Bonny Eagle’s Colby Frost, top, maintains control against Tyler Johnson of Danbury, Connecticut, on the way to a 14-3 win in the 126-pound final Saturday at the Spartan Wrestling Annual Tournament in Sanford. Steve Craig/Portland Press Herald
SANFORD — Evrit Roy said his Mountain Valley High School teammates could tell by the look in his eye that he wasn’t happy about being the sixth seed in the 152-pound weight class at the Spartan Wrestling Annual Tournament.
Rather than sulk, Roy, a senior who has never won a state title, went to work. Roy pinned all four of his opponents, including Massabesic’s Matt Pooler at 1:25 of the first period of the championship bout Saturday. That effort earned Roy the Most Outstanding Wrestler award at the conclusion of the two-day tournament.
“It feels so good, especially because I got seeded so low,” said Roy, who was a Class B runner-up as a junior. “Pooler took sixth at New Englands last year, he’s very good. Especially being from Class B, going against all these Class A schools (and) out-of-state schools makes it feel even better.”
Roy was one of five champions from Maine at the invitational meet that annually boasts the strongest field of any wrestling event in the state. Defending Class A champion Mt. Ararat/Brunswick and a solid Kennebunk squad returned to the tournament for the first time in many years, making the brackets even deeper.
“We wanted to come to this tournament to see some of the competition we might see at New Englands,” said Erick Jensen, the Mt. Ararat/Brunswick coach. “Last year, a lot of our guys had the deer-in-the-headlights look when they got to New Englands.”
Danbury, Connecticut, the 2019 New England champion, won the tournament with 250 points and had 11 wrestlers who placed in the top six. Timberlane, from Plaistow, New Hampshire (221), was the runner-up, followed by Xavier of Middletown, Connecticut (198), and Cumberland, Rhode Island (177.5).
In addition to Roy’s win over Pooler, two other weight classes featured an all-Maine final.
At 160, Massabesic junior Noah Beal Hernandez, a sixth-place finisher at New Englands as a sophomore, beat Mountain Valley’s Anthony Mazza, 8-1.
“I had some tough matches. My semifinal (a 3-1 win against North Providence’s Chris Matarese) was a good match. I’m always looking for matches that can push me,” Hernandez said. “I love it. It’s good to see some out-of-state guys before you get to New Englands.”
In the 195 final, Wells junior Jonah Potter rallied from a quick 4-0 deficit to pin Kennebunk’s Trevor Fecko at 2:30. Potter had advanced with two pin wins against out-of-state wrestlers.
“I wrestled three matches this weekend, and all three of them were against stellar kids,” Potter said. “Just having that kind of competition makes you so much better as a wrestler.”
Mt. Ararat/Brunswick, with 107.5 points, was the fifth-best team, led by second-place finishers Brycen Kowalsky at 120, Shea Farrell at 132, and Ben Laurence at 170.
Kowalsky, battling flu symptoms, trailed just 6-5 against Michael Rapauno of Xavier midway through the second period before Rapauno built a 12-5 lead and then won by pin.
“I just felt drained at the end of the first period and kept getting to the point where the gas tank was empty. The kid was good, too, which didn’t help me,” Kowalsky said. “This gives me some areas to work on.”
Two of the in-state champs came from the same Steep Falls household. Caden Frost, a Bonny Eagle sophomore, withstood a late rally from Jake DeFonce of Abbott Tech (Connecticut) to win the 106-pound title, 7-5.
“This tournament shows me what the competition is going to be like at New Englands,” he said. “That’s my goal, to place there this year.”
Bonny Eagle brothers Colby and Caden Frost won the 106- and 126-pound titles at the Spartan tournament. Steve Craig/Portland Press Herald
Colby Frost, a junior, tenaciously controlled tempo for a 14-3 major decision against Danbury’s Tyler Johnson in the 126-pound final. Johnson, sixth at New Englands last spring, has committed to wrestle at George Mason. Frost reached the final with a 9-1 semifinal win against local rival Sean Moriarty of Marshwood, despite having to finish that match with a wrap around his head to stanch a significant nose bleed.
Against Johnson, Frost’s nose required attention on two occasions.
“I knew eventually my nose would start up again. I just wanted to set the tone early,” Colby Frost said. “He was a higher seed than me because he placed at New Englands and I was one match away last year. This was definitely a big match for me.”
Brian White of Belfast (182 pounds) and Zach Mercier of Marshwood (285) placed second, losing to Danbury wrestlers in the championship round.
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