WELLS — Going into Saturday’s Western Maine Class B regional meet with just 10 wrestlers in the 14 total weight classes, Wells athletes said they knew it was going to be tough to beat out favored Fryeburg Academy ”“ with 12 entries ”“ for the overall team title.

And while the two extra wrestlers proved to be the difference for the Raiders, who won with 176.5 points to Wells’ 153, the host Warriors showed that although they may not have the quantity of some other Class B squads, they certainly have the quality to compete with any Class B team in the state.

Wells walked away from the meet with four individual champions ”“ Colin Sevigny (126 pounds), Chad Daly (145), Michael Curtis (170) and Marc Surprenant (285) ”“ one more than both Fryeburg and third-place York, which each had three champions despite having two and three more entries, respectively.

Wells also had nine of its 10 wrestlers qualify for the upcoming state meet Saturday, with Charlie Durfee (106), Isaac Desrochers (113), Tommy Cryer (120), Sam Lapointe (132) and Teddy Durfee (160) all qualifying for the big show by finishing in the top four of their respective brackets at regionals.

The second-place team finish was also the best Wells has done at the regional meet since 2002, and though his team didn’t walk away with the title, Warriors coach Scott Lewia said it wrestled just about as well as it could have.

“I was happy, we did a little bit better than I thought,” Lewia said. “I think it was just that the four weight classes that we didn’t have kids at, that hurt us. Fryeburg had kids that placed in all four of those weight classes, and we only lost by 23 points, so that was the difference.

“But six in the finals was really good. It’s been a long time since we’ve had that, and four champions, so that was good, too.”

Daly was the only one of the Warriors’ four champions to not be seeded No. 1 in his bracket, pinning No. 2 seed Chad Bonti of Morse in the semifinals and then No. 4 seed Josh Smith of York in the finals.

Wells’ Curtis was the top seed at 170 and won each of his first two matches by pin before outpointing Lincoln Academy’s Colin Higgins 7-3 in the final.

Sevigny was also a top seed and won his second-straight regional title by outpointing Mountain Valley’s Brandon Gill 6-0 in the final. The junior also won the 126-pound final at the prestigious Noble Invitational earlier in the season by defeating two previous state champions in the quarterfinals and semifinals, and then Massabesic’s Tyler Everett, this year’s Western Class A regional champion at 126. Sevigny said he wasn’t pleased with his performance Saturday, despite winning the title.

“Not my best,” he said. “I had the kid from Mountain Valley, who earlier this year I beat 11-0, and I didn’t wrestle well. I almost had him pinned, but I couldn’t get him. It was frustrating because I couldn’t score as many points as I wanted for my team, so that was irritating.”

Sevigny was a state runner-up each of his first two years at the high school level at 113 as a freshman and 120 last year, and anything but a state title this season simply won’t do, he said.

“It would be nice because the past two years, it hasn’t exactly felt nice, so I’d kind of like to break that,” said Sevigny. “It would just feel good to know that all the hard work I’ve put in paid off and it wasn’t a total waste of a season.”

Despite missing more than a month of the season due to injury, Surprenant was the No. 1 seed in the 285-pound class and showed why, pinning Austin Talgo of Morse just 25 seconds into their semifinal match before also getting a late pin on York’s Cody Spicer in the final. Surprenant was third at states last year in the 182-pound division, but has since gained 30 pounds for football, which he jokingly credited to “working at Congdon’s Doughnuts over the summer.” At 215 pounds, Surprenant could wrestle in the 220-pound weigh class, but Lewia decided to put the senior in the heavyweight class due to it not being as strong overall throughout the state. Though he many times gives up 20 to 30 pounds to his opponent, the move up has worked out for Surprenant, which he largely credits to his lesser weight.

“I get it all back with speed because when you’ve got a lot of weight on you, you can’t really move that well,” Surprenant said. “And I’ve got better endurance than the bigger kids, so there’s that.”

Although it had nearly all of its wrestlers qualify for states, Wells will again be at a numbers disadvantage at the Augusta Civic Center on Saturday, where Fryeburg will have 11 wrestlers and Eastern Maine Class B champ Camden Hills will have 12.

But with less total points to be scored, the state meet rewards top finishes more than regionals, giving the Warriors a shot at their first state title since 1996.

“I think we have an outside chance,” Lewia said. “There’s probably like six teams ”“ Camden, Belfast, York, Mountain Valley, Fryeburg and us ”“ who are similar and who all are pretty balanced. I don’t think there’s any team that’s a step above everybody else. It’s really open to anybody.”

“We’re a pretty tough team, and in tournaments, we’ve got a lot of tough kids that can score points, and we definitely showed that,” Sevigny added. “I think we’ll surprise a lot of people at states, for sure.”

— Contact Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar at 282-1535, Ext. 323.