AUGUSTA — The coaches and wrestlers at the 16th annual Cony Duals got what they came for on Friday.
“We just wanted to wrestle,” Skowhegan co-coach Brooks Thompson said. “We want to get the kids the toughest possible match. That way we’re battle-tested at the end of the year.”
Skowhegan finished runner-up to Mt. Ararat in the 12-team round robin tournament, while host Cony took third. The three teams each finished on top in their four-team pool and wrestled off against one another.
Cony beat Mt. Ararat on a tiebreaker based on the number of pins, while Mt. Ararat defeated Skowhegan 47-34. In the final match of the day Skowhegan beat Cony 46-36. The winner was decided on the number of victories between the three teams in the championship round. Mt. Ararat won 15 matches, Skowhegan 14 and Cony 13.
“I thought our kids wrestled really well against some of the toughest teams in our league and our region,” Cony coach Shawn Totman said. “You can’t be disappointed at how these kids are coming along.”
Defending Class A state champion Skowhegan dominated the lower weight classes in its match against Cony. Three-time defending state champ Cody Craig won his five matches at 113 pounds and has yet to lose a match in the state of Maine during his career. He scored a technical fall against Noah Dumas in his final match of the day.
“This has been my toughest match,” Craig said. “Admittedly, I expected it to be. He’s tough. I was a bit sloppy, I have to work on my feet, I have to work on breaking people’s stances a little bit better.”
Cony drew a good performance from sophomore Nic Mills, who won all five of his matches at 195 and moved up in class from his usual 182 pound division.
Erskine finished fourth in the tournament and received a dominant showing from junior heavyweight Jake Peavey, the state Class B runner-up last season.
“It’s how I expected it to be, really,” Erskine coach Pat Vigue said.
Brock Glidden (152) stood out for the Eagles as well.
“Brock just pinned a kid — and it didn’t look like a lucky pin — who he had lost to twice already this season,” Vigue said of Oxford Hills’ Dylan Corbett.
Madison brought just eight wrestlers to the meet due to holiday obligations but got a couple of good performances from junior Seth Padelford (220) and sophomore Josh Savage (132). Padelford, whose season ended ended in injury last year, won all five of his matches to extend his season record to 12-0.
“This year we’ve got a lot of young kids,” Madison coach Scott Padelford said. “Experience-wise, they’re just a step behind, but they never go without fighting. I can’t be any more pleased with how they all wrestled.”
Gardiner, which brought just five wrestlers, expects a sixth to rejoin the team next week. Participation at the lower levels is sound, coach Matt Hanley said. But it hasn’t translated of late to the high school team.
“Kids take the winters off,” Hanley said. “We need to get all those kids to participate. They need to be three-sport athletes at Gardiner.”
The tournament also included teams from Westbrook, Winslow, Morse and Mt. Blue.
“This kind of ramps us up and gets us ready for January when we go into the meat of our season,” Totman said.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
