By Mike Whaley
Foster's Daily Democrat
Mike Whaley/Foster’s Daily Democrat Marshwood High School wrestling coach Matt Rix (back) celebrates after Shamus McManus was a surprise state champion winner at 145 pounds during the Class A championship Saturday in North Berwick, Maine.
The Maine Class A
wrestling championship was over and there Marshwood High School senior Shamus
McManus was flashing a 1,000-watt smile.
The unlikeliest of
heroes, McManus, a first-year varsity wrestler, was beaming after his team had
won its third straight Class A title Saturday. On top of that, the sturdy
senior had gone 3-0 to improbably win the 145-pound title and received the John
Pelletier Award as the tournament's outstanding wrestler.
Marshwood winning was
expected, but McManus a state champ and outstanding wrestler? That was a
serious longshot.
"I came in here and
I wasn't even sure if I was going to place," said McManus, who had been a
runner-up at the Western regional the previous week in Sanford. "The kid
who got third beat me before. (Noble's) Otto (Keisker) in the regional pinned
me in 42 seconds in the final. I was really thinking fourth at best. It all
came together today."
Did it ever.
McManus won his first
match by tech fall, 20-5, over Skyler Bang of Edward Little. In the semis he
was faced off with Eastern No. 1 Kaleb Brown of Skowhegan. McManus fell behind
5-0, but never gave up.
"I kept
going," he said. "Eventually he got tired out. I outlasted him, I
guess. I kept going and pushing."
It was a jaw-dropper. He
came back to win, 7-6.
Then onto the final
against Zac Richard of Massabesic, who had upset Keisker. Marshwood coach Matt
Rix said the two were in the locker room before the championship match and
Richard joked that McManus may have beaten Brown but he was going to have to
settle for second.
Wrong.
Again, McManus fell
behind. He was down 3-1 going into the third period and came back to tie it up
at 3-all and force overtime. In OT, he went right after Richard and took him
down in the first 20 seconds for the win — and a state title.
"I just kept
working," said McManus, who spent three years on the JV team before his
chance at varsity came in his final year. "The opportunities were there
and I took them."
It was his first
tournament win in a Marshwood singlet.
"I've never really
wrestled from behind before today," he said.
McManus's win
highlighted a dominating performance by the Hawks, who won the title with 179
points, light years ahead of runner-up Massabesic (127). McManus was one of
five Marshwood state champs, along with Jackson Howarth (152), Bradley Beaulieu
(113), Cody Hughes (160) and Brett Gerry (182). Ten of the Hawks' 12 wrestlers
placed.
"It's a different
day," said Rix. "He came to wrestle. This is possibly his last
opportunity as a senior and first year on varsity. He's been sitting in the
wings and waiting for his opportunity to step up. It was a great team effort
all around."
McManus was relentless
in winning all three matches, including the final two in coming from behind.
"He kept plugging
away," Rix said. "He kept plugging at it. Conditioning. We preach
that in a six-minute match, get them into the third period. We win so many
matches in the third period. He was confident and he got into overtime and,
wow, we can win this. He wasn't going to be happy with second."
Marshwood had its know
quantities with Hughes, Howarth, Gerry and standout freshman Beaulieu, as well
as Killian Murphy and Darren LaPointe.
But the likes of
McManus, classmate Josh Marks (120) and junior Sam Hebert (138) were making
their varsity debuts after two or three years in the JV trenches. Would they
come through? McManus stunned everyone, while Marks was runner-up at 120 and
Hebert was third at 138. Sophomore Eric Glidden, another first-year varsity
wrestler, was a runner-up at 126. He cashed in on a first-round upset of the
Eastern No. 1 from Skowhegan to propel him to the final.
"He was in the good
side (of the bracket)," Rix said of Glidden. "The best time to catch
No. 1 is the first match of the day. They don't expect it. Sometimes they
downplay No. 4. He went out there and beat him in overtime. That was huge. It
gets a little momentum going, a big win like that."
McManus, smiling all the
while, said, "We always have a solid group of JVs. We're always at
practice. We help out. The more people there are at practice, it makes it
better. There are people you can work with. Everyone wrestles differently, so
you get to see different people's style."
"The kids who were
JV last year — like Shamus," said junior teammate Jackson Howarth, a state
champ at 152, "nobody probably knows who he is."
Well, they do now.