Wrestling: Mt. Blue climbs to top at Class A North championships

PARIS — Mt. Blue entered Saturday’s Class A North wrestling regional championships with high hopes for success.

The Cougars thrived.

Five Mt. Blue wrestlers won individual titles to help the team finish strong and claim the regional championship at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School with 211.5 points.

“I’m happy with the performance,” Cougars coach Mike Hansen said. “The kids showed up and performed the way I expect them to perform. I know they’re capable of this, but there’s a lot that goes into performing on the day of, and they showed up today, they did it, they put their foot down on the gas pedal and they didn’t let up.”

The Windham/Gray-New Gloucester/Westbrook Wolfpack finished second with 164.5 points.

The two teams were close after the semifinals, the Cougars holding a five-point lead, 151.5 to 146.5.

Each had six wrestlers advance to the championships in their weight classes. That included head-to-head matchups in the 120- and 138-pound weight classes.

Both teams also had the higher seed in three of their six finals matches.

The Cougars, though, made big gains before the finals even started, adding 28 points to extend their lead to 179.5-146.5.

Jace Goodrow (113 pounds), Roman Galkowski (126), Reed Cousineau (165) and Cameron Ryder (285) all wrestled their way into third-place matches.

“We had guys in the consolation rounds who really came through and scored some points for us,” Hansen said.

The championship round opened with one of the two head-to-head matches between the two leading teams: top-seeded Cole Tanner of the Windham co-op and No. 2 Nick Rowe of Mt. Blue.

Rowe went up early with two first-round points and added more in the third to take a 7-2 decision.

Rowe was injured before last year’s regionals and has been working his way back since.

“I’ve been injured most of the season, so I haven’t really been able to wrestle well,” Rowe said. “It feels really good just to get a win, and just move on to states next week.”

Mt. Blue also won the next match, with Dillon Gray living up to his No. 1 seed in the 144-pound division by defeating Lawrence’s Colby Neadeau 11-5.

“I just wanted to stay aggressive,” Gray said. “I’ve wrestled him before, I keep it way too close with him, I just wanted to give it to him.”

Stephen Galkowski (157 pounds) and Jason Bagley (190) upended top seeds in their finals, both scoring late points in the third round to break ties.

Galkowski pulled off a late move to pick up two points with the clock winding down in the third round and beat Justin Batty of Camden Hills 3-1. It is Galkowski’s first win over Batty.

“It was a big scramble,” Galkowski said. “I knew I needed a takedown to secure the win, so I was just fighting for it there, trying to hit my submarine series. I finally hit it successfully there, right at the end of the match, and I was glad I didn’t have to go into overtime, because that would have been rough.”

Bagley was even more clutch in his victory over Kaiden Veilleux of Cony. They were tied 8-8 until Bagley made a late escape in the final seconds and then added more points.

“So me and this kid have actually gone back and forth … he’s beat me twice,” Bagley said. “It was all mental at this point, because I knew I could beat him and I knew he could beat me. So I was just listening to Coach in the corner, doing what I could.”

Veilleux and Batty were both the top seeds, while Galkowski and Bagley were No 2s.

“All of our guys rose to the occasion,” Hansen said. “A lot of those guys were seeded to place second today — four of them that placed first were seeded second, and they upset their seeds and they did outstanding.

“I couldn’t be more proud of them. I’ve been coaching these kids for eight years now. So I knew this was coming.”

Mt. Blue’s fifth regional champion was Preston Garland, who pinned Oxford Hills’ Tristan Atwell in 49 seconds.

The Wolfpack’s Ayden Cofone won the second matchup with a Mt. Blue wrestler, pinning Noah Krzysztofiak in the third round of the 120-pound match.

CK Kennedy (165 pounds) and Gavin Tanner (175) also won individual titles for Windham/Gray-New Gloucester/Westbrook.

Edward Little freshman Evan Madigan added a regional crown to the KVAC title he won recently, winning the 126-pound final 3-2 over Camden Hills’ Landon Pease.

“He’s doing very well,” Red Eddies coach Ben Madigan said of Evan, his son. “He works tremendously hard in practice, focuses on being in solid position in all times, which, you know, it’s meaningful in big, close matches.”

Edward Little, a first-year high school program, finished seventh with 96 points. Five Red Eddies qualified for next week’s Class A state championships at Cony High School in Augusta.

“I thought the team did very well,” Ben Madigan said. “I thought the kids wrestled to the expectations that I thought they would.”

