SCARBOROUGH – Getting to 100 wins in a high school wrestling career is like reaching the 1,000-point plateau in basketball. It’s a special event that takes a balance of talent, hard work and longevity over successive years.

It’s a feat so difficult that Windham High School had never had a 100-win wrestler in program history. Before Saturday, that is.

Senior Christian Coons became the first Eagle in history to reach the milestone during a dual meet at Scarborough High School, pinning the Storm’s Seth Palmer shortly into the first period of their 195-pound match. It was a special day a long time in the making for Coons, a state runner-up at 195 last year who has been wrestling since he was in first grade.

“It’s been a lot of work. I’ve been wrestling for a long time so it’s great to get this in high school,” Coons said. “I have great coaches and great teammates around me so I just go out there and get it done. I’ve been stepping it up this year, know what I did wrong last and have been making the improvements. It won’t happen again.”

“It’s pretty special. Christian’s a gifted kid and he deserves it,” Pelletier added. “He works hard and gets a lot of support from his family, and that’s always key. He comes out to practice and takes on a leadership role as a captain. He’s a great kid all around.”

The rest of Coons’ squad didn’t fare too badly either on Saturday, winning seven matches, six by pin, and two more by forfeit to take the meet by a final score of 51-28.

In addition to Coons, Ethan Winde (120 pounds), Brandon Huntington (126), Dominick Cancelarich (138), Eric Cash (145) and Brandon Mitchell (220) all got pins for the Eagles, while T.J. Kenney won his 132-pound match on points 6-0.

After a tough loss to powerhouse Massabesic last Wednesday, it was an impressive bounce-back victory for the Eagles heading into the short holiday break.

“We actually wrestled pretty good this morning,” Pelletier said. “We’ve been working on a lot of mistakes we’ve been making earlier in the year and we’re progressing. There are still bigger and more stable and deeper teams out there but we’re getting there.

“For us, overall winning the actual dual meet is not important, it’s the individual improvement that we’re looking for. We saw some improvement from a lot of kids that weren’t very successful last Wednesday. Today we came back, worked on whatever we needed to work on and came in here and showed it.”

Scarborough won three matches on the day as well as two more by forfeit. Taylor Wood won by pin in the 113-pound division, as did Andy Blanchard in the 152-pound class. Bryan Profit also beat Windham’s Dalton Mauro 12-6 in one of the better matches of the meet, but overall Red Storm coach Shane Stephenson said he was a bit disappointed with his team’s performance.

“Windham showed up and apparently we have a lot more work to do here. Sometimes you just have to go back to the drawing board,” Stephenson said. “They work ridiculously hard in the practice room and then when it comes to the mat they just forget what they learned and end up not giving it everything they have. With a new program I know people are going to lose, I don’t mind that.

“As long as they go out there and give me everything they have I’m happy, and right now I’m just not happy because I have guys who are out there laying down and getting ridden on top for two minutes.”

The Storm will have a chance at a bit of redemption on Dec. 28 and 29 when they head to the Noble Invitational to take on Windham and 16 other teams from around the state in a two-day wrestling extravaganza.

“There are people that are doing well and getting better, but that’s because they’re buying into the program and listening to their coaching and putting in hours that other people don’t, and that’s what’s going to win you matches,” he said. “You can’t come into a varsity program and wrestle for eight to 10 weeks and expect to be a state champ, you just can’t do it. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Scarborough’s Bryan Profit works to pin Windham’s Dalton Mauro in a 160-pound match during a dual meet on Saturday. Profit wouldn’t get the pin but did win the match 12-6 on points, one of the Red Storm’s three wins on the day.
Scarborough’s Taylor Wood gets on top of Windham’s Gabe Curtisbrown in a 113-pound match during a dual meet on Saturday. Wood got the pin seconds later, one of  the Red Storm’s three wins on the day.
Windham’s Brandon Mitchell tries to turn over Scarborough’s Eddie Kinsman in a 220-pound match during a dual meet on Saturday. Mitchell wound get the pin, one of six for the Eagles on the day as they took the meet by a final score of 51-28.
Windham’s Christian Coons grapples with Scarborough’s Seth Palmer in a 195-pond match during a dual meet on Saturday. Moments later Coons would take down and pin Palmer for the 100th victory of his career, becoming the first Windham wrestler to reach that mark.
Windham’s T.J. Kenney tries to turnover Scarborough’s Albert Publicover in a 132-pound match during a dual meet on Saturday. Kenney won the match 6-0 on points as the Eagle took the meet by a final score of 51-28.