Belle Vernon’s Weightman places 6th at states
HERSHEY — Belle Vernon’s Cole Weightman broke his foot last year and only wrestled four matches as a freshman.
The Leopard sophomore did a 180 this season and finished sixth in the PIAA Class AAA Championships on Saturday at the Giant Center in Hershey.
“I am really proud of what I did this season after having that injury last year,” Weightman said. “I really didn’t do anything special to prepare for this season. I just worked really hard in the wrestling room to get better. I also work on my wrestling at Young Guns. You have to put the time in if you want to be good. I have awesome coaches. Tristan and AJ really helped me so much.”
Weightman had to forfeit due to an injury to Nazareth’s Stephen Schott in their fifth-place bout to complete his season at 31-4. Weightman won a section and WPIAL Class AAA title this year, and is looking to do more, as he enters his junior season.
“I hurt my shoulder in my semifinal match and it started to hurt really bad so I had to forfeit this match,” Weightman said. “It has been a pretty wild ride for me this tournament, and my emotions are off the chart. My goal is to wrestle in the finals next year and hopefully win a state championship.”
Weightman rallied in the first round by rallying from a 4-3 deficit with 14 seconds left to pin Cedar Crest’s T.J. Moore in 5:57 before he pinned Schott in 3:49 in the quarterfinals.
Weightman suffered a 6-1 setback to Cathedral Prep’s Dorian Crosby in the semifinals and lost his consolation semi match to Downingtown West’s Chase Mielnik, 10-2.
“I wrestled with one arm in the consolation match and got my butt beat,” Weightman said. “I couldn’t fight anything off or even pick my arm up. It was just really upsetting. I was ticked off about losing to Crosby, but I am always when I don’t win. I have to give credit to Crosby. He just outwrestled me.”
Belle Vernon had some trouble with numbers this season and filling out a lineup, but Weightman hopes that his success encourages others to come out for the team and get the Leopards back on top in the WPIAL.
“I hope that we can get some guys to come out for the team after they saw what I was able to do this year,” Weightman said. “I am not sure if they will though. I am not trying to be mean or anything, but a lot of kids are soft now and don’t want to try anything new. We got a lot of our friends out, so we want to try and rebuild the program.”