SOUTH PARIS — Nokomis claimed the Class A North wrestling championship for the first time Saturday, winning a 14-team meet at Oxford Hills High.

Buoyed by four individual champions and four other podium finishers across 14 weight classes, Nokomis finished 24.5 points ahead of Cony and made a disappointing showing at the conference championships last week a distant memory.

“It’s the first time we’ve even been close,” Coach Scott Preble said. “The group of kids are maturing. I only have two seniors but they have very vast wrestling knowledge and they’re like a family.”

Skowhegan and Oxford Hills tied for third, one point behind Cony. Camden Hills was fifth.

Two key championship matches clinched the title. First, David Wilson pinned Dawson Stevens of Oxford Hills in the first period at 160 pounds, then James Boyd at 220 pinned Jarrod Taylor of Oxford Hills in 22 seconds.

The victories ensured that Oxford Hills, which won the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference title, would be unable to catch the Warriors.

After leading Oxford Hills by only 7.5 points entering the championship bouts, Nokomis pulled away to a 169.5-145 win.

Wilson said he hadn’t even thought about the big picture entering his match with Stevens.

“Not much,” Wilson said. “It was all about focusing and going fast, really picking the pace up. We had a lot of mistakes (at KVACs) so we had a good week of practice. We had a good day today.”

“Everyone came in this weekend with a lot more conference,” said 120-pound Nokomis senior Josh Brown, who won his second straight regional title. “You have to put everything on the line in order to win.”

Cony junior Nic Mills, the reigning state champion, won his second straight regional title at 195 pounds with a 5-1 win over Jeff Worster of Oxford Hills. He joined Ram teammate Noah Dumas (113 pounds) with individual championships.

“This means quite a bit,” Mills said. “There’s not too many kids from the South who I feel are as good as (Worster).”

At 285 pounds, Erskine Academy senior Jake Peavey won for the 152nd time in his career – the most by any wrestler in school history – by pinning Shawn Hermanson of Buckfield in 52 seconds. It was Peavy’s 106th career pinfall victory. Peavey and Eagle teammate Michael Sprague (16 pounds) won the two Erskine championships.

Skowhegan won three titles thanks to Jake Craig (106), Samson Sirois (132) and Jon Bell (170).

Sirois, who won the state title a year ago, was already looking beyond next week.

“All my focus is on New Englands,” Sirois said. “I went last year and I got fourth, but I’ve improved my bottom game and with my feet.”

Other regional champs were Caden Kowalsky of Mt. Ararat, Noah Lang of Camden Hills, Quentin Richards of Nokomis and Zuka Mabior of Oxford Hills.

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