Oak Hill junior Danny Buteau showed that moving up two weight classes from last season won’t change his winning ways.
Buteau, a two-time state champion at 106 pounds, wrestled —and won in — the 120-pound class at the Franklin Savings Bank Invitational on Saturday at Mountain Valley High School in Rumford.
Buteau beat defending state champ Griffyn Smith of Dirigo, 7-4.
“Buteau wrestled excellent against an excellent wrestler,” said Oak Hill coach Ric Swett. “The weight gain from last year doesn’t seem to affect his ability to win against seasoned opponents.”
Buteau gave up an early takedown but scored a reversal with two seconds left in the first period to knot the score at 2-2. He then widened his lead to 7-2 before giving up a late reversal. Buteau tried to keep a fast pace throughout the match.
“When you stop moving, bad things happen” he said.
Brendon Tervo also reached the championship finals for the Raiders, finishing second at 182 pounds. Tervo entered the day seeded fifth and beat fourth-seeded Tyler Hardwick of Ellsworth 8-6 in overtime to advance to the semifinals against top-seeded Spencer Vaughn of Dirigo. Tervo scored a go-ahead takedown with seconds remaining to beat Vaughn — a defending state champion — 10-8.
“Brendon had his best tournament performance ever,” said Swett. “I feel he has finally gained the confidence to win the big matches.”
Freshman Zoe Buteau (126) scored a pin to aid in the team scoring. Oak Hill finished 10th out of 17 teams.
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Three Madison wrestlers earned medals at the Franklin Savings Bank Invitational to help the team finish ninth. Seth Padelford (195) was second while Josh Savage (126) and Matt Brown (285) each picked up fourth-place finishes.
Padelford was unseeded in his 15-man weight class and had to wrestle a “pigtail” (preliminary round) match to enter the bracket as the No. 8 seed. The sophomore, who missed his entire freshman season due to injury, pinned top-seeded Dalton Berry of Dirigo in the quarter match. Padelford then beat Ellsworth’s Devin Wright 16-4 in the semifinals.
Madison coach Scot Padelford — Seth’s father — opted to have his son sit out of the finals match.
“We decided to forfeit in the finals as Seth had just came back from a concussion earlier in the week,” said Padelford. “He banged his head in the semifinal match and we didn’t want to risk further injury. I am very pleased with his performance and he looked very comfortable on the mat, but he is a little rusty since he hasn’t done a lot of wrestling the past year.”
Freshman Dawson Senter won two matches at 113 pounds.
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Defending Class A champion Marshwood came out on top in a dual meet match-up of two of the top ranked teams in the state. The Hawks beat Skowhegan 42-30 in the Indians’ gym Saturday and showed they are still a force to be reckoned with despite graduating four individual state champions.
Despite the loss, Indian co-coach Tenney Noyes was happy to have the Hawks come to town.
“This was a great match to have mid-December,” said Noyes. “We’ve been trying to get together on a dual for a long time and this year happened to work out. In the big picture, it was a good eye-opener for our young wrestlers to show them what they need to improve on over the next two months.”
Austin Merrill (106), Cody Craig (120), Samson Sirois (132), Julian Sirois (160), Kameron Doucette (170), and Logan Stevens (182) each had wins for the Indians.
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Eleven schools will compete in Saturday’s Cony Duals in Augusta. Cony, Morse, Gardiner, Skowhegan, Erskine, Mt. Ararat, Winslow, Madison, Westbrook, Oxford Hills, and Mt. Blue are scheduled to compete for team plaques. There will also be a 12th team comprised of junior varsity wrestlers from each of the attending schools.
Teams are divided into three pools, with four in each. Teams are then ranked based on the pool competition. A final round-robin against fellow ranked teams in the other pools follows.
“This marks the 15th year for the Cony Duals,” said Cony coach Shawn Totman. “John Martin (former Cony coach) started this tournament with (this) format and I have been happy to continue with it. It is a great time of year to do something a little different for our wrestlers. … In this tournament, a wrestler can get as many as five matches,” he said.
Wrestling is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on four mats.
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