SANFORD — After battling a nasty cold for several days, Biddeford wrestler Dominick Day thought he finally had the illness beaten when he showed up at practice on Friday feeling better than he had all week.
Then he woke up Saturday morning ”“ the day of the Western Class A regional ”“ with something like the flu.
“I don’t know what it is,” said Day. “But it feels horrible.”
If Day felt bad, he did his best not to show it, winning his first two matches and then gutting out a 6-2 points victory against Marshwood’s Samuel Hebert in the 138-pound title match at Veteran’s Memorial Gym.
Still, by his own standards it was far from a sterling performance for Day, last year’s regional champion at 132 pounds and a two-time state meet runner-up who had beaten Hebert 11-0 in their only previous meeting this winter.
“It’s a lot more frustrating because you feel weaker, and the other opponent can tell that when we’re wrestling,” Day said. “That makes it a lot harder but you’ve got to push through it. I won, but I’m still not happy with my performance.”
Tigers coach Steve Vermette was a little more impressed.
“Dominick’s not feeling very well but he battled it out, Vermette said. “I knew he was going to win but I knew he’d be tired; his arms were tired, he couldn’t move very well but he gutted it out and I’m pretty proud of him. He wrestled to win, and that’s what he needed to do.”
Despite Hebert’s loss, Marshwood dominated the team competition at the regional meet for the third year in a row, placing nine wrestlers in the 14 individual finals and coming out with five champions to total 228.5 points.
And for the second year in a row, Noble just slipped past Massabesic for second, 199-196. Both schools will send 11 wrestlers to next Saturday’s Class A state meet, one fewer than Marshwood.
Massabesic and Noble had two individual winners each, with Mustangs senior Tyler Everett winning his third career regional crown by pinning Biddeford’s William Livermore 2:42 into their 126-pound championship match.
Despite being the defending regional champion at 126, Everett went into the meet as the No. 4 seed after wrestling at 132 for most of the season. That meant facing off with top-seeded Josh Grenier of Noble in the semifinals, but Everett dispatched him with a 13-8 victory before taking care of third-seed Livermore.
“I hadn’t faced (Livermore) before, so that added a little bit of mystery I guess,” Everett said. “I almost got him in the same move I ended up pinning him in in the first, and I noticed that worked on him so I tried the same thing on him. It was sweet to get a pin and the points for my team.”
Noble’s Bill Gagner (120 pounds) and Otto Keisker (152) pounds both won their title matches by pin to give the Knights some breathing room in the race for second, but after Massabesic junior Mike Risti overpowered Noble’s Robert Worell for a pin just 1:24 into the 195-pound title match, the Mustangs had two chances in the final two matches of the day to vault into second overall.
But twice they were foiled by rival Sanford, which won titles in each of the two heaviest weight classes as Andrew Moriarty pinned Tanner Andrews in 220-pound final and Jed Scott pinned Jordan Drain in the 285 final.
Coincidently each pin was whistled at 3:39, although that was about the only similarity between the Spartans’ two winners: The win was Moriarty’s 100th his high school career, about 85 more than Scott, a senior who just took up the sport this year at the behest of Sanford coach Nate Smith, his cousin.
“I’ve been trying to get him to wrestle since he was in Kindergarten, and finally as a senior the idiot comes out,” Smith joked. “It’s fun having him; he’s just a good personality. And he’s just so strong.”
Scott’s undeniable strength ”“ as well as his equally undeniable rawness ”“ was on display in the match against Drain. Despite dominating the opening three minutes, Scott was unable to get close to a pin until he got a tad of shouted instruction from Smith.
A little maneuvering plus one shift of his weight later, and Scott had the pin.
“You look at a lot of the heavyweights and they’re not heavy like he is,” Smith said. “Most heavyweights are 230 or 240, and then you get a kid like Jed whose just getting under 285. They’re not built like he is, so he can kind of get them to move where he wants them, even with the little technique that he has. It’s step by step, but he’s so coachable it works.”
The two individual titlists, plus three more fourth-place finishes, allowed Sanford to finish in fifth with 96 points.
One spot ahead of that was Biddeford, which led by Day, Livermore and 132-pound finalist Jake Gagne tallied a 104-point total to take a surprising fourth.
“I’m very happy with fourth place, that’s not too bad with such a young team,” said Vermette, who had seven freshman in his lineup of 14 Saturday. “I’m very pleased to be sending six to states.”
Kennebunk finished eighth overall with 41 points and advanced two wrestlers ”“ Kyle Bonti at 113 pounds and Connor Donaher at 195 pounds ”“ to the state meet, while Thornton Academy’s Robert Runnells, Sam Legere, William Wilson and Cody Falton all fell one win shy of a state meet birth with losses the consolation semifinals.
One wrestler who will be at states is Day, who has fallen agonizingly short of a state championship in each of his first two high seasons; last year, he fell to Marshwood’s Trevor Smith, a wrestler he had previously beaten three times, in the final.
Day is hoping to go that one step further next Saturday, although hopefully without the flu in tow.
“Today I just felt sloppy,” Day said. “I know I could have done better, and I guess I’ll show it next week at states.”
— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or cdunbar@journaltribune.com.
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