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The 2017 All Time Greatest Moments and Achievements
Sam Fisher and Franco Camarca - After winning the 4A State Championships.
pictures by: Debora Franklin
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Going into the 2017 wrestling post season the 2016-17 regular season really did not have anything special that could be chosen or picked from to make the Greatest Moments and Achievements.
Not that the 2016-17 Falcons were any different than past years as the consistent of team effort that is put into the Falcons practice room, the in-season moments just did not turn up.
As the wrestling season began its 2016-17 campaign one could see that this was a much younger Falcon squad as we had to wait until February to allow for these moments to develop and occur.
Moments cannot just happen as much needs to be riding on the event for it to be captured; like the 2017 4A State Finals with four Falcons resting with a bout. High-stakes of seizing the State title was at hand.
A dynasty maybe not, as team Fauquier now has won the 4A State Championship and State runner up twice in a four-year period of time one has to believe there is some sense of belief that Fauquier knows how to get results regardless how the hands are dealt.
It actually took team Fauquier the last two post season events region and state for these high cards to start appearing as four moments surfaced up and are sprinkled from number 9 to 24 in this All Time Greatest Moments and Achievements board increasing the list from 31 to 35.
When these moments first became public about two years ago, there were only 25 achievements and you did not see any from the 90’s. At that time the program was extremely young and was in a re-building process which extended countless years.
But at times past moments may get over looked as one achievement does emerge from the 2013 post season taking this list from 35 to 36.
But let’s not also overlook the great significance of funding as team Fauquier travel to most of the elite tournaments in the region. The support of the Fauquier Sports Foundation is the big piece of the puzzle as the current teams strive for these new instants.
The support of the FSF and the people that help run and volunteer should not be ignored which gives all the Falcons a chance to make the All Time Greatest Moments and Achievements.
With five newly added Moments and Achievements to the board I am going to start with post season Regionals and work onto the 2017 States explaining these Moments and Achievements.
19. Winning the AA Region II Championship for the fourth year in a row and being in third place heading into the Championship finals as team Fauquier won three of four Final matches plus bonus to win the Championship - 2013.
With an unfortunate event that had Matt Raines (2015 grad) winning his finals while suffering an injury from an illegal head ramming move put on by his opponent, had team Fauquier jumping all teams to win the 2013 Region II Champions. Even though this happen a few years ago, it still shocking how Fauquier won this Region II Championship.
Team Fauquier was in third place heading into the Final Championship round with Skyline in first place followed by Loundon Co., in second and Brentsville held onto fourth place as all four teams could still seek the team title. Read article of event: In a rebuilding era, Fauquier finds strength to win its 4th Region II title
Coach Fisher - on #19: "That was an exciting tournament. I remember no one expected us to be able to come from third place to win it. Current assistant coach Michael Villalobos won a Regional title to help propel us into first place."
18. Winning the 4A West Region Championship after being down 11.5 team points to Liberty HS and taking multiple illegal blows to the back of the head in the 3rd period, Franco Camarca continued to wrestle to win his match and help team Fauquier win its seventh Region Championship - 2017.
An event that somewhat like the 2013 Regional Championship where once again you have an individual doing an illegal move on a Falcon wrestler but in this case Franco Canarca was able to continue to wrestle to win the match and team Regional Championship.
Coach Fisher - on #18: "That was an exciting finish to a tough team race. Franco was impressive in his finish, and winning 4 of 5 in the finals was clutch."
24. Sam Fisher becomes the first Freshmen wrestler in Fauquier County history to win a wrestling State Championship with a 3-0 decision over Senior and 3x finalist, Matt Laird (Eastern View HS) - 2017.
One does not see a freshman beating a senior often even at a higher mid weight class as of 160lbs and for this to occur in the State Championship finals its truly amazing achievement. This final clearly shows Fisher dominating each of the three periods of this 2017 State finals helping Fauquier close the gap and the 2017 State Runner up status.
Having Garrett Tingen (2016 grad) winning the 160 lbs crown in 2016 and the only 3X State Champion in Fauquier it’s only fitting to have Sam Fisher follow in Tingen footsteps.
Coach Fisher - on #24: "Absolutely, Sam’s success is a combination of hard work, attitude and environment. Having previous state champs like Garrett Tingen, Matt Raines, Daniel Ariola, and Kyle Budd in the room working out with Sam provided the environment component."
23. Franco Camarca winning the 4A State Championship with a 3-2 decision over Kaden Woodward (Eastern View HS) securing Fauquier's second place finish in the State Championships - 2017.
As Fauquier rested in third place behind Eastern View by 1.5pts in the team standings and just like the week before at the Regional Finals Fauquier needed Franco Camarca to win to have the the Falcons jump over Eastern View to bring home Championship hardware.
With the score tied 1-1 with 30 seconds into the final period, Camarca gave up a point to Kaden Woodward due to his second injury time out. Forcing the match score 2-1 favoring Woodward both wrestlers continued to wrestle in the neutral position.
Late in the third period Camarca was then able to pick Woodward off the mat and score a take down with 19 seconds remaining in the match for the victory and boosting Fauquier into second place standing.
Coach Fisher - on #23: "I was up out of my chair when he got the takedown. Franco continues to get better every match. He did a fantastic job keeping his focus at the end of that match as he did the week before."
9. Runner up 4A Team State Championship; with two 1st placers, two 2nd placers, one 4th placer, and two 6th placers - 2017.
The goal of a three peat came to an end but having four finalists only seemed that Fauquier controlled its own destiny. A leader board that had five different teams having claim during the three-day State Championship event only to be a three team race on the final day.
But having eight qualifiers and seven placers goes to show that Fauquier was right there to win the title puts the 2017 State Championship on the All Time Greatest Moments and Achievements.
Coach Fisher - on #9: "Yes, I was happy with where we finished. Similar to in a dual meet where it comes down to heavyweight, and the heavyweight loses, the loss does not rest on his shoulders alone. We had ample opportunities well before the finals to score the necessary points. Those opportunities lost started back at conferences and regionals. If we would have qualified a few more guys, and they each scored just a few points, that would have easily been the difference. Then there was plenty of “would of/should of” moments in every round previous to the finals. This is a team sport, and a team cannot rely on only a few members to do the heavy lifting. I am confident that another year of age and experience, we will be back in the hunt again next year."
Please note that a Moment link has been added within the link bar under History on the main page where this list will also be found. The complete list can be found here:
All Time Greatest Moments and Achievements
Past article written about the All Time Greatest Moments and Achievement found here:
2-24-2016 - The 2015-16 All Time Greatest Moments and Achievements
3-31-2015 - Fauquier All Time Greatest Moments and Achievements
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