DEXTER – Jeremiah Barkac’s wrestling career did not have an auspicious start.

“I think my first 20 matches or so I got pinned,” he recalled. “I remember my very first match, I got pinned in like four seconds.”

In fairness to the Dexter High senior, he was only 5 at the time, and he’s had few disappointments since then.

The 18-year-old Barkac enters Saturday’s high school state championships at the Augusta Civic Center poised to cap off one of the most remarkable careers in Maine wrestling history.

He is 42-0 this season, with 40 pins and two wins by technical fall. He has yet to be extended to the third period of any match and barely extended into the second period.

“Going into my matches, I usually plan on taking somebody down three times so I get a feel for wrestling instead of just taking them down and getting the pin,” said the 5-foot-4, 112-pound Barkac. “I like being out there on the mat because that’s why I wrestle, to have fun.”

Over four years with the Tigers he is 183-5, and he will end the season as the state’s unofficial career leader in victories.

Barkac has never lost to a Maine high school wrestler – his only defeats have come at the New England championships, where he finished third in the 112-pound class last year after placing fifth at 103 pounds as a sophomore.

“He’s an amazing wrestler, an amazing young man,” said Dexter coach Adam Gudroe after last Saturday’s Eastern Maine Class C championships. “He knows as much about wrestling as anyone I’ve met, and just watching him work and giving him my two cents worth, it’s been amazing.”

Barkac has been so dominant within the state that he’s only been taken down twice, once each by Camden Hills of Rockport brothers Joe and Murphy McGowan, the most recent coming two years ago.

And he’s a two-time All-American, earning top-six finishes during the summers after his freshman and sophomore years at the Cadet-Junior National Championships at Fargo, N.D.

“He’s very strong for his weight, he’s quick and strong and powerful,” said veteran Camden Hills coach John Kelly. “He’s definitely a formidable kid, with very good technique. He always seems to bring that tenacity to the mat, and he always has an air of confidence about him.”

Should Barkac emerge unscathed Saturday, he would become just the eighth Maine high school wrestler to win four individual state titles. He won the 103-pound Class C crown as a freshman and sophomore and has competed at 112 the last two years.

“It’s really exciting to me, and probably more exciting to my dad,” said Barkac. “It’s not really just the wrestling part, it’s more just being able to do it with my family there. That’s the most important part.”

It has been a family affair for the Barkacs. His parents, Mike and Kim, have been his biggest supporters, with Mike a former wrestler and assistant coach at California State University of Pennsylvania before the family moved to the small central Maine town of Parkman when Jeremiah was a sixth-grader.

By then Barkac and older brother Chris already were wrestling veterans, having had considerable success at the youth level in Pennsylvania.

“Jeremiah just wanted to wrestle,” said his father, who has coached him throughout his career and assists with the Dexter program. “When he was 8 or 9 years old, I stopped him at the end of June one year because he already had 106 matches. He just wanted to go out and wrestle every day.”

The family’s move to Maine put a bit of a crimp in the brothers’ wrestling opportunities, but the family adapted, making the long trips to southern Maine and out of state to get the best competition they could find.

“You had to travel a lot to find more competition and different people to wrestle,” said Jeremiah, “because the first couple of years, I was always wrestling the same people.”

It paid off handsomely for both brothers. Chris Barkac graduated from Dexter in 2005 as the seventh four-time champ in state history, going 138-8 overall and 132-1 against instate competition – the only loss coming while he was suffering from mononucleosis.

As for Jeremiah, those trips to various regional and national tournaments, as well as a stay at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., two summers ago, helped him refine a skill set that has been in a league of its own in Maine, and nationally competitive beyond the Piscataqua River bridge.

“I try to perfect the moves I know and get my timing down against different wrestlers,” he said. “I don’t really know all of the moves. I focus mostly on the basics. I don’t do anything that’s really special, I just like to work off basic moves.”

The biggest setback in Barkac’s wrestling career came last March when he suffered a back injury while competing at the national high school championships in Pennsylvania.

An early diagnosis suggested he would need surgery, but a second opinion was less dire, and with therapy and rest he began training again in September and resumed work on the mat with the start of the high school wrestling season.

This winter Barkac not only has focused on his own matches, he also has helped a fairly young Dexter team emerge as a contender, primarily because of its strength in the lighter weight classes.

At the Eastern C regional, the Tigers won each of the four lightest weight classes while wrestling to a second-place finish, four points behind Foxcroft Academy.

And with 103-pound Michael O’Connor, 119-pound Brian O’Connor, 125-pound Ronnie Harvey, and 152-pound Josh Harvey regional champions all, Barkac not only is a teammate but a successful mentor.

“When I wrestle with Mike O’Connor and Brian O’Connor and Ronnie Harvey, I don’t go easy on them,” he said. “If they do something right, I don’t stop them, I let them finish their moves, but if they do something wrong, I’ll just stop wrestling and try to show them what to do. I guess I’m kind of like a coach, too.”

Barkac projects as the favorite to win the 112-pound weight class at the states, then hopes to break through at the New Englands. He lost a 4-3 decision in the semifinals last year in a match where he was awarded two points for an additional takedown that would have provided the margin of victory, only to have those points taken away when he was ruled to be out of bounds.

But while the New Englands are important, the fact his longer-term future already has been determined has been the more important task completed in recent weeks. Barkac has accepted a scholarship offer to study and compete at 2006 NAIA wrestling champion Dana College of Blair, Neb.

“The important thing is I know where I’m going to college next year,” said Barkac. “But you always want to win the New Englands.”

High school wrestling

Maine 4-time state champs

Reggie Monroe, Sanford (1962-65)

Conrad Turgeon, Sanford (1963-66)

Mike Caramihalis, Sanford (1977-80)

Matt Lindsay, Penobscot Valley (1995-98)

Tim Boetsch, Camden-Rockport (1996-99)

Chris Remsen, Camden Hills (2001-04)

Chris Barkac, Dexter (2002-05)