Ellsworth- The Foxcroft Academy wrestling team came into the Class B Northern Regionals at Ellsworth looking to defend their title. They knew it was not going to be easy, but quickly realized how hard it was going to be. After 3 rounds the Ponies found themselves trailing the Dexter Tigers by 41 points, 130.5 to 89.5. The Ponies knew it was going to take every wrestler to step up to pull a team victory. “Things did not look good early on. We found our selves in a deep hole, but no one panicked. Everyone just continued to give their all.” Coach Ayala explained.
In the next round FA begin to rally. In the Conci-Semis Foxcroft had 10 wrestler wrestling compared Dexter’s 3. At the end of this round the Ponies came out with a 1 point lead. FA had 8 wrestlers win and advanced to the Conic-Finals to Dexter’s 1. “This was a huge round for us. It just showed how determined we were to win.” Ayala said.
Going to the Finals the Finals Foxcroft had a 21 pint lead. Dexter still had a chance to pull the victory as they had 7 wrestling in the Finals compared to FA’s 3. Dexter’s Senior Caleb Weeks at 132 started the comeback for the Tigers as he pinned his opponent from MA. Also winning was Junior Gage Stone at 152, as he pinned his Buckpsort opponent to cut FA’s lead to 9 points. Dexter was not successful to win their matches at 138 and 145 and FA dropped their first Finals at 120. At 160, it came down to FA’s Dustin Simmons vs Dexter’s Isaiah Hesseltine. This was a match of familiarity, as both Senior wrestlers have seen each many times in their careers. Both wrestlers knowing each others strengths stayed away from each other in the early period, but FA’s Simmons was able to get a takedown to lead the match 2-0 in the first period. Simmons continued the pressure and was able to add to the lead and get some back points to now lead 5-0 to end the 2nd period. It all came down to the 3rd period for these two wrestlers and they gave their all. With less than a minute to go Simmons attacked and was able to get a single leg. Hesseltine try to fight it, but Simmons was too strong and was able to catch him into a cradle to put him on his back for the pin. “Dustin again stepped up for us, like he has all year. His win in the finals sealed the victory for us.” Ayala said.
Dexter still had 2 wrestlers left in the finals, but with Dustin’s win the lead now was 15 points and the most Dexter could score was 12 points. Both Dexter’s wrestlers at 170 and 220 lost, but FA received one more victory at 195. Sophomore Lucas Ames won an exciting match by pinning his John Bapts opponent and giving his team and the FA fans an exclamation point to their amazing comeback. “It was a very emotional day with a lot of ups and downs. But I am so proud of how we held our composure even when things looked dim. We just never gave up.” Ayala said.
Pictures-
1. FA Celebrating their Victory
2. Dustin Simmons Regional Champion @ 160 celebrates with FA Coaches (L-R- Luis Ayala, Terry Whittemore, Ryan Reardon)
3. FA Captain celebration their Regional Titlle (L-R- Josh Tatlock, Grady Reardon, Dustin Simmons, and Rico Ayala)
4. Team Celebrating their Victory
5. FA’s Dustin Simmons Regional Champion @ 160
6. FA’s Lucas Ames Regional Champion @ 195.
