AUGUSTA, Maine — Big-meet experience fueled big results for the Lisbon wrestling team at the Augusta Civic Center on Saturday, as the Greyhounds rolled to their third Class C state championship in four years.
Lisbon crowned seven individual champions and scored a robust 203.5 points to run away from the field, an effort coach Mark Stevens attributed in part to the power-packed schedule his team faced throughout the season.
“I’m not sure we peaked today,” said Stevens.” I think we wrestled well, but when you go the schedule we had, wrestling Timberlane [N.H.], the New England champions; the Redskin Invitational, the Noble tournament … these guys have gone through trial by fire, and they survived the season healthy, not injured.
“They weren’t shell-shocked when they walked into this gym, they’d been in big places before, and they performed when they needed to.”
The battle for second place wasn’t nearly as clear cut, with Bucksport and Dirigo of Dixfield tying for the runner-up spot with 129 points — one-half point ahead of fourth-place Dexter. Foxcroft Academy rounded out the top five with 66 points.
Lisbon entered the meet as the heavy favorite with competitors in all 14 weight classes. Nine qualified for the championship finals, and the dominance transcended all weight divisions with Forrest Cornell (112), Mike McNamara (125), Marcus Bubar (145), Kyle Huston (152), Cameron Bubar (171), Joe Doughty (215) and Dan Schofield (285) earning first-place finishes to lead the Greyhounds to their sixth state title in the last nine years.
“We knew we had a chance to seal it after the semifinal round, and we did with nine in the finals,” said Stevens. “After that it was all about how many kids we could get to New Englands, and how many kids we could get to the all-state tournament two weeks from now.”
Bucksport advanced five to the championship round, with 160-pound Steve Klenowski — who didn’t wrestle a year ago — winning his second state title in three years with a 4-2 victory over Dirigo’s Josh Palmer.
“For him to step up after taking last year off is a testament to his skills,” said Bucksport coach Larry Clement. “He’s certainly one of the most technical wrestlers we’ve had in the Bucksport system, and he rose to the challenge.”
Bucksport, which was without 152-pound standout Shaun Powell, who was injured in the Eastern C meet, got second-place finishes from Bruce Rumney (140), Ray Wood (145), Craig Woodard (189) and Josh Dunbar (215) to go with a third from River Robertson (171) and fourths from Jordan Fogg (135) and Evan Goodine (285).
“Our goal was to finish top-two,” said Clement. “Lisbon came in as heavy favorites and they finished where we thought they’d finish. We knew it would be a battle for second place. We had chances to stretch out the distance from the other schools, but credit to them for battling back and credit to our guys for finishing with such a great effort.”
Dirigo crowned two champions in Caleb Hall (103) and Brandon Jonaitis (135) and got seconds from freshman Bryan Blackman (130), Alex Miele (152), Palmer and A.J. Carrier (285) to tie Bucksport.
Senior Brian O’Connor became a state titlist for the third straight year in leading Dexter to its fourth-place finish, pinning Blackman in 29 seconds of the 130-pound final.
“It means a lot,” said O’Connor, who placed third at 103 pounds as a freshman before winning at 119 as a sophomore and 125 last year. “I’d have been really happy just to get one.”
Teammates Ronnie Harvey (140) and Doug Richardson (189) also won individual titles for coach Adam Gudroe’s Tigers, while Vincent Malinauskas (103) and Mike O’Connor (119) placed second, Cody Caron (152) finished third and Lee Gustin (160) and Zach Poirier (215) were fourth.
The meet’s other individual titlist was Scott Carpenter of Calais, who decisioned Lisbon’s Josh Pomerleau 8-2 in the 119-pound final.
“He was pretty tough, he was stronger than me,” said Carpenter, who also defeated Pomerleau in last year’s third-place match, “but I out-techniqued him, I guess.”
In Class A, Noble of North Berwick ended Massabesic of Waterboro’s two-year hold on the state title and avenged a loss to the Mustangs at last weekend’s Western Maine meet to win its ninth championship in the last 11 years.
Noble crowned three champions from among eight wrestlers in the finals to hold off Massabesic, which won all four of its title matches — including Joey Eon’s 6-4 overtime win over Noble’s Mark Richardson in the 145-pound final for his fourth consecutive state title.
Jake Bagley (130), Bryan Anderson (135) and Peter Bronder (152) won their weight classes for the Knights, while Eon, Gage DeRosier (103), Peter Gilman (140) and Alexander Holland (189) were individual champions for Massabesic.
In his final, DeRosier earned a 15-0 technical fall over Noble sophomore Kaleigh Longley, who was bidding to become the first Maine schoolgirl to win a state wrestling title.
Noble finished with 170.5 points, followed by Massabesic (155), Eastern Maine champion Cony of Augusta (90), Bonny Eagle of Standish (69) and Skowhegan (54).
Skowhegan’s Dillon White won the 160-pound class, while teammate Kaleb Austin was second at 135 and Brandon Corson placed third at 135.
Gerald Gould of Nokomis of Newport was third at 189 pounds, with teammate Heiko Nichols fourth at 285.
Brewer’s Stephen Desjardins finished fourth at 125 pounds.
