WALES — On the mat, Oak Hill takes an all-for-one and one-for-all mentality into every match.

Off the mat, the Raiders have had little choice but to look out for themselves.

“We just try to stay away from each other as much as possible,” senior Mike Hamm said.

It’s not because of any personal animosity among the team members. The Raiders just know that this season, the best strategy has been to keep their distance.

Like many wrestling squads, Oak Hill has been battling the spread of various viruses all winter. The meddling microbes have kept the Raiders from being at full strength virtually the entire season,

“This is a tournament team more than a dual meet team,” Oak Hill coach Shane Bouchard said. “And the thing is, I don’t think we’ve been 100 percent at any tournament this year.”

Oak Hill’s best showing this season was at the Noble Invitational, where it placed ninth among Maine schools and 10th overall among 41 teams from around northern New England. Even then, the Raiders weren’t at full strength.

 “I’d say that was the closest we came to being 100 percent, but if we had Taylor  (Pomerleau) down at 103, she may have placed. Keith (Madore) wasn’t clicking at 140 yet. Craig (Morrill) was sick. Nick (Wells), sick. They both would have placed. Nick would have been a champion.”

Virtually no one has been immune, literally and figuratively, least of all the Raiders’ top four wrestlers — 2010 state finalists Wells and Madore, 2009 state champion Morrill, and 2010 Western B champion Mike Hamm.

Illness is a part of wrestling as much as any other sport, but Wells, a 215-pound senior believes he may have lost out on a perfect season when, as the top seed, he lost twice at the Noble Invitational trying to wrestle through a virus.

“Some days you can wrestle with it and some days you can’t. It helps to be able to breathe out there,” Wells said.

Wells is four wins away from breaking Clyde Tibbetts’ single-season school record for wins (34), a mark he should surpass at Saturday’s KVAC meet.

“That would definitely be an honor,” he said. “I know that I should break it this weekend if I work hard. Hopefully, if I can set that record high enough, I don’t know if anybody would be able to beat it, other than maybe Keith next year.”

Madore, a junior, has rapidly moved up the Raiders’ career victories list as one of their top wrestlers since his freshman year. He was a state runner-up at 119 the last two years and has moved up to the challenging 140 weight class.

“This year has been really been hard,” he said. “I haven’t done bad, about the same. Going from 119 to 140 has changed a lot. It takes a lot more core strength.”

Madore is driven to get to the top of the podium this year, even if it means having to go through what Bouchard says is one of the deepest weight classes in the state.

“I’m getting tired of second,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot of dedication. I’ve been wrestling with a lot of younger kids the last couple of kids, and now it’s a lot more older kids that are a lot tougher and stronger, so it’s going to take a lot more practice.”

Fortunately, Madore appears to have recovered sufficiently from his own bout with illness for tournament time.

“I got it from Craig,” he said.

Morrill has been struggling to make weight since mid-December. He still managed to pick up his 100th career win last month, even though Bouchard did everything within his power to keep the milestone secret from him until the 152-pound senior reached it at the McDonald’s tournament in Rumford.

“He wouldn’t tell me how many I had the whole season. Everybody was hiding it from me. I don’t know how,” said Morrill, who was the 125 champion in 2009.

Hamm, who took the 160 crown in Western B and finished fourth in the state last year, has wrestled at 189 and 171 this year. He, too, has been battling illness and fatigue.

The Raiders take pride in being a tournament team, and they have been one of the most improved programs in Class B over recent years because of contributions from not only their title contenders but other qualifiers and potential qualifiers such as Pomerleau (103), Donnie Vannah (145) and Patrick Farrell (160). 

“Dual-meets, we give up a lot of forfeits, but when it comes to the tournaments, the kids are pretty good wrestling through their brackets, even if it’s the consolation brackets, and scoring a lot of points,” Morrill said.

If they all do their part, Oak Hill could be a force in the KVAC and Western B and perhaps, peak in time to improve upon last year’s fifth-place at states.

“This team looks like it still could make a little bit of a run at the end,” Bouchard said.

“You’ve just got to have a positive attitude going in,” Hamm said. “What I always say is it’s just another day at the office. You’ve just got to do the work.”