Camden Hills rolls to 11th straight Seven Windjammers also claim titles in individual weight divisions

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BAR HARBOR – Perhaps the Camden Hills Windjammers should consider pinstripes on their uniforms next season.

Like the New York Yankees of the 1930s and 1950s did to baseball, Camden Hills has dominated the Eastern Maine and Class B wrestling landscape for more than a decade.

Given the predominance of Red Sox fans on the team, however, maybe they should just borrow from the 1970s Cincinnati Reds instead.

Camden Hills’ “Big Red Machine” won its 11th consecutive Eastern Maine Class B regional title at Mount Desert Island High School in convincing fashion Saturday despite an unusually high number of freshmen and sophomores.

Even youth and inexperience combined with a talented field of opposing wrestlers weren’t enough to sidetrack the Windjammers’ express as only two of Camden Hills’ seven individual champions were juniors or seniors.

“It’s a baby group. We’re starting nine freshmen and sophomores and we only have two seniors,” said Camden Hills coach Pat Kelly. “But you know what? I don’t care about youth. If youth had anything to do with it, we’d sit around as coaches and say ‘You’re a senior, you’re a freshman, so the freshman loses.’ We tell our young guys to keep working, keep improving, and get a little better each time.”

Freshman Murphy McGowan set the tone early for the Windjammers as he won both of his matches, improved his overall record to 39-1, and won the 103-pound weight class.

McGowan pinned Jim Spencer of the runner-up Belfast Lions, who have been sailing in the Windjammers’ wake the last few years.

They were again Saturday as Camden Hills finished with 248 points and Belfast had 184.5. Caribou was third at 105.

“I guess we lost to them by two points three years ago,” Belfast coach Neal Wood. “Are we ever going to reach the top? I hope so. Yeah, it’s frustrating, but our program is growing, especially at the lower end, and you just have to be patient.”

Patience has played a key role in Camden Hills’ season as Kelly and brother John have emphasized continual improvement over wins for most of the season. The wins just happened to coincide naturally.

“I think it’s just our formula,” Pat Kelly said. “People say there are rebuilding years, but in the end, you have an obligation to work as hard as you can to keep tradition going.”

Windjammer wrestlers placed among the top four in all 14 weight classes and won half of them. Even with Belfast winning four of six championship matches against Camden Hills, the Lions couldn’t offset the Windjammers’ overall talent and depth.

“Yeah, it looks like a dual meet between Belfast and Camden when they do the [championship round] introductions,” said Belfast’s Kyle Bonin, one of 12 Lions involved in the finals and one of six involved in the championship finals.

The other Camden Hills champions were sophomores True Bragg, Cody Laite, and Oliver Bradeen at 119, 140, and 189 pounds, respectively; junior Harry Pearson at 160; senior Matt Creamer at 171; and freshman Gibby Bryant at 215.

Creamer, who won his second straight regional title at 160 and is the defending state champ, says attitude is more important than age or experience.

“You can make anybody, wherever they are in the ranks, with the coaching we have and the alumni who come in to help, into a great wrestler,” said Creamer, one of five captains. “Probably the last regular season meet is when we really came together. It was against Foxcroft and it came down to the last match and Joe McGowan [junior at 112] won the clincher.”

Bonin improved his season record to 38-1 with an 11-3 decision over Joe McGowan at 112, and teammate Norman Gilmore won his second straight regional title at 130 and fourth overall with a pin of Camden Hills’ Derek Young.

“My freshman year, we lost to them by two points and we have 12 going to states with them having 14, so there’s not that much difference between us,” said Gilmore, who is 37-1 this season.

The other individual champs were Belfast’s Tony Gilmore (33-5) at 125 and Ben Dunham (19-3) at 145, Winslow’s James Cruwys (30-6) at 135, Ellsworth’s Tom Burns (28-3) at 152, and Old Town’s Dan Hatch (20-7) at 275.

Burns, who turned 18 Thursday, will have a little extra ammunition when he and older brother Matt argue over who has bragging rights.

“My brother has the school career record for wins with 143 and second is 118, so I’ll be third,” said the aspiring forensic psychologist. “But my brother never won a regional or state championship.”

This is the first regional title for Burns, who lost the first four of five tournament finals matches last year before winning states.

“My brother never won a regional or a state championship, but he won a conference title, which I didn’t,” Burns said.

Hatch has been wrestling since sixth grade and has lofty goals this season.

“My goal coming into the season is winning states. As far as I know, this is a first for our school as far as winning a regional final,” said a happy Hatch. “I was second at regionals and fourth at PVCs last year. This year I was second at PVCs and first here.”

So what about the pinstripes for Camden Hills next season?

“No, I think we’re all Boston fans here,” Pearson said with a chuckle.