Lawrence's Colton Carter, top, wrestles Cony's Kaiden Veilleux in the 190-pound final. Carter won by major decision, 9-0. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

BANGOR — As he held the Class B North wrestling championship plaque, Hamilton Richards’ voice started cracking.

Richards, who has been the head coach at Mount View for 30 years and has been associated with the program for 35 years, was able to see his team win its first regional title Saturday afternoon at the Cross Insurance Center. The Mustangs finished with 229.5 points, followed by Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln (212) and Dexter (148.5).

“It’s been awesome,” Richards said. “It’s a team effort.

“It’s been a little bit of a year, keeping the kids healthy and focused. We had a pretty deep team, and I knew if we stuck with it like we did today, we would do some damage. They all showed up, they were healthy and were ready to wrestle.”

Antonio Vieira (138), Josiah Miller (144) and Cooper Wren (175) won individual titles for Mount View. It’s the continuation of a strong postseason for the Mustangs, who recently won the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B championship.

“I’m so happy we could do this for Hamilton,” Wren said. “And for our (assistant) coaches and our alumni. Especially Art Cross, the guy who first started Mount View wrestling (in 1988, coaching the team until 1994, when Richards took over). He was here when we won our KVAC plaque, he was here tonight.”

“It’s great to see (Richards) feel the gold a little bit, after so long,” added Vieira. “From having low numbers and low scores for so long. To give that to him is great.”

The Mount View program has come a long way since the 2022 season, when the Mustangs didn’t have enough numbers to carry themselves through a dual meet.

“(The numbers) have given us flexibility in dual meets, (and) obviously helps us in tournaments,” Richards said. “There’s a lot of quality wrestling going on in the practice room. It’s been a godsend to have the numbers we have.”

Mt. Blue defended its Class A North crown, as the Cougars collected 218.5 points. They were followed by Camden Hills (202) and Oxford Hills (200).

“It feels good,” said Mt. Blue coach Mike Hansen, who led the Cougars to a third-place finish at the Class A championships last year. “I knew we were capable of it. We spent a lot of time in the practice room this week working on the mental part of the game. We have what it takes, we know what to do, now we just to go out there and apply it and make sure we wrestle how we’re supposed to wrestle. They did, they showed up and things went our way all day long.”

The Cougars were steady all day and had four grapplers win individual titles: Preston Garland (106), Jace Goodrow (113), Dillon Gray (150) and Casey Adams (215).

“It feels great (to win),” Goodrow said.

“States is a little harder, it gets a little harder as it goes along,” Garland said. “But I like to believe that we’re carrying the momentum going into states. We want to keep the momentum going.”

Champions in Class A North included Evan Kowalsky (120) of Mt. Ararat/Brunswick, Ayden Cofone (126) of Windham/Gray-New Gloucester/Westbrook, Miller Foss (132) of Skowhegan, Evan Madigan (138) of Edward Little, Bryce Hazelton (165) and Chris Levesque (285) of Oxford Hills, and Connor Pease (144), Justin Batty (157) and Michael Rollins (175) of Camden Hills.

Kowalsky, a sophomore, collected his 100th career victory in his championship-round win over Edward Little’s Cooper Blair. Cofone’s victory sealed his fourth consecutive regional title.

Among the Class B champions were Clayton McPheters (106), Bennett Harper (120), Parker Hunter (132) and Ian Friend of Mattanawcook, Dominic Simpson (113) and Ryker Evans (150) of Belfast, Carter Noble (126) and Mason Rose (215) of Mt. Desert Island, Damiair Miller (157) of Dexter, Muiin Cook (165) of Maine Central Institute and Wyatt Weaver (285) of Bucksport.