AUGUSTA — Regular-season wrestling meets don’t usually feature the level of drama and tension shown by Cony and Mt. Blue in the championship final at the Cony Duals on Tuesday. But these two teams are on a collision course that won’t be settled until the Eastern Maine Class A Regionals are held near the end of the season.
Round 2 went to Mt. Blue which edged Cony 37-36 Tuesday in a contest which ended at 36-36 but went to the Cougars since they posted seven wins in the match to Cony’s six. Mt. Blue dominated the lower weight classes and led 30-12 at one point, but the Rams rallied and posted four straight pins in the final four matches.
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“This is unexpected for us,” Mt. Blue coach Bob O’Connor said. “Especially with forfeiting a weight class. And my 95-pounder is sick. It was pretty much a team effort. Everyone stepped it up.”
Two weeks ago, Cony edged Mt. Blue by three points at the Tiger Invitational. The format in this meet was quite different. Twelve teams competed in all and were divided into three pools of four teams. Based on pool competition, they moved into a championship round.
The final round included York, Mt. Blue and Cony. Mt. Blue and Cony each beat previously unbeaten York to advance to the final. Also competing were Erskine, which finished fourth, Brewer, Morse, Gardiner, Winslow, Madison, Mt. Ararat, Oxford Hills and Skowhegan.
The Rams looked dead after getting pinned in five of the first eight matches. Their only points below the 182-pound division were the result of forfeits. Mt. Blue’s Tyler Craig pinned Jake Charest at 113 pounds followed by another pin, this one from Khalil Newbill over Victor Tapia-Smith at 120. Earlier in the meet, the Mt. Blue junior posted his 100th career victory.
Kevin Moore recorded a pin at 126 for the Cougars while Drew Blanchet decisioned Cony’s Connor Dufour 6-4 at 138 in a match where Dufour wrestled up a weight class. Chris Ingram (152) and Zach Faulkner (160) followed with pins before teammate Caleb Farrington decisioned Cony’s Mikal Federici 15-7.
“When we were down 30-12 it would have been easy to just mail it in,” Cony coach Shawn Totman said. “These kids fought right back and got it into a tie. That’s what these kids have been doing all year.”
The comeback began when Jake Frazier pinned Tyler Sennick in the 182-pound match. Nick Benner followed with a pin of Connor Farrington at 195 before Cody Dular pinned Raymond Clark at 220. Clark battled for over a minute on his back before Dular got the pin at the 3 minute, 40 second mark.
Cony senior Steven Morse brought the Rams into a tie with his pin of Damian Moore 39 seconds into the heavyweight match.
The teams meet again next Wednesday in Augusta.
Gary Hawkins — 621-5638
ghawkins@centralmaine.com
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