The 2016-2017 Boothbay Region Seahawks wrestling team, coached by Allan Crocker and assistant coaches Richard Crocker and Don Waltz, opened its season at Dirigo High School on Saturday, Dec. 10.

This year's team members are young and inexperienced, with only three returning from the last season. The Seahawks were forced to forfeit several matches due to not having wrestlers in many of the weight classes. The weight classes that the Seahawks were able to fill showed great potential and every wrestler gave their opponents a good fight.

The Seahawks started the day with a match against Dirigo. Dirigo won the match 15-54. First year wrestler, senior Michael Ripley, won his match due to a forfeit. Another first year wrestler, junior Alex Bryer, battled all three periods and beat his opponent 7-4. Also winning his match was returning senior wrestler Dylan Peters, who pinned his opponent in the second period.

The Seahawks' second match of the day was against the Lisbon Greyhounds. The first three wrestlers for the Seahawks won their matches. First was second-year wrestler, junior Cameron Crocker, who pinned his opponent in the first period. Ripley won his second match of the day when he pinned his opponent in the first period in just 12 seconds. Bryer followed Ripley with the team's third win due to a forfeit. The Seahawks' final wrestler, senior Brandon Andrews, ended the match with his first career win after pinning his opponent in the first period. The Seahawks lost their second match 24-39 to Lisbon.

The day's final match for the Seahawks was against Oak Hill. Boothbay only needed one match to beat Oak Hill 42-24, with all but one match having been forfeited with no wrestlers to fill those weight classes. Dylan Peters was pinned in the second period of his third match after a hard fought battle.

There were many exhibition matches as well. Trae Muzima wrestled his first career match losing 4-3 after three periods. Muzima was almost able to come away with a victory, having nearly pinned his opponent but, unfortunately, time ran out. Freshman Ben Rumney earned a victory in his exhibition match against a Madison wrestler. Rumney pinned his opponent at the end of the third period to earn his first win as a Seahawk. He was leading his match 14-4 when he pinned his opponent.

Coach Crocker was very happy with how well this year's Seahawks did and felt that his new wrestlers learned a lot by having live matches under their belts. He commented that his returning wrestlers have shown a lot of improvement since last season and have come into this season ready to wrestle.