Marshwood’s Bradley Beaulieu, top, and Noble’s Austin Shorey grapple at 120 pounds during a recent dual meet in South Berwick, Maine. Marshwood and Noble will be among the favorites at this Saturday’s Western Class A regional match, hosted by Marshwood. (Whaley/Democrat photo)
DOVER – Although by the end of the day Saturday a Western Maine Class A championship trophy will be awarded, most eyes will be moving forward to the Class A state wrestling championship on Valentine’s Day at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham.
Specifically, how many wrestlers your school was able to qualify. The regionals are all about seeing how many of the 14 weight classes a team can fill.
That’s certainly the plan for Marshwood and Noble, two of the top programs in the state. Marshwood, which is hosting the regional, is the three-time defending regional and state champ. Noble, with some very good young wrestlers, is bouncing back after several down years. At one stretch the Knights won 11 state titles in 13 years. Their last title came in 2011.
The challenge this week for both teams, and likely everyone else, is how they handle the lack of practice time brought on by several snowstorms, which blanketed the area in the past week and a half. That led to some matches and practices being cancelled.
“We’re just trying to get some practices in,” said Marshwood coach Matt Rix. “It’s been tough getting anything going with the weather.”
“It hasn’t helped at all,” said Noble coach Kip DeVoll. “We haven’t practice in a week. It is what it is. It’s healing up injuries, but we’re not working out.”
Both teams were able to wrestle in matches last Saturday.
Saturday’s regional will likely come down to a battle between Marshwood and Noble. Rix sees the potential for the two to meet in as many as seven individual finals.
“Noble has wrestler in every weight class that can score, like we do,” Rix said.
Marshwood could qualify in all 14 classes, while DeVoll feels the Knights can do so in 11 or 12.
“We have two on the bubble,” DeVoll said. “We’ll need an upset here and there. We want to focus not on winning, but placing and getting as many points as we can. Marshwood is the front-runner. They are the team to beat.”
The two met two weeks ago in a dual meet with Marshwood winning, 37-21. It was much closer than that. There were several matches on both sides that had unpredictable conclusions.
“One or two matches can make a huge difference,” DeVoll said.
The Hawks have the big names, led by four returning regional and state champs in Cody Hughes (unbeaten in Maine), Jackson Howarth, Brett Gerry and Bradley Beaulieu. Hughes and Howarth are both three-time state champs. Gerry is a two-time state champion.
Those four will be No. 1 seeds, along with surprising freshman Kyle Glidden (106). Two other potential top seeds are Justin Stacy and Killian Murphy.
For the Knights, they are led by Otto Keisker, Jake Martel, Josh Grenier and Austin Shorey. This is still a very young team with freshmen Joe Pilecki, Hil Keisker and Eric Pilcher scheduled to wrestle at 106 pounds, 113 and heavyweight, respectively. Martel, Grenier and Shorey are all sophomores, and Otto Keisker is a junior.
“It’s how they perform,” DeVoll said. “They have to take all the pressure and block things out. … All it takes is one big weekend to get over the hump and then get on a roll. We’ve done it before.”
“I think it will like the Super Bowl,” Rix said. “Right down to the wire.”