Foxcroft captures EM title McPhee among Ponies’ standouts

DOVER-FOXCROFT – Foxcroft Academy has lost only one home wrestling match in the last four years – a narrow decision to five-time Class B state champion Camden Hills of Rockport two weeks ago.

And familiar surroundings proved to be just one more edge for the defending Class C champion Ponies on Saturday as they won their second straight Eastern Maine title.

Foxcroft finished with 226 points, compared to 188 for second-place Bucksport and 161 for third-place Dexter. Penobscot Valley of Howland (98), John Bapst of Bangor (75), and Hermon (71) also had strong showings among the 13-team field.

Foxcroft crowned seven individual champions and qualified 12 wrestlers for next Saturday’s state meet at Augusta by virtue of their top-four finishes.

“That was our goal, to get as many guys as possible to states,” said Foxcroft coach Luis Ayala, “because we know [Western B champion] Lisbon’s going to be ready and they’re going to have good seeds, so we had to do our job today to get really good seeds for the states.”

Not that the day was without adversity for the Ponies. Foxcroft didn’t make weight in the 112-pound division, meaning the Ponies not only didn’t have a wrestler in that class at the regional, but also won’t have one at the state meet.

“Everybody seemed to be down, but we still had to wrestle today,” said Ayala. “Our goal is to win and we’re capable of doing that if everybody does their job. It kind of hurt, but everyone rallied together and stepped it up.”

The Ponies qualified nine wrestlers for the finals, with five of those title matches pitting Foxcroft against Bucksport. Foxcroft won four of the head-to-head clashes by a combined eight points.

“It was a pretty rough day,” said Bucksport coach Joel Pelletier. “We thought we’d do better than we did. We got second, but we had guys who lost that really shouldn’t have lost. We’ve just been fighting this flu bug like every other team.”

FA’s Cyle Heaney held off Jon Pelletier 2-0 at 119 pounds, Mike McNaughton edged Shane Sullivan 4-3 at 125, Ryan Whittemore outpointed Joel Milan 10-6 at 145, and James McPhee outlasted Adam Tweedie 2-1 at 189.

McPhee’s road to his EM title was the most arduous. He defeated defending state champion Chris Vainio of Penobscot Valley 6-3 in the semifinals before using a takedown with 1:16 left in the third period to edge Tweedie – the Class C state champ at 160 in 2004. Vainio and McPhee hadn’t met since Vainio earned a 9-8 decision in last year’s state final, while Tweedie had outpointed the Foxcroft junior 10-4 at last week’s Penobscot Valley Conference meet.

“I’ve been wrestling Chris since seventh grade, and it’s the first time I’ve beat him, so that’s a good feeling,” McPhee said. “And with Tweedie, he wrestles a different style, so I just had to stay focused, stay calm, and wrestle smart.”

Also earning titles for the Ponies were undefeated brothers Caleb (152) and Josh (215) Pelletier and freshman Jerod Rideout at 135. Andrew Pomeroy (160) and Randy Briggs (171) earned second-place finishes.

Bucksport got titles from Booky Nesin at 112 pounds and 160-pound Derek Conner, who defeated Pomeroy to give the Golden Bucks their only head-to-head finals victory against Foxcroft.

Joel Allen (130) joined Pelletier, Sullivan, Milan, and Tweedie with a second-place finish for Bucksport, which also qualified 12 wrestlers for the state meet.

Dexter crowned three champions among the 10 wrestlers it will send to Augusta. Unbeaten Chris Barkac (130) remained on track for his fourth straight state title, winning three matches by pin to improve his season’s record to 37-0.

His brother, undefeated sophomore Jeremiah Barkac, required only 1:42 to earn two pins good for the 103-pound title. Junior Billy Greene provided the Tigers’ third championship, outpointing Nathan Lizotte of Madawaska 8-2 in the 140-pound final.

Penobscot Valley parlayed second-place finishes by Aaron Gagnon (103), Anthony McMullin (112), Nick McKechnie (135), and Doug Dyer (275) into its fourth-place finish.

John Bapst was led by C.J. Castonguay’s second at 152, and like PVHS the Crusaders qualified seven wrestlers for the state meet.

Hermon crowned two EM champions, Chris Archer at 171 and Pat Reardon at 275.

“These guys have been working hard for the last two or three years,” said Hermon coach Richard Stark. “This year they’ve been working really hard, too, and it showed today because they came through. I’m really proud of them both.”