Mt. Ararat, Brunswick, Morse and Lisbon in action
BY GEORGE ALMASI The Times Record
BRUNSWICK
The state high school wrestling championships are scheduled to be held Saturday with Morse, Mt. Ararat, Brunswick and Lisbon searching for individual and team titles.
The Class A event will be held at Noble High School in North Berwick, while Class B wrestlers will head to the Bath Middle School and Class C at Mountain Valley in Rumford.
In Class A, Mt. Ararat will field East No. 1 seed Robert Hetherman (43-5) at 152, third seed Brandon Jusseaume (36-10) at 182, and fourth seeds Adam Ewing (29-16) at 145, John Hetherman (35-14) a fourth seed at 160 and Pierce Knorr (35-10) at 285. Emory Hudson (138, 20-23) and Nate Brewer (220, 10-25) are alternates.
“This week has been very good,” said Mt. Ararat coach Erick Jensen. “Our practices the week of states are typically shorter, but much more intense. Lots of running and a lot of live wrestling. The biggest thing we work on is getting their mind right to have the confidence to compete with anyone.
“All our kids are expected to go to practice all the way until our last wrestler is done competing so the room still has the same energy level. Those who are out actually seem to enjoy pushing the kids still left in the tournament. Tuesday we had extra wrestlers from Deering and Gardiner so that gave us additional new work out partners. All are working really hard and several have an opportunity to place at states.”
Brunswick freshman Christian Jensen (35-7) is a No. 2 at 106.
Host Morse has three seeds and two alternates for the Class B event in Bath.
Hunter Reed (35-11) will be a top West seed at 152, while Raz Baltazar (22-7) is No. 2 at 160 and Corey Lent (24-15) a fourth seed at 179. Stevie Recknagel (24-5) is an alternate at 106 and Chad Bonti (16-16) an alternate at 182.
“This week we really tried to focus on things that we have seen from kids that made the state tournament,” said Morse coach Shawn Guest. “Sometimes that is difficult because we have not seen aFoxcroft Academy or Ellsworth from the East, but we limit the drilling in practice to what we do know about the opponents we may face in particular weight classes.
“We also try to keep up our conditioning because we have won a lot of matches at the state tournament on superior conditioning. Our last three state champions all wore out their opponents in the finals. Two of our freshmen are in practice every day to help out.
“They do not get the reps that our qualifiers do, but they are practice participants and are needed. I do not see us making any ‘waves’ as a team, but a great day would be three medals from the kids. The East had a knockdown ‘brawl’ last week and I expect that those teams will dominate the top spots. Camden Hills, Ellsworth, Foxcroft Academy and Mountain Valley will be the team contenders. There will be individual spoilers that may cost a team a championship, and hopefully we can be those spoilers.”
Lisbon competed in a Bucksport round-robin to determine Class C seedings and the Greyhounds expect to send a full contingent to Rumford.
“We have all nine of our wrestlers seeded for states,” lauded coach Mark Stevens in his final year. “With some shifting around in classes our records are a bit skewed from our overall season records.”
Ashley Patten is seeded sixth at 113, JD Martin second at 120, Kurtis Bolton third at 126 and Nick Larette 10th at 132
“Zach Stevens is seeded last at 138 because of a ruling of having a minimum of four actual matches at the weight class selected,” explained Mark Stevens. “He will have to wrestle his best through the brackets if he wants to be a three-time state champion.”
Also, Tyler Bard is seeded second at 152, Josh Collier second at 160, Devin Libby fifth at 182 and Colin Higgins first at 285.
“This week is more preparing mentally than physically,” continued Mark Stevens. “We have been working hard all winter preparing for the state championships. Leaving no stone unturned, we have progressively amped up practices to get their bodies conditioned and strong enough to perform their best. Now it’s a matter of getting them to believe they can win.
“Because ‘if you think you will win, or if you think you won’t,’ most kids are usually right.
“We did things a bit different this past week. Maxing out on agilities and sprints brings the mind more into focus and thus mentally tough. Our kids believe in themselves right now, and they need to continue until the final whistle on Saturday.”