SANFORD — It’s not easy to win both the Noble Invitational and Sanford Wrestling Annual Tournament in the same season.
Massabesic junior Evan Boulard was the only wrestler to do it this time, and even though he rolled through both tournaments in convincing fashion, there was still pain to endure.
Boulard dislocated his left thumb at the end of the second period of the 132-pound final Saturday against Gavin Lane of team champion Shawsheen Tech of Billerica, Massachusetts. Boulard had the thumb popped back into place, got some black athletic tape wrapped around it, then finished off a 7-0 victory.
“It’s nice to win this one, but now it’s on to the next tournament,” said Boulard, a two-time Maine Class A champion and two-time Varsity Maine All-State choice who raised his career record to 126-11 and is now 21-0 this season.
Both the Noble and Sanford events are two-day grinds that include several — and different — New England powerhouse programs. Over six days, Boulard went 10-0 with five pins, three technical falls, and decisive victories of 8-1 and 7-0 in championship matches.
After wrestling at 138 pounds on Monday and Tuesday, Boulard cut some weight so he could compete at 132 in Sanford.”You get beat up a lot. There’s a lot of matches,” Boulard said.
At Noble, one of Boulard’s pins came against Mountain Valley’s Chance Watson in the semifinals. Watson won the 138-pound title at Sanford, defeating wrestlers from four New England powers — local rival Noble; Danbury, Connecticut; Timberlane (Plaistow, New Hampsire); and Shawsheen.
“There was the better competition, kids I really wanted to wrestle,” Boulard said of the weight change. “I wanted to face (Lane) from Shawsheen.”
Shawsheen scored 293 points, followed by Timberlane (252), St. John’s Prep of Danvers, Massachusetts (247.5), and Danbury (165). Massabesic finished fifth 116 points, tops among the Maine schools.
Shawsheen’s James Tildsley was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler. Tildsley, last season’s New England champ at 150 pounds, recorded his 200th career pin in the 157-pound final. With 232 wins, he is 13 shy of the New England wins record set last year by his brother, Sidney, now wrestling at Harvard.
James Tildsley said he knows it’s difficult to win consecutive tough tournaments, particularly when you are expected to be the best — a position Boulard has now reached.
“They’ll cheer you when you win but they’ll cheer even more when you lose,” Tildsley said. “It’s easy to hunt, but when you’re the hunted, it’s tougher.”
Justin Batty of Camden Hills was the only other Mainer with a chance at the Noble-Sanford double. He won a grueling 16-10 decision against Shawsheen’s Logan Holmes in the 175-pound semifinal but fell to Harrison Miller of Danbury, 11-2, in the final.
Four wrestlers from Maine won Sanford titles after falling just shy of a Noble championship.
Boulard’s sophomore teammate, Remington Grunhuvd, reached his second straight 106-pound final and this time came out on top, beating Matt Boucher of Timberlane, 10-3.
At 120 pounds, Bonny Eagle junior Kylan Berry remained undefeated on the mat with a convincing 18-3 technical fall win against Ethan Bilobrum of Timberlane. Berry has won every match this year by either pin, technical fall or major decision, but he had to take a medical forfeit at Noble after his semifinal win because of illness.
“It’s tough. I mean, it’s just unlucky,” said Berry, like Boulard a two-time state champ and All-State performer. “I wasn’t feeling good. Puking. Yeah, it wasn’t a good day.”
Berry took a day off to hydrate and rest. He said it was “important to get back out there and show who I am. I love this sport and we grind every day, and that’s the result we can get.”
Watson pinned Shawsheen’s Hadi Silbay in his title match at 3:29.
“After a few takedowns, I knew I was stronger than him,” said Watson, who won the Class B state title at 132 pounds as a junior. “It was just a great match.”
Wells senior William Martinez, a runner-up at Noble, won the 285-pound Sanford title, pinning local rival Jacob Brengolini of Marshwood at 4:29.
“This week taught me I need to work on a lot of things,” Martinez said. “I definitely appreciate these (schools) hosting these two-day tournaments, taking people from out of state and really showing me what I need to work on.”
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