March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Ellsworth sweeps PVHS, Calais in meet

ELLSWORTH – With the postseason more than a month and a half away, Tuesday’s meet at Ellsworth High School was more a chance for wrestlers to continue to fine-tune and practice newly learned techniques and moves against opponents in different-colored jerseys.

“I work them really hard in practice because we have a lot of information and technique to teach them and not a lot of time to do it,” said first-year Ellsworth coach Chris Cobbett. “We go hard every day, so a meet is almost like a break for them.”

Nobody needed any breaks Tuesday as the meet simply flew by. Due to the absence of George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill, which is fielding a team for the first time this year, and unusually low numbers at traditional Class C power Penobscot Valley, Tuesday’s meet took only two hours.

Cobbett’s Eagles engineered a meet sweep as they doubled up Gerald Hutchinson’s Howlers from Howland 48-24 and beat fellow first-year coach Larry Casey’s Calais squad 77-19.

In the other meet, which offered a contrast in coaches and team sizes, the Howlers downed Calais 39-12.

On one side of the gym, you had 14-year coaching veteran Hutchinson with an eight-member team – minuscule by Howler standards. On the other side, you had Casey, whose first year with the Blue Devils keeps getting better as the team has gone from 13 to 20 wrestlers.

“Wrestling is a hard sport to sell. You either love it or you don’t,” Casey said. “I think some of it has to do with us having a little success, and success breeds success.”

Casey’s 9-7 squad has been suffering from the effects of the flu, which kept a few wrestlers out of Tuesday’s meet, and despite Tuesday’s double loss, he remains optimistic.

“I’m happy with the progress we’re making. Things are pulling together for us,” he said.

The same can’t be said for Hutchinson, whose squad has lost 19 wrestlers since the first day of the team signup.

“We had 27 sign up and 19 when I started the season. Now we’re down to eight, but we’re having a great time with the kids we have,” Hutchinson said. “We’re loose because there’s no pressure and they’re great kids.”

Hutchinson didn’t want to get into the reasons behind the defections, but was obviously disappointed by them.

“It’s a trying year in the sense I know we have quality wrestlers sitting in study hall who could have won states or given Dexter a good run, and they’re not wrestling,” he said. “They never said why, and I’m not going to chase them.”

Penobscot Valley’s lack of depth hasn’t dissuaded the remaining members, however.

“Everyone’s just trying to do the best they can and we’ve been trying not to think too much about the guys who aren’t here,” said PVHS junior Greg Savage, who remained unbeaten with a pin on Tuesday. “We just have to do what we can with what we have.”

Savage has run his match record to 13-0, despite jumping up two weight classes to 189 pounds.

“It’s going to take somebody tough to beat Greg in 189. He could win it all,” Hutchinson said. “He’s gone from 160 to 189 and it’s all muscle. He’s one of the big bright spots.”

Like Savage, Ellsworth’s Jeff Desmond is also unbeaten. Unlike Savage, Desmond moved down, from 112 to 103 – where he has run off 14 straight wins this season.

“I was looking forward to this season, but no, I didn’t really expect to be unbeaten at this point,” Desmond said. “I think wrestling at 112 when Travis [Hardison] dropped down halfway through last season really helped me.”

Desmond barely avoided his first loss with a third-period pin (4:54) after Penobscot Valley’s Josh Carrier went ahead 11-2 on points.

“Last year, I found myself on my back against the big guys a lot, and I learned I had to improve my technique and not just rely on trying to overpower somebody.”


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