SANFORD, Maine — Coach Matt Rix smiled, shaking his head, and said one word that summed it up perfectly — “Sweet.”
As in Class A wrestling state championship sweet.
Marshwood High School of South Berwick smoothed out a bumpy wrestling road Saturday by defending their Class A state title at Sanford High School — their sixth title in seven years. They had 117 points to 96 for runner-up Noble of North Berwick, who took second for the third time in four years.
Rounding out the top five were Nokomis (83), Oxford Hills (69) and Sanford (63).
All seven Marshwood wrestlers placed and two won state titles — Liam Coomey at 126 pounds and David Spinney at 138.
Dylan Strong lost in the 170 final to Sanford’s Sam Anderson, 11-5, while Sean Moriarty (113), Carsen Goodwin (120) and James Thompson (195) were third and Matt Thompson (132) took fourth.
“We’ve been pushing each other all week,” Spinney said. “We really wanted this. We weren’t going to accept another silver. We pushed and pushed and worked and worked and came out on top. We wrestled really well today.”
Marshwood sewed up the title before they even wrestled in the championship round. Noble, trailing 109-92 at that point, needed two pins and at least a major decision from their three finalists to have a chance at the crown. But that all ended when Knight freshman Josh Cote won a hard-fought match at 120 over Josh Brown of Nokomis, 7-2.
It was Noble’s only state title, after winning five regional titles last weekend.
Sam Martel lost to Marshwood’s Coomey, 15-10, and John Grenier fell at 145 to Noah Lang of Camden Hills, by major decision, 11-2.
Noble’s strength last week in unseating Marshwood as regional champ was its five wrestlers who made it to the consolation finals. Only one survived this week, Duncan McGilvery who was fourth at 138.
Two Knights took third — Joe Pilecki (132) and Hil Keisker (160).
“We needed a lot in the finals to make it an interesting finals,” said Noble coach Kevin Gray. “We weren’t able to do it. Josh did a good job at 120. He came out and almost got the pin, which I think would have helped us roll. Maybe it was Sam trying a bit too hard, that match getting away from him in the first period. Coomey’s a tough wrestler and we knew that. Trying to beat a kid like that three times in a row is tough.”
It was a surprising end to a roller-coaster season for Marshwood — a season marred by wrestlers not coming out, injury and academic casualty. The Hawks filled just nine of the 14 weight classes at the regional in taking second to Noble.
“We did what we needed to do,” Rix said. “We needed other things to happen. We needed help.”
The Hawks got help and then they helped themselves by having all seven start the day with a pin. That set the tone.
Moriarty put the Hawks’ day into perspective wrestling with what Rix thinks is a broken nose. He was knocked out during one match. He got thrown down on his back in the consolation finals, trailed 9-1 and came back with a third-period pin.
“He’s probably one of our (outstanding wrestlers) of the day,” Rix said. “We had a lot of them. We had to.”
Marshwood’s two titles were both excellent matches. Coomey, who was 0-2 against Martel before Saturday, jumped out 10-3 in the first period and was up 14-4 after two. He held on to win, 15-10.
“We’ve had more conditioning since the Noble meet,” said Coomey, who felt he lost there when he got tired in the third period. “I just had more energy. We’ve been working standups a lot, so there’s constant movement, got him tired a bit. He had to catch up. I just had to keep from getting pinned. That’s all I could do at that point.”
Spinney had a rematch with Frost, who he beat for the regional title last week, 6-5. This one was even tighter, but Spinney was able to win in three OTs in a super even match where very little ground was given up.
“I didn’t at all want it to go into the ultimate rideout (overtime),” Spinney said. “I tried to score in that first minute and there is that pressure trying to score. Once we went in to the 30-second ultimate rideout, i just said ‘This is it. It’s all or nothing. How bad do you want it?’ I got out and held him down. It got scary when I started to lose it. I wasn’t going to give up. I wanted it and I came out on top again.”
Noble’s Cote had the added pressure as a freshman of not only trying to win, but knowing he needed a pin or major decision to keep his team’s championship hopes alive.
He trailed 2-0 after the first period, tied it up in the second 2-2, and then hit his stride in the third to win, 7-2.
“The team score was a big part of the stress,” said Cote, who was nervous at the start but reined that in by the third period. “Coach told me I had to pin or major for us to have a chance to even tie Marshwood. Team score aside I’m still happy with what I was able to do.”
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