Camden Hills (135.5) finished third, Cony (124) fourth and Oxford Hills (118) took fifth.

The Vikings were led by sophomore Christopher Levesque’s regional title in the 195-pound class, which he earned by pinning Mt. Ararat/Brunswick’s Charlie Akeley-Martin in 1:09.

Levesque won all three of his matches via first-round pin.

Perhaps the most dominating individual performance of the regional meet was by Cony’s Jon Lettre, who pinned two of his 285-pound foes in 21 seconds or less — including an 18-second pin of Windham’s Griffin Moreau in the final.

Lettre was the clear favorite at 285 pounds, but didn’t take any of his opponents lightly, especially not Moreau.

“I’m always confident, but never arrogant,” Lettre said. “You can get caught, I don’t care who you are. And if I was going to lose today, Griffin Moreau would have been the one to beat me.”

Lettre, a senior, will attempt to win his third state championship next week, which would make him the second three-time winner in Cony history.

Other regional champions were Evan Kowalsky (113) of Mt. Ararat-Brunswick, Elijah Farias (132) of Gardiner and Michael Rollins (150) of Camden Hills.

The top four finishers in each weight class advance to the state championships on Saturday, Feb. 17, at Cony.

CLASS A NORTH CHAMPIONSHIPS
at Oxford Hills High School
Team Scores
1. Mt. Blue 211.55
2. Windham/GNG/Westbrook 164.5
3. Camden Hills 135.5
4. Cony 124
5. Oxford Hills 118
6. Brunswick/Mt. Ararat 114.5
7. Edward Little 96
8. Penobscot County Wrestling co-op 78
9. Nokomis 66
10. Lawrence 48.5
11. Gardiner 45
12. Messalonskee 32
13. Skowhegan 21
14. Lake Region 10
15. Freeport 8
Individual Results (top 4 advance to state)
CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND
106—Preston Garland (MTB) pin Tristan Atwell (OH), 0:49.
113—Evan Kowawlsky (MTA/B) major dec. Cooper Blair, 13-3.
120—Ayden Cofone (W/GNG/West) pin Noah Krzysztofiak (MTB), 5:24
126—Evan Madigan (EL) dec. Landon Pease (CH), 3-2
132—Elijah Farias (G) tech. fall Owen Pilbury (W/GNG/West), 16-0.
138—Nick Rowe (MTB) dec. Cole Tanner (W/GNG/West), 7-2.
144—Dillon Gray (MTB) dec. Colby Nadeau (Law), 11-5.
150—Michael Rollins (CH) pin Jacob Cote (N), 1:57.
157—Stephen Galkowski (MTB) dec. Justin Batty (CH), 3-1
165—CK Kennedy (W/GNG/West) pin Kai Arnold (Cony), 4:25
175—Gavin Tanner (W/GNG/West) pin Parker Small (Penob), 3:44
190—Jason Bagley (MTB) dec. Kaiden Veilleux (Cony), 11-8
215—Chris Levesque (OH) pin Charlie Akeley-Martin (MTA/B), 1:09.
285—Jon Lettre (Cony) pin Griffin Moreau (W/GNG/West), 0:18.
THIRD PLACE
106—Corbin LeBlanc (Cony) dec. Keagan Kelly (CH), 1-0.
113—James Terry (OH), pin Jace Goodrow (MTB), 0:45.
120—Nikko Lewis (Penob) pin Matthew Denlinger (OH), 1:55.
126—Stryker Fraser (N) by forfeit Owen Pilsbury (W/GNG/West).
132—Cody Vincecruz (EL) dec. Foss Miller (S), 10-9.
138—Chris Watkinson (MTA/B) by forfeit Evan Ahern (G).
144—Roger Leonforte (N) pin Herlin Martinez (MTA/B), 4:12.
150—Hunter Wormwood (OH) pin Elliot Gandarillas (Penob), 1:58
157—Ashton Darling (Law) pin Gavin Theriault (EL), 0:57.
165—Reed Cousineau (MB) pin Ryder Lombardo (CH), 4:54
175—Reilly Turner-Watts (CH) by forfeit Colton Carter (Law).
190—Trevor Wilkinson (MTA/B) pin Kaiden Dulac (EL), 4:35.
215—Isaac Osborne (Penob) dec. Daymion Leblanc (Mess), 4-1
285—Cameron Ryder pin Dawson Mason (OH), 0:26.