WELLS — It doesn’t happen often during the regular season of high school wrestling, but every once in a while you will get a matchup between two standout wrestlers.
The fans that made their way to Wells High School for Wednesday’s tri-meet between Biddeford, Massabesic and Wells certainly got their money’s worth as two defending state champions squared off.
The match of the night ”“ between defending Class A state champion Mike Risti of Massabesic and defending Class B state champion Mike Curtis of Wells ”“ took place early on in the tri-meet as the Mustangs and Warriors squared off first.
With Massabesic in command in terms of the team score, Curtis and Risti went head-to-head in the most anticipated bout of the night.
Curtis took down Risti early in the first and took the Massabesic standout to his back to take a 5-0 lead just 30 seconds in. Risti rebounded with an escape and takedown to cut the lead to 5-3 heading into the second.
In the second, Curtis took the down position and scored a reversal to increase his lead to 7-3. Risti would get another escape, but Curtis responded with a takedown to make it 9-4. The two would then trade reversals to send the bout into the third with Curtis up 11-6.
Risti chose down to start the final period and would get an escape, but Curtis would secure one final takedown to pick up a 13-7 victory.
“He’s just a brute, he’s a tough kid,” said Curtis of Risti. “It’s nice having competition like that, that I can see prior to states.”
Massabesic coach Rick DeRosier is always happy to see his kids get to wrestle tough competition.
“They actually always wrestle each other really tough, so it’s kind of nice to watch them when they do wrestle,” said DeRosier, who is happy to get Risti some elite competition before the postseason. “We don’t have enough guys in our practice room to wrestle with Mike, so when he sees a match like this, it’s nice.”
Massabesic would get pins from Noah McGrath (126), Logan Martin (160) and Trevor Walton (195) as the Mustangs picked up a 48-27 win over Wells.
Wells got a win on the mat from Isaac Desrochers, who picked up a fall at 132, and would accept three forfeits.
In the other matches, Massabesic picked up a 51-25 win over the Biddeford Tigers, who would end the night with a 42-34 win over Wells.
In the Massabesic-Biddeford contest, another defending state champion would be tested as the Tigers’ Dominick Day, who won the Class A 138-pound gold last year, battled Massabesic’s Zac Richard, who took home a silver medal at 145 pounds last year.
Day took a 2-0 lead into the second period and then would ride Richard throughout the middle period to keep the lead heading into the third.
In the final period, Day took down and would escape and get a takedown to take what seemed like a commanding 5-0 lead. Richard didn’t quit as the standout scored an escape and takedown to cut the lead to 5-3. Richard had Day on his back for a moment, but didn’t get enough of a count for back points and the match ended with Day getting his arm raised.
Massabesic’s Leo Amabile (106), Ethan Huff (120), McGrath (126), Noah Schneider (170), Walton (195) and Risti (220) all recorded falls in the win.
Biddeford got a major decision from Brandon Avery at 132 pounds.
In the final match of the night, the Tigers received pins from Day (160), Shayne Welch (195) and Austin Burnham (285).
For Wells, it was Charles Durfee (145), Drew Peters (170) and Curtis (220) picking up pins.
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