RUMFORD — With the support of her family and teammates, Zoe Buteau always feels unstoppable on a wrestling mat.
Buteau’s confidence was evident at Saturday’s Class B South wrestling championships at Mountain Valley High School, as the Oak Hill junior picked up her first regional title in the 120-pound class. Next Saturday at Wells High School, she will try to become the first female to win a mixed state championship.
Wells defended its team title going away, placing 11 wrestlers in the finals and all 13 of its wrestlers in the top four to tally 206 points. Host Mountain Valley had a meet-high five champions to finish second with 132 points. Led by Buteau, Lisbon/Oak Hill (127.5) finished third. Madison (101.5) and Dirigo (94) rounded out the top five.
This year, about the only thing that has been able to stop Buteau is a hyper-extended elbow she suffered in preseason. It sidelined her for most of December but is usually long forgotten when she gets on a mat, thanks to her confidence in her preparation and pep talks from her father and her older brother, four-time state champion Danny Buteau.
Buteau stuck with her strengths and controlled her final match throughout to score a technical fall (15-0) over Wells’ Jacob Scott in the final.
“I’ve been trying to work legs a lot more. When I’ve been on top, it’s been working,” she said. “I’m just trying to work my strength with my legs.”
Buteau hopes to not only join her brother as a state champion at next Saturday’s state championships at Wells High School, but make history as well.
“There’s a little bit of pressure,” she said. “I have some, I can’t say anxiety, but I’m pumped for next weekend. I know if I go in there with my head high and if I place fourth at states, I’ll still be happy because I tried my hardest all through the year. If I get first, though, yeah, I’ll be even happier.”
Cam Bourget earned Lisbon/Oak Hill’s other title with a pin of Madison’s Bryce Lombard in the 160 final.
Mountain Valley’s Darin Buono made the home fans very happy by picking up his 100th career win in the 195 final over Wells’ Michael Wrigley.
Much like his final against Wrigley at the Mid-State League championships last week where Buono rallied from down late, 4-1, to win, 7-4, Buono rallied from a third-period deficit with a pancake takedown of Wrigley and ultimately pinned with 17.9 seconds left in the match to win the title and reach the milestone.
“It’s more of a mental game. I was going out there feeling like I’d already beaten him mentally,” Buono said. “It’s waiting for that right moment to hit a move. I was getting kind of nervous and I heard everyone yelling and I turned on the jets.”
“It’s such a memorable 100th win,” Dolloff said. “He’s just a really gutsy kid. He wrestles hard every single day. He’s one of those kids you want in your wrestling room as a leader by example.”
Mountain Valley’s other four champions finished their day with a pin, too —Vinny Deroche (106), Evrit Roy (126), Anthony Mazza (138), and Nathan White (145). Nathan LeClair pulled off a surprise for the Falcons with a pin of Dirigo’s Blaine Wilkins in the consolation round final, Dolloff said. Alex Shorey (fourth at 132) also qualified for states.
“The kids wrestled great today. They wrestled great last week,” Dolloff said. “We’re down a few because of grades and stuff, but they came out firing. To get five kids in the finals and they all win with pins, you can’t ask for more than that.”
“Hopefully we can get five finalists next week,” he added. “We’ll be right in the mix.”
Dirigo will send eight wrestlers to states, led by its lone champion, Jon Wainwright. He won the 132 title with a pin of Madison’s Joshua Savage at 4:52.
“I didn’t really expect Savage to come out like he did because the last time I face him (in the Mid-State final) I pinned him right in the first period,” Wainwright said. “He came out and surprised me, but I stayed offensive. I knew that if I was on the offense, he couldn’t be. I felt a little slow out there, but I kept him on defense. I’ve been working on conditioning all year just for moments like that.”
Joining Wainwright at states for the Cougars will be 220 runner-up Nolan Degroot, as well as consolation finalists, Blaine Wilkins (113), Owen Libby (120), Dave Pelletier (145), Dalton Berry (195) and Colton Carlow (285).
Lisbon/Oak Hill’s other qualifiers were runners-up Jack Tibbets (113), Riley Quatrano (138), Bradley Harriman (170) and Dan Bolton (182) and consi finalists Josiah Kenney (145) and Christian St. Hilaire (195).
Monmouth will send two wrestlers to states, Leo Wilson (106) and Logan Farr (138).
Several weight classes didn’t have enough entrants for a full eight-wrestler bracket. The 152-pound bracket had two wrestlers advance directly to the final with byes, while the 106 and 220 brackets featured just three qualifiers.
The lack of competition was a concern for coaches hoping to have their wrestlers prepared for states.
“Darin had a really good weight class at 195. It was very competitive, so it really helped him,” Dolloff said. “But Vinny, he got a bye all the way to the finals. That’s not going to help him get tougher or conditioning-wise.”
“It’s probably the weakest tournament we’ve been in all year, which is too bad.,” said Wells coach Scott Lewis, whose Warriors are the defending Class B state champions. “We’ll just practice hard next week and see where we go. We’ve got to do some work, but hopefully we’ll be right there again.
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