SeDoMoCha MS wins inaugural Penquis League championship
HOWLAND — There was a lot of excitement coming into this year’s middle school wrestling season, finally there was going to be a league tournament in wrestling.
The Penquis League committee had agreed to put a tournament at the end of the season for wrestling. The Penquis League have had other league tournaments for other sports such as for soccer, field hockey, basketball, and baseball. This wrestling tournament was possible due to the fact that Warsaw Middle School in Pittsfield had a wrestling team.
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THE FIRST PENQUIS LEAGUE CHAMPS — Last month the SeDoMoCha Middle School wrestling team traveled to Howland for the inaugural Penquis League championship. Ten individual first-place performances helped the Eagles pick up 204.5 points to surpass the 169 scored by runner-up Ridge View of Dexter.
The Penquis League is made up of nine other middle schools, but not all of them had wrestling programs. Only four other middle schools had wrestling teams, SeDoMoCha, Ridge View from Dexter, Piscataquis in Guilford, and Hitchborn of Howland. When Warsaw Middle School joined the league a couple of years ago, the school athletic directors put a proposal to add a league championship for wrestling.
“This is great for wrestling and all the middle school wrestling teams,” said SeDoMoCha wrestling coach Luis Ayala, “This gives the kids something to work for, a goal for the end of the season.”
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TWO MEDALS FOR TWO BROTHERS — SeDoMoCha coaches Terry Whittemore, left, and Luis Ayala celebrate with Penquis League champions and brothers Esau, left, and Jacob Olson.
SeDoMoCha took full advantage of this opportunity. They worked hard all season long with one goal in mind, to be the first Penquis League wrestling champions. All the hard work paid off as the team became champions in a dominating fashion.
The Eagles were able to win by more than 30 points ahead of Ridge View. Going into the finals the score was pretty close and it was a two team race, as SeDoMoCha had 11 wrestlers in the finals and Ridge View had 10. As the finals began it was apparent that the Eagles were not going to be denied of the goal on that day.
SeDoMoCha ended with 10 individual champions to Ridge View’s five. This helped SeDoMoCha pull ahead of Ridge View, 204.5 points to 169. It was a dominating performance as the Eagles had 10 champions out of 16 weight classes.
Placing for the Eagles were: in third place: Jacob Diamond and in second: Dustin Simmons.
League champions: Rico Ayala, Esau Olson, Jacob Olson, Breyer Manchester, Brandon Weston, Adam Dulac, RJ Nelson, Cody Labbe, Josh Whittemore and Reggie Johnston.
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TEN FOR 16 —Eighth-grader Reggie Johnston celebrates his victory as a Penquis League champion. The SeDoMoCha Middle School wrestling team had first-place wrestlers in 10 of 16 weight classes, displayed at bottom.
