.

“The kids were wrestling really well, racking up a lot of points from falls,” said Falcon head coach Jim Thompson. “These guys are going out there a little chippy.”

South Whidbey, a school with about 420 students, has had a difficult time for years filling the lower weights. At the tournament at Bellevue Christian High School, the Falcons didn’t field a wrestler in the 106 and 126-pound weight divisions.

Nonetheless, the Falcons won the tournament handily with 223 total points. Darrington, the second-place team out of nine, scored 172 points.

Leading the way were first-place wrestlers Madsen and Shimada. Madsen is undefeated thus far with six pins in six matches in the 152-pound class. Shimada was in a similar situation at the Bellevue tournament with pins in his three 170-pound matches.

Falcon seniors Tyler Russell, Kyrell Broyles, Jose Chavez and Beck Davis placed second in the 138, 160, 170 and 182 weight divisions, respectively. Broyles was close to winning the championship bout in overtime, but couldn’t capitalize on a few good moves.

“He wrestled a real tough kid from Concrete who was a state qualifier from last year,” Thompson said. “He had him on his back but blew it.”

Where South Whidbey distinguished itself was in the wrestlers’ ability to bounce back from a defeat and fight for the third-place match. Six Falcons battled in the third/fourth-place match, and five won for a third-place finish: Seth Schille in the 120, Hunter Newman in the 132, Donnie Sutton in the 145, Trevor Miller in the 220 and Pierce Jackson in the heavyweight. Josh McElhinny placed fourth in the 138, but his overall place did not count toward the team’s score because teams could only enter one wrestler per weight.