By Ernie Clark, BDN Staff
Posted Feb. 02, 2014, at 10:58 a.m.
TOPSHAM, Maine — Skowhegan Area High School crowned six individual champions en route to winning its second straight Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference wrestling championship Saturday.
No other team in the 20-school field crowned more than two individual winners as the Class A Indians amassed 197 points to outdistance the runner-up, defending Class B state champion Camden Hills of Rockport, which scored 131.5 points.
Cony of Augusta was third with 120 points, followed by Belfast (84.5), Oxford Hills of South Paris (84), host Mt. Ararat (78) Winslow (71), Nokomis of Newport (64) and Mount View of Thorndike (60).
Skowhegan swept all the KVAC Class A postseason awards, with the Indians’ 152-pound conference champion Kaleb Brown named wrestler of the year and coaches Tenny Noyes and Brooks Thompson recognized as coaches of the year.
Winslow’s Aaron Lint, the 295-pound KVAC champion, was named the conference’s Class B wrestler of the year, while Hamilton Richards of Mount View was chosen the division’s coach of the year.
Skowhegan, third at the Class A state meet last year, dominated the lower and middle weight classes at the KVACs, winning six of the first nine championship finals contested.
Brown, the Class A state runner-up at 138 pounds a year ago, remained undefeated this season by pinning Mt. Ararat’s Robert Hetherman in 1 minute, 8 seconds to capture the 152-pound crown while teammate Tyler Craig, who won the 113-pound state title last winter, pinned Camden Hills’ James Archer at 1:29 in their 120-pound final.
Other Skowhegan individual champions were undefeated Cody Craig at 106 pounds, Luke Bolster (132), Kameron Doucette (145) and Logan Stevens (160). Cooper Holland added a second-place finish for the Indians at 113 pounds, while teammate Julian Sirois placed second at 138.
Jared Gilbert won an individual championship at 195 pounds for Camden Hills. The Windjammers also procured a second-place finish from Archer, thirds from Hillary Merrifield (106 pounds) and Elvis Bowen (160), and fourths from Connor Winchenbach (152), Brian Jones (182) and Kaylo Littlejohn (285).
Cony was paced by individual champions Zeko Caudill (138) and Nic Benner (220), while Belfast did not have any weight-class winners but got a second from Mike McFadden at 145, a third from Brenden Bruns at 113 and fourths from Austin Merando (106) and Walker Roberts (138) to pace its fourth-place finish.
Other individual champions were defending state and New England champion Peter Del Gallo of Gardiner at 113 pounds, Jon Hankey (126) and Malik Geiger (170) of Oxford Hills, Rusty Wilson of Nokomis (182) and Winslow’s Lint at 285.
KVAC teams advance to regional competition next Saturday, with the Eastern A meet at Mt. Ararat and the Eastern B meet at Belfast
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