Mt. Blue’s Dillon Gray, left, wrestles with Belfast’s Ryker Evans in the 144-pound championship match at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championship meet last season. Gray won the Class A title at 144 pounds as a freshman. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

A year ago, the Mt. Blue wrestling team raised eyebrows with after a third-place finish at the Class A championships.

The Cougars have even higher expectations this season.

“We have a good team (this year), we’re excited to get them out there and see what we’re capable of,” said Mt. Blue Coach Mike Hansen.

Hansen has reason to be excited. Though he graduated eight wrestlers from last year’s team, he returns a roster that is both young and experienced. The Cougars are led by sophomore Dillon Gray, who won the Class A title at 144 pounds. They also return three Class A runner-up performers – junior Preston Garland (106) and seniors Stephen Galkowski (157) and Jason Bagley (190).

“This team’s been together for nine years (through the youth system),” Hansen said. “The seniors, Jason Bagley and Steve Galkowski, were both my two fifth-graders when I started coaching at the middle school… Most of these kids have wrestled for me now for almost a decade.

“I think everyone believes (in the potential) now. I kept telling them (last year), I want them to have faith in themselves. But I don’t think they believed it. When the end of the year came, we were (at one point) outside of first place by 13 points… I don’t think the team realized how close they were, coming down to a couple of key matches. I don’t think last year they knew how good they were, and this year we’re the same team.”

Mt. Blue also returns Brooklyn Webber, who won the 114-pound girls’ championship. Hansen expects sophomore Jace Goodrow to make an impact for the Cougars at 113 pounds.

In recent years, Cony has boasted large numbers entering each season. That’s no different this winter – the Rams carry a roster of 45 – but Coach Shawn Totman believes this year’s team has lots of talent along with its large roster.

“The practices have been great,” Totman said. “We went down to the Westlake Tournament last week in Bath. We were in the lead (for the team title) for a good chunk of the day before we let things slip away… We have an excellent mix of experience and youth. We’re almost 50/50 juniors and freshmen. We don’t have any seniors. As far as the makeup of the team, I’ve never had anything like this before.

“There’s some real talent on this team and there’s some real depth on this team,” Totman continued. “It’s awesome. There’s so much energy, and it’s great.”

Cony’s Kaiden Veilleux celebrates after winning the 190-pound title at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championship meet last season. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

The Rams graduated Jonny Lettre, the state’s top heavyweight, but return junior Kaiden Veilleux, a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference champion at 190 pounds, as well as Corbin LeBlanc (106 or 113 pounds), Logan Childs (120 or 126 pounds) and Liam Schleis-Hooyman (215).

Skowhegan has already seen some early season success, placing multiple wrestlers at the Westlake Tournament. The group is led by captains Sophie Noyes and Miller Foss, who finished fourth at 132 pounds at Westlake. Skowhegan’s other two captains are Lawrence wrestlers Colton Carter, who finished third in Class A at 175 pounds last season, and Ashton Darling, who picked up his 100th career win over the weekend in a tournament at Belfast.

Messalonskee continues to build its standalone program under Coach Pat Engleright. The Eagles have 22 wrestlers, with only three seniors.

Gardiner is having its own surge of numbers=, carrying a roster of 35 wrestlers, which includes five from Hall-Dale.

“This is the biggest number I’ve had ever, and I’ve been here since 1999, 2000, whatever,” said Gardiner Coach Matt Hanley said. “There’s an outside possibility that I’ll fill out my weight classes. I’ve got some guys coming back from injuries off football season. We’ll see how everyone falls in place.

“We’re going to start a lot of freshmen. We’ve got good experience from the junior high, they’ve been in the system for a while. But they will be freshmen. Our goal for them and for most of the team is to have a top-four finish at regionals so you can move on to states. Make that big jump this year so that hopefully you don’t have to do it as a junior or a senior.”

One football player making a return from injury is senior Kyle Doody. A KVAC champion and fourth-place finisher at 138 pounds at the Class A meet in 2022, Doody missed all of last season because of a broken hand suffered during football. Doody has already made an impact this season, winning the 150-pound title at the Westlake Tournament. Senior Evan Ahearn is also one of Gardiner’s top returners, while Justin Doody, a freshman and Kyle’s brother, could make an impact at 165 pounds. Senior Ciara Farias is Gardiner’s top female wrestler.

Mount View ended last season as the area’s top Class B team, finishing 10th at the state meet. The Mustangs will be led by senior captain Riley Bryant, who finished third at 285 pounds at the Class B championship.

Maine Central Institute, which has struggled with numbers in the past, has 12 wrestlers to start the season. Erskine Academy carries solid numbers but is a young squad under Coach Joshua Fogg.