Seasons for South's Falzone, Frank continue

Williamsville South's Luke Falzone (103) and Elliot Frank (215) are continuing their season after achieving their personal goals of making it to Section VI New York State qualifier.

Each took third place finishes at last weekend's Class AAA Tournament at Starpoint High School.

The top four wrestlers in each weight class advance to the state qualifier at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Kenmore West.

Falzone, South's only eighth grader, is 29-11 going into this weekend. Frank a senior captain, improved his record to 28-14 and is looking to make it to 30 wins in a season, a first for his career.

Falzone was seeded second in his bracket but lost in the semifinals to Zack Marra from Olean, 3-0. In wrestlebacks, Falzone beat Cody Budziszewski from Lake Shore, 21-4, to go on to the consolation finals against Williamsville East's Andrew Dieckman.

Falzone had already wrestled Dieckman in the first round of the tournament and beat him 10-5. Dieckman changed up his game plan and made Falzone go for the shots and hopefully make a mistake. Falzone was flawless, not giving up any takedowns in the first period, but neither did Dieckman. Going into the second period, the match was scoreless. Falzone got an escape on Dieckman and kept him at bay for the rest of the period.

Frank went into the tournament seeded third. His first opponent was Alec Demske from Kenmore West, whom Elliot had beaten before in previous tournaments. Frank won 4-1 and looked as if he could have a good match against No. 1 seed Kyle Colling from Pioneer. Unfortunately, Colling caught Frank off guard and pinned him in the first period, sending Frank into wrestlebacks.

In wrestlebacks, Frank had to beat Tyson Halftown from Lake Shore to ensure his spot in sectionals. With his wrestling season on the line, Frank dug deep and produced a great match, "one of his best matches of the season," said South coach Sean Leaderstorf.

But Frank was not done. To help himself out for next week's seeding criteria, Frank wanted to get third place for sure. He beat Ethan Stack from Lew-Port with another great display of skill and strength.

Frank is seeded seventh at sectionals. Falzone is seeded sixth and will be looking to inch even closer to his personal goal of breaking the school record of 136 wins.