After missing the state and regional championships last season due to injury, Bishop Hendricken junior Andrew Fallon would come back strong in 2018-19 and claim first place at 120 pounds at last weekend’s New England tournament.

Fallon won an epic overtime battle against Massachusetts state champion Max Leete, and cemented his place in the Hendricken history books.

“It felt awesome, it was a great moment. I was just so happy to win New England’s this year, I knew how hard I worked throughout the year to wrestle in the tournament. Getting that takedown in overtime, knowing that all of my hard work finally paid off and everything fell into place. It was a release, I was overwhelmed with joy when I won,” said Fallon.

Fallon placed third at New England’s his freshman year but was not able to compete last year. Although it was a tough road back, Fallon was confident that his name would be in the mix back when the season first began.

“I definitely thought I had a chance because I took third as a freshman but then fell to an injury last year before states and New England’s, I think I would have had a good shot last year. This year, I was hungry to try to go and get the title and prove myself. I definitely thought that I had a shot at the beginning of the season,” said Fallon, who also knew that he would have to dig deep against Leete in the finals. “I knew that Max was a tough wrestler, he was the Mass state champion and I saw how he was competing against his other opponents leading up to the finals. I didn’t know how it was going to go, I knew that it was going to be tough like it was, but I was just trying to get prepared to wrestle. Before the match, my teammate Nick (Fine) told me, ‘No matter what happens, whether you fall behind early or jump ahead, just keep wrestling,’ and that really helped me, knowing that all I had to do was keep wrestling.”

Unfortunately for his opponents, Fallon will be hitting the mat for one more campaign as a senior next winter. He hopes that the win at New England’s, as well as his strong showing at states, will give him some momentum looking ahead.

“It (gives) me a lot of confidence heading into my senior year. I will have a lot of time to prepare in the offseason and work on some of the skills that I need to fix. I have plenty of time to work on things so finishing this year strong will definitely help me have confidence heading into next season,” said Fallon.

Fallon was also excited to be among the other Hendricken grapplers to make noise at the regional level.

“It feels great to contribute to the winning tradition that Hendricken wrestling has had. The program has been doing great lately and to know that I helped contribute to winning a state title and taking second as a team at New England’s is a great feeling,” said Fallon. “It felt awesome to have my name among some of the other great wrestlers in Hendricken’s history like Devin Rivet, Dylan DiSano, those names that have done big things for the Hendricken program.”