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After a holiday season of invitational tournaments followed by a succession of multi-team meets, high school wrestling’s postseason begins Saturday with conference championship meets.
The Penobscot Valley Conference championships will be contested at Mount Desert High School in Bar Harbor, while the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championships will be held at Belfast Area High School.
Camden Hills of Rockport is the four-time defending KVAC champion, while Foxcroft Academy has won the last three PVC titles, and each is favored to defend its conference crown.
Camden Hills is coming off a stellar regular season, going undefeated in dual-meet competition while winning the prestigious Noble Invitational tournament at North Berwick and the Redskin Invitational at Sanford.
Coach Patrick Kelly’s Windjammers have four returning champions from last year’s Class B state meet where Camden Hills tied Mountain Valley of Rumford to earn its sixth consecutive state title. Top wrestlers for the Windjammers include Jacob Berry – the 2005 KVAC meet’s most outstanding wrestler – at 140 pounds, Murphy McGowan (112), Joe McGowan (125), True Bragg (130), Derek Young (135), Cody Laite (145) and Harry Pearson (171).
Belfast, the conference runner-up last year, figures to be among Camden Hills’ chief challengers. The Lions feature defending 125-pound Class B state champion Tony Gilmore, now competing at 130, as well as Logan Kelley at 171 and Jim Spencer at 119.
Foxcroft hopes to use the PVC meet as a springboard toward its third consecutive Class C state championship.
Coach Luis Ayala’s Ponies are spearheaded by three returning state champions. That group is led by senior Josh Pelletier, a two-time champ at 215 pounds who has lost just once against in-state competition at 275 this winter. Classmate James McPhee, the reigning 189-pound state champ, is undefeated against in-state foes at 215 this season, while sophomore Jerod Rideout is one of the top contenders at 140 pounds after winning a state title as a freshman at 135.
Other teams expected to contend for top finishes include Dexter, Caribou, Bucksport, and Penobscot Valley of Howland. Dexter, second at last year’s Class C state meet, is led by undefeated All-American Jeremiah Barkac at 112 pounds and fellow 2005 state champion Billy Greene at 145.
Caribou, which last weekend won the Aroostook County championship, is led by veterans Carlin Dubay (103), Brad Burlock (160) and Micah Wall (189). Bucksport boasts an undefeated wrestler in 189-pound senior Adam Tweedie (33-0), a state Class C runner-up at that weight last winter and a state champ at 160 as a sophomore. Shawn Powell, 31-1 this winter, is another threat for the Golden Bucks at 112.
The conference meets will be followed on Feb. 4 by regional championship meets. The Eastern A meet is set for Oxford Hills in South Paris, while Caribou will host the Eastern B meet and Penobscot Valley will stage the Eastern C event.
The Western A meet will be held at Noble High School, with the Western B and C meets slated for Mountain Valley High in Rumford.
Those meets will be followed a week later by the 2006 state championships for all classes to be held Feb. 10-11 at the Bangor Auditorium.
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