Remsen approaches rare milestone Camden Hills wrestler seeks his fourth straight state title Saturday

ROCKPORT – Chris Remsen is nearly as polished in jewelry design as he is in collecting wrestling gold.

The 145-pound Camden Hills High senior, who will seek his fourth consecutive Class B wrestling championship at the state meet to be held at the Bangor Auditorium this Friday and Saturday, recently won a statewide art contest, besting 295 other entries with his submission, a piece of hand-crafted jewelry.

“I like to design jewelry, carving, woodworking and working with clay,” said Remsen.

The 19-year-old Rockport resident sees similarities between his love of art and love of wrestling.

“Both take extreme focus, dedication and patience, definitely,” he said.

Remsen is anything but patient on the mat – as his 101 career pins will attest. He became just the second wrestler in state history to achieve at least 100 pins last Saturday while winning his weight class at the Eastern Maine Class B championship meet. Noble of Berwick senior Decota Cotten is credited with achieving that mark earlier this season.

Remsen also earned his 150th career win at the regional, and will carry a 150-8 career record into the state meet. He is 117-0 against instate competition since a loss at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championship meet – in 2001.

“Chris Remsen is a Monday-to-Sunday wrestler,” said Camden Hills coach Patrick Kelly. “He eats, sleeps and thinks wrestling, and he’s an honor student. He attacks wrestling like he attacks his life. He thinks wrestling, trains hard, eats right, sleeps right. He’s the most disciplined athlete I have ever had.”

“Chris puts so much into wrestling,” added Camden Hills senior Bryan Creamer, the reigning 189-pound state Class B champion who has been one of Remsen’s teammates since the eighth grade. “He’s just so strong, and he loves wrestling and goes out and does what he needs to do to win.”

Remsen’s level of wrestling-related self-discipline involves adherence to a strict diet (“high protein, high vegetable, a lot of water and no candy or white bread”), at least eight hours of sleep each night, and the willingness to sacrifice for the pursuit of excellence.

“It?s just the way I attack things and the way I look at things,” said Remsen. “I feel if I’m going to do something, whether it’s wrestling or in school, I’m going to put forth my best effort and really try to do it the best I can.

“It’s definitely a huge sacrifice, because pretty much every decision I make – not going out on the weekends, or not being able to eat the food I really want to, or not being able to just relax but going out and train – involves wrestling. It?s not a choice I make once, but every day I have to make a choice to try to challenge myself and somehow better myself.”

“Remsen’s commitment is not lost on those who watch him at work from the opposite corner of the mat.

“His hard work, his training methods and his love of the sport all make him special,” said Belfast coach Neal Wood. “He has a tremendous work ethic, he’s every coach’s dream to have. When he goes into practice, with the tremendous work ethic and attitude he has, it’s got to rub off on his teammates.”

For Remsen, 33-0 with 25 pins this season, practice is where he gets in nearly all of his work – his three victories at the regional took a combined 3 minutes, 49 seconds; a week earlier he won the KVAC title with three pins in 2:41.

“Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of it is preparation,” said Remsen, who also fights through asthma. “The meets are a chance to show off all our hard work. The real hard work is done in the practice room every day.

“It’s a very tough sport, the toughest and oldest sport, and it takes a lot of work to stay on top.”

Remsen began wrestling as a fifth-grader in the Rockport Elementary School youth program but didn’t fully commit to the sport until the eighth grade, when he was an undefeated state champion.

“Until then I had some questions about whether I was going to continue,” said Remsen. “It probably came down to just getting a taste of winning. I just wanted to do anything I could to keep winning.”

Since then, there’s been almost nothing but individual success for Remsen and collective glory for the Camden Hills program, which has won the last four state Class B championships.

“I love the physical aspect of wrestling,” he said, “as well as the fact you’ve got a great team behind you but it’s still your job to go out on the mat where it’s just you and another person going against each other.”

Remsen’s wrestling success is not confined to the high school season. After winning the 140-pound state title as a junior, he placed among the top finishers in a pair of national freestyle tournaments last spring and then traveled to Australia in July to compete in the Down-Under International Games – where he won all 11 of his matches.

“It was a great experience,” he said. “Wrestling freestyle is totally different from the high school wrestling we do here.”

Win or lose, Remsen’s high school wrestling career comes to an end this weekend. Should he win, he would become just the sixth four-time state champion in Maine history, a short list that includes former Camden-Rockport standout Tim Boetsch.

And if that effort leads to another state title for the Windjammers, for Chris Remsen that would represent the perfect ending.

“I get much more enjoyment out of seeing some of my fellow wrestlers come back and win some hard-fought matches than my own victories,” said Remsen, who plans to wrestle and study biology in college, likely at North Carolina State.

“Misery loves company, well, victory definitely does, too. I just like to be part of a whole team of guys who are really into the sport.”