LINCOLN — Wells won its third consecutive Class B state wrestling championship Saturday — and it wasn’t close.
The Warriors built a big lead in the early rounds, then used their depth to overwhelm the field, scoring 161.5 points in the meet at Mattanawcook Academy. Dexter was second with 99 points, followed by Medomak Valley with 89.5.
Wells had three individual champions: freshman Travis Foster at 126 pounds, senior Nathan Curtis at 170 and sophomore Jonah Potter at 182.
Foster defeated Jack Tibbetts of Lisbon/Oak Hill 15-0 in a technical fall. Curtis, who was fourth last year, pinned Daniel Bolton of Lisbon/Oak Hill in 4:42. Potter pinned Cam Bourget of Lisbon/Oak Hill in 3:52.
“We’ve been wrestling really well the last three weeks,” Wells coach Scott Lewia said. “And in the early rounds we got a lot of pins, which are worth an extra two points. We were ahead by 18 after the first round and we built the lead from there. We have really nice depth.”
The Warriors, who now have five state championships, took 12 wrestlers to the state meet and nine placed in the top four.
Three finished second: freshman Mike Ducharme at 106 (losing to Mattanawcook’s Deegan Tidswell on a pin in 29 seconds); freshman Danny Marquis at 113 (losing to Mattanawcook’s Jackson Sutherland on a pin in 1:12) and junior Jacob Scott (losing to John Bapst’s Landon St. Peter on a pin in 5:49).
“A lot of schools are down in numbers,” Lewia said. “Not us. We pick up six to eight freshmen every year. That’s a tribute to our pee-wee program (for grades K-8). We develop a lot of quality kids there.”
The Warriors also got a third-place finish from Morgan Welch-Thompson at 195.
Dexter’s Caleb Weeks, the 120 state champ a year ago, won the 132 championship this year with a 5-3 decision over Mattanawcook’s Travis Mushero.
Zoe Buteau, a female from Lisbon/Oak Hill, finished fourth at 132.
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