Skowhegan made it two tournament championships in as many weekends when it captured the team trophy at its own Skowhegan Tournament. The Indians scored 192 points to easily outdistance Mountain Valley High School (126) in the 20-team field.

“The team wrestled real tough once again,” said coach Tenney Noyes. “Last week at the Nokomis Tourney (won by Skowhegan), we placed nine in the finals and this weekend we put eight in the finals. The team has had some great competition lately and they are stepping up to the challenge week in and week out.”

Three Indian wrestlers ended the day with individual titles. Cody Craig (106 pounds), Tyler Craig (126) and Logan Stevens (160) each won their weight classes. Stevens, a junior, earned his 100th career win during the tournament.

In a battle of defending state champions at 106 pounds, Class A champ Cody Craig beat Oak Hill Class B champion Danny Buteau by a 4-0 decision.

Samson Sirois (113), Jon Bell (120), Luke Bolster (138), Julian Sirois (145), and Kam Doucette (152) each finished in second place. Cooper Holland added to the team point total with a third place finish at 132 pounds. Cony finished in fourth place behind championship performances by Zeko Caudill (145) and Max Storey (220). Jacob Nichols, the champion at 285 pounds, led Nokomis to a sixth-place finish. Teammate Christopher Wilson (195) placed second. Winslow used good team depth to finish in eighth place. Nat Beckwith (220) finished second for the Black Raiders while Devon Vigue (113), Ben Abbott (152), Patrick Hopkins (160) and Ryan Fredette (170) placed fourth.

• • •

Cony turned in its best tournament performance of the season at the Skowhegan Tournament. The Rams finished third ahead of a highly-regarded Ellsworth team.

Zeko Caudill ran up pins in each of his four matches in winning the 145-pound class. Caudill was named the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler for his dominant performance. Max Story won the 220-pound title. Elias Younes (285) was second while Devon O’Connor (195) and Tre Caudill (132) placed fourth.

While Cony coach Shawn Totman was pleased with the team medalists, he reserved praise for some of his less-experienced wrestlers.

“It was really neat seeing some of our younger kids getting some big wins for us,” said Totman. “They may not have placed, but the points they scored made the difference in pushing us past Ellsworth.”

Totman pointed to David Foss (160) and Joey Younes (138), who each won two matches by pin, adding 13 team points to the Cony team score.

The Rams have done well during the dual meet portion of the season, currently owning a 13-1 record.

“Cony’s team success this year is due to a few things including good numbers of kids and the continued progress of our inexperienced wrestlers who are starting to perform well,” said Totman. “One of the other factors of which I am proud of is this “next-man-up, team-first mentality” our kids have embraced. We have had more illness and injuries this season than I can ever remember. I don’t think our line-up has been the same from day to day all season because of that. However, this has not stopped the kids from believing that we can still be successful. They have accepted the idea that no matter who we have competing on the mat, we can still win.”

Totman considers dual meets to be especially important to the overall strength of the Cony program.

“I disagree with coaches who say that their team’s dual meets aren’t important,” he said. “I go in the opposite direction and emphasize how incredibly important all of our dual meets are. A good dual meet season for our wrestlers helps pave the way to end of the year individual and team success. I believe this helps motivate our kids to work hard in practice every single day because we may not have tournaments every week, but they still have important matches each time they step on the mat.”

Cony holds its senior night Wednesday against Mt Ararat and Oxford Hills. Elias Younes and Zeko Caudill will be recognized along with manager Emily Drake-Michaud prior to the start.

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