Cony High School sent five sophomore wrestlers to the championship finals at the Skowhegan tournament last weekend and finished in third place as a team. Noah Dumas (106 pounds) and Nic Mills (182) captured their respective weight classes. Dumas raised his personal season record to a team-best 25-1. Quinton Arbour (126), Jacob Arbour (138) and Mitchell MacFarland (285) finished second.
“Having five sophomores make the finals is outstanding and something I am sure that has never happened since I have been coaching,” said Cony coach Shawn Totman. “Every one of our kids who wrestled last Saturday showed toughness, intensity and aggressiveness. They all did a fantastic job whether they brought home a medal or not.”
Freshman Kam Michaud (106) and junior Kayne Bowden (160) also placed fourth for the Rams.
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Oak Hill’s Danny Buteau won four matches to win the 132-pound weight class at the Essex Wrestling Classic tournament in Essex Junction, Vermont last weekend. Buteau won two matches by pin and another by a 5-0 decision to advance to the championship finals against Daniel Bliss of Mount Mansfield (Vermont). Bliss has two Vermont state titles to his credit. Buteau completed his championship run by beating Bliss 9-3.
“I think it’s great to wrestle out of state because it’s normally people you don’t know and often better wrestling,” said Buteau.
Oak Hill coach Ric Swett continues to be impressed by his star wrestler, who is 23-0 this season.
“He is very dominating offensively,” Swett said. “As often as I have seen him win, watching him in action is fantastic.”
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Skowhegan wrestlers earned 10 individual medals as the Indians handily won their own tournament for the fifth consecutive year. Skowhegan scored 174 points to outdistance Bucksport (129) in the 10-team field.
Leading the way with individual titles were Cody Craig (113), Ricky Oberg (120), Samson Sirois (132) and Cooper Holland (145). Jon Bell (160), John Nadeau (182) and Dan Laweryson (195) placed second. Austin Merrill (120), Chandler Shaw (126) and Tyson Pooler (138) placed third.
The 132-pound championship finals featured two of the most highly decorated wrestlers in the tournament. Sirois, a two-time state runner-up squared off against Monmouth’s Calvin Thompson. Thompson has been a state champion as well as a second-place finisher during his career, but was coming off an ankle injury that had kept him sidelined for the better part of a month.
The lanky Sirois used leg rides to wear Thompson down and set up near fall situations to win by a 16-0 technical fall.
“Samson has a hard wrestling style for people to predict,” said his brother Julian, who was a state champion for Skowhegan last season. “He can run arm bars very effectively and has a unique way of exposing someone’s weaknesses and then capitalizing on that.”
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MCI’s ZyAnthony Moss is no stranger to tournament championship finals matches. Moss, a junior competing in the 126-pound weight class, has advanced to the finals of each of the four tournaments he has competed in this season. Moss has brought home gold medals from Gardiner’s Tiger Invitational and the Nokomis Warrior Clash.
Huskies coach Mike Libby isn’t surprised by Moss’ success.
“Zy is certainly the most dedicated wrestler I have on my team,” Libby said. “He works hard in and out of season and is hard on himself.”
Libby added that past standout wrestlers will drop in to practice to work out and that Moss is always eager to scrimmage against them.
“Zy will be first in line and when he gets beat up he will jump right back in, over and over,” said Libby. “He knows what makes him better and he feeds off those guys.”
Moss is known for his physical style of wrestling.
“He may not wow anybody with perfect technique or a ton of moves,” Libby said, “but he will go out there and make you work because his engine is always running.”
Moss holds a current season record of 22-3.
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Daniel (149 pounds) and Peter (125) Del Gallo each won their respective weight classes and helped the University of Southern Maine claim the team title at the 2017 Jim Aguiar Invitational tournament at Plymouth State University. Both brothers remain undefeated for the season — Daniel at 31-0 and Peter at 24-0.
Daniel, ranked as high as third nationally in his weight class, is working toward the Northeast Regional qualifying tournament for the NCAA Division III national championships.
“The focus for Dan at this point is working on the little things; getting to his attacks, and working on key positions.” said coach Mike Morin. “We want him to continue scoring points and having fun as we head into the postseason.”
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