By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
BAR HARBOR – The Caribou Vikings landed six wrestlers among the top five in their respective weight divisions Saturday, and as a team finished sixth out of 12 teams at Saturday’s Eastern Maine Class B Championships held at Mount Desert Island Regional High School.
Contributed photo/Barry Gutradt-Stealthvader Photography
FOR THE PIN — Jake Maher of Caribou pins his opponent during Saturday’s Eastern Class B wrestling championship at Mount Desert Island in Bar Harbor. Maher placed fifth in the 171 lb. weight division.
The Vikes had two runners-up, one third-place finisher, one fourth-place finisher and two fifth-place finishers on the day.
Jason Case in the 112-lb. division and Deion Caudill in 189 both lost in the championship round. Case, who beat Ellsworth’s Terry Sullivan and MDI’s Jonathan Sargent in the early rounds, fell by a 3-0 decision to Hermon’s Alex Peterson in the finals. Caudill defeated Old Town’s Andrea Hamilton and Ellsworth’s Patrick Kidder in his first two matches, was pinned by Belfast’s Peter Kelley with 38 seconds left in the third round in the championship.
Brendan Wood, wrestling in the 125 division, garnered a victory over Mt. View’s Roger Flannery before losing to Calan Bragg of Camden Hills in the second round. In the consolation round, Wood recorded wins by fall over both Josh Silva of MDI and Flannery to take third overall.
Mike Selander, Caribou’s 119-lb. wrestler, came in fourth after defeating Coleman Powers of Camden Hills in a first-round match, losing by fall to Ellsworth’s Brandoen Goncalves in the second round, winning by a 9-6 decision over Mt. View’s Timothy Abbott and then getting pinned by Powers in 38 seconds of the consolation final.
Case, Caudill, Wood and Selander all advanced to the state championships, to be held Saturday at the Augusta Civic Center.
Caribou’s two fifth-place finishers, Jake Michaud in 145 and Jake Maher in 171, will go in as alternates.
The Vikings totaled 71 points in the tournament and finished behind champion Camden Hills (239) and runner-up Belfast (209), as well as Ellsworth (113), Hermon (95.5) and MCI (82).
Caribou, coached by Todd Albert, was ahead of Medomak Valley (53), Old Town (43), Sumner (28), MDI (19), Mt. View (12) and Central (0) in the standings.
