by Ryan Mosher
The Hoosick Falls wrestling team went 4-0 in the finals of the Class C Tournament on Saturday to clinch its first sectional title in over a decade. The Panthers scored 197.5 points to beat second place Galway (174 points) and third place Corinth (169 points).
[private]Luis Weierbach went up 10-0 by the end of the first period against Garon LeClair of Corinth before picking up the pin and his second straight Class C Championship, in 2:47. As the #1 seed, Weierbach had a bye in the first round and then won by tech fall in the third period against Dean Puolin of Granville. Weierbach is now 23-2 on the year and 51-8 in his career.
Bryan Sherman won his first Class C Championship with a 5-4 win over top seed Jay Oakes of Galway. Sherman scored on a takedown in the first period before getting a reversal and an escape in the second period to lock up the win. Sherman won three matches on the day, driving his record to 22-6 this year.
Brad Burns also won his second straight Class C Championship. Burns picked up his pin in 2:48, running his record to 19-1. The last finalist was Jeremy Barss at 195 pounds. The hero last week at the Ken Baker Classic, Barss faced another tough task this week, meeting top seed Zeby Romano from Watervliet in the final. Barss struck first with a takedown before falling behind after Romano got an escape and then a takedown of his own. At the beginning of the second period Barss chose to start on the bottom. One minute into the period Barss reversed and got the pin.
Nolan Foster, Colby Davendonis, Garrett Wright and Mike McGuire all wrestled back to take third place. Tom Peabody and Tyler Randall took fourth place. There will be a total of ten Panther wrestlers competing at the Section II State Qualifiers this Friday and Saturday at the Glens Falls Civic Center.
Weierbach and Burns have been named the Division 2 (small school) #1 seeds for this weekend. Sherman and Barss were both named #3 seeds. [/private]