PARIS — Oxford Hills’ freshman Christopher Levesque remained low key despite winning the 195-pound title at the Class A North wrestling regional at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School on Saturday.
Levesque’s win helped the Vikings finish third with 108 points. Camden Hills won the A North regional with a score of 142 followed by Windham/Gray New Gloucester/Windham 130, Cony/Messalonskee 96, Nokomis 92, Skowhegan 90, Mt. Ararat/Brunswick 86, Mt. Blue 81, Lawrence 42, Gardiner 36, Hampden 22, Lake Region and Poland 3.
Levesque, who also qualified for the state championship, beat Kaiden Veilleux of Cony/Messalonksee 8-5 in the 195-pound final.
“It was hard, but I ended up getting the win,” Levesque said. “Practicing hard, doing cardio at practice and working hard with wrestling with people that are better than me (helped).”
Oxford Hills coach Tony Stevens said Levesque wrestled well and doesn’t stop, and he had good balance and worked hard during his event.
“We are a young team. They wrested well today,” Stevens said.
Camden Hills had three first-place finishes from Landon Pease (132-pound class), Julian Henderson (126) and Michael Rollins (138).
Henderson defeated Gardiner’s Elija Farias 13-2.
“Every match is a tough match that goes through periods,” Henderson, a junior, said. “I will say it was one of the bigger point differentials (from) the times I have wrestled him. I think this is the fifth time I have wrestled him, and the first few times I beat him by a few points and he beat me…
“There was only 45 seconds on our feed, and I took him down, but once we hit the mat, I think I really controlled him. Great day for the team; great day for me.”
Camden Hills coach Patrick Kelly said his team’s hard work and dedication made all the difference on the mat.
“That is kind of our motto,” Kelly said. “Hard work and dedication leads to success, and we have a good group of young men and women on our team that just works hard. We’ve always said we are not going to be outworked and we weren’t, and along with that, there is a level of (team work) like coaches, the managers, the wrestlers, the fans (who) gotta believe we have something special, so we bring it to where ever we go.”
Mt. Blue’s Noah Krysztofiak won the 113-pound class, pinning Sam Lafavor at 1:08 from Cony/Messalonskee, but he left after his contest to have his lip stitched up.
“Noah is an awesome kid to have in our wrestling room,” Mt. Blue wrestling coach Mike Hanson said. “High IQ, really fast. He actually brings the level of our room up. So it is great having him there.
“He came to Maine, not knowing what Maine had to offer for wrestling, from Arizona. He has come here and performed really well. We’ve used him against the best kids in the state, and, I mean, he hangs with all of them. He is great to have.”
Mt. Blue junior Kaden Hewitt-Adams kept probing and looking for the right time to pounce on Cony’s Sebastian Garey and beat him with a pin in the 138-pound contest to take third place in the seeding and qualify for states.
Hewitt-Adams said there were several reasons why he prevailed and qualified for states.
“Probably my aggressiveness and just always wanting to score,” he said. “I am always going after it and trying to get some more points — never stopping.
“You’ve got to pay attention and know what is going on for sure. (This is) my first time wrestling (Garey). He was a little sloppy, but he is a lot tougher than I expected.”
Rounding out first-place finishers include: Brody Simons, Hampden Academy, 106; Ayden Cofone, Windham/Gray-New Gloucester/Westbrook 120; Aiden Clark, Skowhegan, 154; Isaiah Morris, Nokomis, 160; Scott Ingalls, Windahm/Gray-New Gloucester/Westbrook, 182; Nathan Shedd, Cony/Messalonksee, 220; Dash Fareel, Mt. Ararat/Brunswick, 152; Shea Farrell, Mt. Ararat/Brunswick, 170; Johnny Letter, Cony/Messalonskee, 285.
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