AUGUSTA — That Skowhegan won its third consecutive Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A championship at Cony High School on Saturday came as a shock to no one, perhaps least of all the Indians, who are hoping it serves as a stepping stone toward shocking Maine high school wrestling in two weeks.

Skowhegan took home five individual championships to cruise to the KVAC wrestling crown by over 100 points. The Indians also won the title in 2013 and 2014. Last year’s conference championship was snowed out.

The Indians’ ultimate goal is to end the stranglehold southern Maine teams have on the Class A state championship. Since 1998, either Marshwood, Massabesic or Noble has won the title. Skowhegan’s goal is for the conference championship and next week’s regional championship to have it primed for its biggest test.

“We were pretty solid,” senior Luke Bolster said. “We did what we came here to do. We need to close out on close matches to prepare for states and do everything we can to do great at states.”

Nokomis (124) was second, followed by Cony (119), Camden Hills (109) and Winslow (96), which won the Class B championship.

Cody Craig (113), Cooper Holland (132), Julian Siriois (152), Kameron Doucette (160) and Logan Stevens (182) won individual gold for the Indians.

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Holland, a junior, defeated Oceanside’s Ben Ripley, 10-6, in the championship final while simultaneously picking up his 100th career victory.

“I feel like I wrestled a bit sluggish,” Holland said. “It’s a hard weight cut every week to get down to 132 when I usually weigh 150. But I’m still happy with my performance.”

Holland and Bolster became the fifth and sixth members of the current squad to reach the 100-victory milestone on Saturday.

“It feels good to be in the club,” Holland said. “I’ve been watching all of my teammates get it and now I get to be in it.”

Bolster won his consolation final at 145, joining fellow third-place finishers Austin Merrill and Caleb Vautier, fourth-place finishers Richard Oberg and Daniel Laweryson and runner-up Samson Sirois as Indians in the top four of their respective weight classes.

Winslow didn’t pick up any individual titles en route to the Class B team championship but did have four wrestlers reach the championship finals — Devon Vigue (113), Ryan Fredette (170), Patrick Hopkins (182) and Nat Beckwith (220).

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“We wrestled pretty well. Now that we’re getting into regionals and states, everything is starting to come together,” Winslow coach Kris Segars said. “We have both extremes with Fredette, Hopkins, (Ben) Abbott that are all really good wrestlers and then a lot of newcomers, so it’s taken some time trying to mesh everything together. But practices have been great. Everybody is starting to catch on. Now we’ve got the ball rolling. We’re hosting regionals next weekend, so just keep going, hopefully.”

Other local wrestlers collecting individual titles were Gardiner’s Peter DelGallo (120), Justin Studholme of Erskine Academy (145), Christopher Wilson of Nokomis (195) and Cony’s Noah Dumas (106) and Max Storey (220).

Storey held on to edge Beckwith, 2-1.

“I feel I had a really good start and then, since it’s such a long day, I kind of got gassed in my last two matches,” Storey said. “(Beckwith) was the toughest kid I’ve wrestled. I’d faced him in the past and I knew he liked to throw and do ankle picks, but I just circled and worked for takedowns. I waited for the right opportunity and took it when it came.”

Wilson pinned all of his challengers Saturday, including Kyle Dexter of Oxford Hills in the final, to remain unbeaten on the season and may be peaking at the right time.

“I feel like I wrestled a lot better than I’ve been wrestling lately,” Wilson said. “I didn’t rely on the same move as much as I normally do. I feel like if I continued to just rely on one move I’m going to get stuck. I was pretty aggressive today, which was something I needed to work on.”

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Studholme returned to the scene of his 100th career victory, which he won at last month’s Cony Duals, to defeat Taylor Crosby of Camden Hills, 5-3, for the conference crown. He may petition to have all of his matches at Cony after Saturday’s performance.

“I think I wrestled the best I’ve ever wrestled in high school,” he said. “The last match was the toughest, but I pushed the offense more than I normally do and it worked out for me.”

Also among the runner-ups were Nokomis’ Jacob Booth (120), Messalonskee’s Austin Pelletier (152) and Gardiner’s Alex Thang (285).

DelGallo was named KVAC Class A Wrestler of the Year while Medomak Valley’s Steven Thompson, the 138 champion, won the award for Class B. Skowhegan co-coaches Tenney Noyes and Brooks Thompson were named Class A Coach(es) of the Year.

Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638

rwhitehouse@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @RAWmaterial33


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