All five Boothbay Region wrestlers suffered the same fate in the Mid-State League Championship meet. They all lost their first match. Boothbay Region scored 21 points and finished ninth in the 10-team meet held Jan. 31 in Lisbon. Wiscasset sent one wrestler and finished with one point in 10th place.

Dirigo of Dixfield claimed the league championship with 195 points and dethroned defending champion and this year’s runner-up Mountain Valley of Rumford by 41 points. Teams rounding out the top five were Wells (121), Lisbon (93.5) and York (82.5).

The top Boothbay wrestlers were Nick Labonte (120) and Draco Peaslee (152) who earned fourth place finishes in their weight classes. Labonte received a bye into the 120-pound semifinals. He lost to No. 1 seed Danny Buteau of Oak Hill. Labonte received a bye into the consolation finals, and later lost to Jonathan Flagg of Dirigo.

Peaslee lost in the 152-pound quarterfinal round to Issac Therrian of Mountain Valley. In the consolation semifinals, he pinned Austin Niles of York. Peaslee lost in the final to Nick Lorrette of Lisbon.

Three other Boothbay Region wrestlers lost both of their matches. Dylan Peters lost in the quarterfinal round of the145-pound division to No. 1 seed Eddie DeRoche of Mountain Valley. In the consolation semifinals, he was pinned by Jordan Cole of Lisbon. John Lucas was pinned by Jake Spofford of Wells in his first match in the 170-pound class. In the consolation round, he lost  to Mike Arsenault of Mountain Valley. And Cameron Crocker lost to the No. 1 seed Nolan Potter in the 182-pound class. He also lost to Darren Buono of Mountain Valley in the consolation round.

Boothbay Region coach Allan Crocker expected his youthful squad to struggle against the more experienced competition.

“With our inexperience this year, we were the lower seeds in most of our weight classes,” said Coach Crocker. “That meant matching up against the best wrestlers in each weight class in our first match. Hopefully next year, we will win more in the regular season to improve our post-season tournament seeding.”

Wiscasset wrestler Sam Strozier also lost both of his matches.

The next tournament is the Class B South Region state qualifying tournament on Saturday, Feb. 6, in Rumford.