By JOHN SWASEY
WELLS — Led by four individual champions and seven qualifiers for the state championships, Mountain Valley easily won the Western Class B wrestling regional Saturday.
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The Falcons finished with 154.5 points, well ahead of Fryeburg Academy and Erskine Academy, which tied for second with 99 points.
“Very talented group. They kept it together the last couple weeks,” Mountain Valley Coach Gary Dolloff said of his team, which also won the Mid-State League championship last weekend.
Erskine’s lone champion was Zach Isbell, who will be seeking his second straight state title in the 160-pound division.
Wells’ Michael Curtis, a two-time state champion, earned his fourth consecutive Western Maine title when he pinned Nathaniel Beckwith of Winslow in the 220-pound class.
Oak Hill finished fourth with 94.5 points and had two individual champions: Danny Buteau (106) and Logan Childs (285). Buteau, a reigning state champion, defeated Jordan Douglass of Morse in the final by pin at 2:50. Childs took down Freeman 2:32 in the 285-pound final.
Oak Hill’s Zach Cloutier fell to Devin Vigue of Winslow in the 113-pound final by an 8-1 decision.
Other individual champs were Peter Del Gallo of Gardiner at 126, Josh Smith of York at 152 and Ryan Fredette of Winslow at 170. Gardiner’s Andrew Doody-Veilleux (182 pounds) and Jake Truman (195) reached the finals in their respective weight classes as well.
Smith rolled through the 152-pound class, ending with a 1:45 pin of Morse’s Hunter Reed. Del Gallo, a two-time state champion in the 113-pound class, recorded a pin just 1:17 into the 126 final, and Fredette pinned Connor Elsemore of York with just 22 seconds left.
Mountain Valley’s Ethan Boucher, the reigning Class B state champion at 120 pounds, took first place in the 120-pound class. Other regional champions for the Falcons were Brandon Gill in the 132-pound class, Dakota Jacques at 138 and Ian Austin at 182.
“The (final) was by far the toughest,” Jacques said of his three matches. “I ended up winning 6-3. The kid was very good on his feet, and very strong, too.”
Coyote Freeman took second place for Mountain Valley in the 285-pound division, and Eddie
DeRoche finished second at 126. In the 152-pound class, Issac Therrien finished third.
The top four wrestlers in each weight class qualified for the state meet next Saturday at Fryeburg Academy.
Connor Smith (145) and Trevor Henschel (195) won regional championships for Fryeburg. Henschel was a state champ last year in the 182-pound division.
An error in seeding forced some matches to be redone and resulted in a longer day for all involved.
“We talked about it as a team. We got together before for the finals and talked about staying focused,” said Dolloff.
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