FARMINGTON – With no margin for error, Josh Haines of Mt. Blue took care of business with a meet clinching win in the 171-pound weight class.

Mt. Blue put forth a solid effort and received big wins from Haines, Nick White and Hazen Pingree in an important 32-29 win against Oxford Hills.

The victory proved two-fold for the Cougars who gained revenge and continued on their path of destruction.

Oxford Hills (16-3) earned wins over Erskine 49-18 and Gardiner 51-12. The Vikings was paced by Seth McAlister (30-1 at 140) and Kevin Brown 152 with three wins each.

Mt. Blue (13-4) was a triple threat in the battle of KVAC teams, also earning victories over Gardiner 54-20 and Erskine 48-36.

Seth Webber (24-3) broke the school record with 120 career wins. The defending state champion received a forfeit on the historic match.

“It feels great,” Webber said. “I would have liked to wrestle, but (Erskine) bumped a kid up.”

In the featured meet, the Vikings’ John Sirmopoulos set up Haines’ heroics by winning a 14-6 major decision (four-team points) against Sheldon Allen at 160.

With Mt. Blue clinging to a 27-25 lead with two matches left, Haines quickly took control and executed some pinning combinations to build a 10-0 advantage.

The Cougars senior posted an arm and secured a half-nelson to pin Kevin Crocker in the third period.

“I knew the situation (scoring) prior to my match,” Haines said. “I just went out on the mat and did what I had to do. I really didn’t (form) a strategy except to go for a pin.”

Haines had three pins, including sticking Shawn Kozma of Gardiner.

The Cougars’ Chris Embleton started a string of four-straight wins by pinning Jack Pike at 119. White followed with a 14-4 major decision against Adam Edgerton. After Seth Webber won a 5-2 decision at 135 by countering Josh Laird, McAlister stuck Ben Audet.

“This win was huge for the team,” Mt. Blue coach Nate Platt said. “The wins by Nick White and Hazen Pingree were big because they had each lost to the same opponents. We’ve been hearing all season long that Skowhegan and Oxford Hills were on top. Well, now we have beat them both and I think the team has proven that we will be regional contenders.”

Pingree recorded a 4-3 decision over Tom Moulton. The wrestlers spent the entire third period trying to secure a takedown. Brown countered a single leg shot and won a thrilling 11-9 overtime decision against Jared Merrill.

The stage had been set after the teams split the first four matches. Nate Child (215) stuck Tyler Guerin, but the Vikings Matt Hess (275) used a leg trip to pin Kyle Gilley in 54 seconds. Willie Rolfe of Oxford Hills pinned Gary Begin with a head and arm at 112.

“The loss to Mt. Blue was pretty disappointing,” McAlister said. “We really need some guys to start stepping up at this point of the season.”

Oxford Hills started slowly with several decisions against Erskine, but never seemed to gain momentum. Laird helped things by executing a go-ahead takedown with 25 seconds left and pinned Dennis Hay.

“We were flat,” Vikings coach Mark Dolloff said.

“They are not finishing their moves. The pin is there, but they either break it off for some thing else or don’t recognize what they had.”

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