AUGUSTA — The fact the 17th annual Cony Duals were held Monday, three weeks after originally scheduled due to bad weather, didn’t diminish the drama.
The tournament, a series of dual elimination matches throughout the day, came down to two of the region’s better teams, Cony and Skowhegan.
In the end, the very end, Skowhegan prevailed by a score of 42-36 that included an upset by junior Dakota Melvin in the 220-pound division. Indians coach Tenney Noyes elected to forfeit at 195 pounds so Melvin wouldn’t have to face defending state champ Nic Mills. Instead, Melvin bumped up to 220 pounds where he faced Cony’s Mohammad Ajendi. Melvin pulled out a 7-3 victory that included a couple of takedowns to assure the Indians would win the match.
“You got to give credit, Nic Mills, he’s a man-child,” Noyes said. “We’ve got to be realistic and give him a chance. He took that opportunity and he ran with it.”
Cony’s Mitchell MacFarland pinned Skowhegan’s Brennan Boulette in the first period of the 285-pound match to complete the scoring.
“I just wished we had wrestled a little bit better in the finals,” Cony coach Shawn Totman said. “We lost some tough matches we needed to win.”
The Indians picked up pins in the finals from Jake Craig (106), Logan Carter (120) Samson Sirois (145) and Connor Dore (160). Craig, a freshman, and Samson, a senior and defending state champ, are currently undefeated.
“Connor Dore, who’s a sophomore, had a great match,” Noyes said. “He bumped up to ’60 and got a pin for us. A lot of our younger kids are putting it together.”
The duals usually involves 12 teams, but rescheduling moved the field back to seven teams — Cony, Skowhegan, Gardiner, Mt. Blue, Westbrook, Mt. Ararat and Winslow — with an eighth team made up of junior varsity contestants. Mt. Ararat finished third.
“We were lucky to even kind of have it,” Totman said. “They’re getting ready for a basketball game right now. It worked out.”
The Rams drew good performances from several wrestlers.
“Noah Dumas (106) wrestled great, Jakob French (152) wrestled great,” Totman said. “Danny Lettre (182) wrestled really well. He let that kid get a big lead then he wrestled amazing for the last period and a half.”
Lettre lost to Skowhegan’s Job Nadeau, who had beaten him three times this season.
The race among Class A North teams should be a great one this season. Skowhegan, which finished second in the North last year, returns several strong wrestlers, but the Indians recently lost dual meets to Oxford Hills and Erskine, which is moving up to Class A this year.
“It’s tough to get in a groove so far this season,” Noyes said. “There’s lot of different things going on between the weather, injuries . . . this flu that’s going around. Every little thing seems to be affecting us this season.”
Cony lost to Skowhegan in a dual meet this season but has made strong showings in tournaments, winning the Tiger Invitational and placing second at the Westbrook Invitational.
“I think A North is very tough,” Totman said, “You’ve got Nokomis, you’ve got Oxford Hills, you’ve got Skowhegan, you’ve got us. Erskine has a very good team. Mt. Blue and Mt. Ararat are improving every week. It’s going to be a dogfight which is the way it should be.”
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