NORTH BERWICK — By the slimmest of margins, Kennebunk won the Class A South wrestling championship Saturday at Noble High.

Kennebunk scored 167 points, its last six coming when senior David York won the first postseason tournament of his wrestling career with a second-period pin in the 170-pound class. That victory was just enough to give the Rams a half-point margin of victory over Noble, the most recent state champion in 2020.

“I’ve been wrestling since I was in kindergarten and I’ve never actually won a postseason tournament like this,” said York, who noted that Kennebunk advanced 10 wrestlers to next week’s state meet.

“I think it was just the energy around us today. We were always supporting our teammates. I think some of the reason some of the kids did so well was that they had an actual team behind them that cared.”

It was Kennebunk’s first regional title since 1995, said Steve Young, who has coached at Kennebunk for 16 years and has been the head coach for eight seasons.

“I’m very proud of these kids. David York, I’ve been coaching for 14 years, and to see him win regionals as an individual and to be part of a team that won it, it’s just awesome,” Young said.

Save for apparently fractions of an inch, Noble would have won by a half point. In each period of the 182-pound final, Noble’s Dylan Mulligan had Massabesic’s Jack Harriman wrapped up in a near-fall situation. But the referee never slapped his hand onto the mat to signal a pin. Mulligan had to settle for a 17-6 major win worth five team points, instead of the six for a pin.

“I wish I would have pinned him because our team would have won regionals. It was that close,” said Mulligan, who knew the team scores before his match. “I wanted it. Next week. Next week’s bigger, I guess.”

Next Saturday is the Class A state meet at Mt. Ararat High in Topsham. The top four finishers in each weight class Saturday advanced.

Noble will also send 10 wrestlers. Massabesic, which finished third with 153 points, had six qualifiers, while fourth-place Bonny Eagle (148.5 points) and fifth-place Sanford (143 points) each advanced eight wrestlers.

Bradley Foster was Kennebunk’s other individual champion, winning a taut 4-2 final against Sanford’s Kyle Nickerson at 145 pounds. The Rams had three second-place finishers: Tucker Kennedy (152), Elized Soule (160) and Owen Bourque (285).

Noble also had two individual winners. Junior Derek Cote, a state champ as a freshman took the 138-pound title in convincing fashion, topping Bonny Eagle’s Trevor Perkins by a technical fall, 16-1. It was just the second loss this season in Maine for Perkins. Because of a broken thumb, Cote entered the tournament with just six matches.

“Yeah, he’s had a really good season, but you just have to attack everyone the same,” Cote said. “I broke my thumb Dec. 22 and my first time wrestling was last Wednesday. I think it made me a better wrestler because I wrestled (in practice) for six weeks with a cast, so I was wrestling with one hand.”

Bonny Eagle and Massabesic each had three individual champions. For Bonny Eagle, senior twins Cameron Frost (120) and Caden Frost (132) and senior heavyweight Tristan Day placed first. Caden Frost won a state title as a sophomore at 106, while Cameron wrestled up at 113 as both a freshman and sophomore and had never won a regional title. Their older brother, Colby, was a two-time state champ.

“After all these years watching Colby, my older brother, win regionals, state titles, all of it, and my twin brother, Caden, obviously has also won regionals and states. Now that I’m finally getting my chance, it feels good,” Cameron Frost said.

Day, who also had never won a regional title, said he is usually a stoic presence on the mat and tries to avoid excessive celebration. But when he pinned his semifinal opponent, he couldn’t help but let out a quick scream of triumph.

“I’ve gotten to the semifinals a couple of times,” Day said. “I don’t like doing that, but I’ve been there a couple times now and to finally get it done, it just came over me. I’m wrestling for all my boys who couldn’t do it,” in 2021 when Maine was one of only four states to not have high school wrestling because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Massabesic’s champions were freshman Nicholas Chenard at 113 pounds, sophomore Dominick Bubar at 152, and senior Sean Wakefield at 195. Bubar and Wakefield won their titles by pin.

“I was waiting for it all year. I can’t wait for states next week,” Bubar said.

Other individual champions were James Blood of Sanford (106), Dyllan Davis of Biddeford/Thornton (126), and the Cheverus duo of Marshall Fowler (160) and Sebastian Merrill (220).

 

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