Three Foxcroft wrestlers qualify for New England championships

TOPSHAM — Three seniors from the Class B state champion Foxcroft Academy wrestling team earned berths in the New England championships with top finishes at the all-state qualifying meet Saturday at Mount Ararat School.

The Ponies’ Zach Caron and Michael Pendriss each won his weight division while teammate Brandon Brock placed second in his division at the meet, which brought together the top four finishers at each weight from the Class A and Class B state championship meets held a week earlier.

The top three finishers in each weight division at the all-state meet qualified for the 52nd annual New England Interscholastic Wrestling Championships to be held March 4-5 at the Providence (R.I.) Career and Technical Center.

Caron continued his undefeated season at 145 pounds with a 3-0 record at the all-states. He opened with a 9-1 major decision over Milton McCabe of Sanford, then scored a 16-0 technical fall over Eric Glidden of Marshwood of South Berwick in the semifinals.

Caron, the Class B state champion at 145, then pinned Class A state champion Josh Grenier of Noble of North Berwick at 3:54 of their final.

Pendriss, the Class B state champion at 220 pounds, defeated Class A state champion Max Storey of Cony of Augusta 10-5 in his final. He advanced earlier in the day by pinning Zach Eastman of Marshwood in 34 seconds and scoring a 7-2 semifinal win over Trey Burnham of Biddeford.

Brock, Foxcroft’s 195-pound Class B state champ, earned his trip to the New Englands by pinning Biddeford’s Shayne Welch at 1:10 of their first-round match and edging Cony’s Devon O’Connor 2-1 in the semifinals. He fell to Class A state champion Christopher Wilson of Nokomis of Newport by pin at 1:55 of their 195-pound final.

Caron, Pendriss and Brock will seek to become the first Foxcroft wrestlers to capture a New England title since Josh Pelletier won the 275-pound six-state crown in 2006.

Three other Foxcroft seniors placed fourth in their weight classes at the qualifying meet.

Antonio Ayala (126 pounds) Billy Brock (182) and Connor Holmes all advanced to the consolation finals before bowing out, each with a 2-2 record in the tournament.

Also participating in the event for coach Luis Ayala’s club were Brandon Weston at 106 pounds and R.J. Nelson at 132.

Tyler Beem of Dexter placed fourth at 132 pounds, compiling a 2-2 record in the daylong all-state tournament, Teammate Jacob Hesseltine competed in the 160-pound division.

Other individual champions at the all-state meet were Cody Craig (106 pounds) and Julian Sirois (152) of Skowhegan, Peyton Cole (138) and Trent Goodman (160) of Ellsworth, Christopher Wilson (195) and Hunter Glidden (285) of Nokomis, Brad Beaulieu (132) and Justin Stacy (182) of Marshwood, Griffyn Smith (113) of Dirigo of Dixfield, Peter DelGallo (120) of Gardiner, Caleb Austin (136) of Mountain Valley of Rumford and Robert Heatherman of Mount Ararat-Brunswick.