PITTSFIELD, Maine — Two Caribou wrestlers placed at the Mid Maine Wrestling Tournament held at Maine Central Institute Saturday.
Cory Jandreau wrestling at 120 lbs. and used two wins to get to the finals, only to be defeated by Dexter High School’s Tyler Beem.
He pinned Medomak Valley’s Rayanne Leach in the quarterfinals and also pinned Jayred Robishaw of Oceanside in the semifinals.
“I warned Cory about [Leach] and told him not to take her for granted as she placed second in this tournament last year and can be very dangerous,” said Caribou coach Chico Hernandez. “Cory wrestled very smart and won and did the same thing against another more experienced wrestler in Robishaw.
“These were two very good wins and will be very important later on this year at the Class B Eastern regionals as both schools are in our region,” the coach added.
Michaud, competing at 106 lbs., also had a good day as he got a first-round bye then met Devin Darveau of Bucksport in the semifinals. The match went back and forth before Michaud was pinned. In the consolation round, he met Evan Michael Sprague of Erskine Academy and defeated him by a major decision of 14-6 before Morse High School’s Steve Recknagel defeated Michaud for the bronze medal.
“Evan, like Cory, is making big time adjustments to their wrestling skills and making the transitions of wrestling like varsity high school wrestlers,” Hernandez said. “If both of these kids can make it and then take it to the next level, they both will have good chances of punching their tickets to the state tournament.”
The other four Caribou wrestlers failed to place, with only Eric Simon in 160 able to come away with a single win. Caribou scored 27 points to place 10th out of 18 teams. Nokomis was first with 139 and Dexter the runner-up with 104.5.
“Overall I thought we did not wrestle up to our potential and made bad choices while wrestling,” Hernandez said. “We need to clean up our mistakes and start wrestling smarter.”
The squad will have a chance to rebound when they compete in Saturday’s tourney at Mattanawcook Academy in Lincoln.
