by Steve Bradley
Last Friday and Saturday HFCS students Nolan Foster and Luis Weierbach competed in the New York State wrestling championships. The event was held at the Times Union Center in Albany.
Foster, a sophomore, competed in the 113 pound class. In his first match he won by decision over an opponent from Section X, 4 – 2 in overtime. Foster won the match with 24 seconds left in the overtime period. Unfortunately, Foster lost his next two matches, the first by a 4 – 3 score to a Section VI opponent; the second was a 6 – 5 loss to a Section V wrestler which eliminated Foster from the competition. With two years of high school left, and losing two State final matches by a two point total, there is no doubt that this will not be Foster’s last appearance in this competition.
Weierbach, a senior and previous State champion in the 106 pound class, was appearing in his fourth State championship. This year he competed in the 120 pound class. His first opponent was from Section VII, and Weierbach quickly put him away with a pin at the 1:28 mark. In Weierbach’s next match, against a Section VI opponent, he won by decision, 6 – 3.
Sunday afternoon, in the semifinals, Weierbach faced a familiar foe. Fellow Section II wrestler, Albany Academy’s Matt Morris, entered the match with a 45 – 0 record. Weierbach had been defeated by Morris twice this season, the last time being two weeks ago in the Sectionals. The two wrestlers put on the best show of the State championships.
After the first period Morris held a 2 – 0 lead. In the second period, Morris didn’t score and Weierbach scored three, taking a 3 – 2 advantage. With less than a minute left in the third and final regulation period, Morris was able to score one point to tie the score at 3 – 3.
The pair then went into a one minute, sudden death period. Neither was able to gather a point by the time the period ended.
The match then moved to two thirty second periods, one for each wrestler, to earn a point from the bottom position. Weierbach was on the bottom first and was close to escaping Morris, but Morris grabbed Weierbach’s leg and held on for longer than the referee thought he should. Morris was called for stalling, giving Weierbach one point. On Morris’s thirty seconds, Weierbach was able to keep Morris from gaining any points, and Weierbach came away with an exciting 4 – 3 win.
In Sunday evening’s finals, Weierbach was defeated by Bryan Lantry of Section V, 5 – 4. After a scoreless first period, Weierbach took a one point lead in the second period, but Lantry later took the lead and was able to hold on for the win. Weierbach ended the 2014 championships with a 3 – 1 record and took second place.
The weekend brought Weierbach’s stellar career at HFCS to an end. He will wrestle at West Point next year for Army.