ROCKPORT — State champion.

Those two simple words are what every high school wrestler in the country wants to be called — and three local wrestlers turned that dream into reality over the weekend.

Massabesic seniors Leo Amabile and Matthew Carroll and Sanford junior Sam Anderson all captured state championships at the Class A tournament held at Camden Hills on Saturday.

“I don’t know, it’s surreal I guess. It’s been a lot of work that I’ve been putting in since I was in first grade. It’s what I’ve been trying to achieve and everything paid off,” said Amabile after capturing the 113-pound title.

For Amabile, the journey to his first state championship included a second-place finish last year and a third-place finish during his sophomore campaign.

Amabile finally put it all together on Saturday. The standout had pins in both the quarterfinals and semifinals and then took down Marshwood’s Liam Coomey by a 4-0 score in the championship match.

“Finally, finally he knows what it feels like to be a state champion,” said Massabesic coach Rick DeRosier on what he first thought when Amabile won the title.

The senior credits DeRosier with taking the Mustangs all over the place to find tough competition.

“We didn’t see any of the North teams at all this year because we were always out of state seeing Pennsylvania, Vermont, getting the tough competition which helped so much and gets you to where you need to be for states,” Amabile said.

Carroll was also dominant through the first two rounds Saturday with a pin in the 220-pound quarters and a major decision in the semifinals. The standout would achieve his ultimate goal with a hard-fought 3-2 decision over Mt. Ararat’s Dylan Schenk in the finals.

“This feels amazing. This is what I’ve ben working for my whole career,” Carroll said after his finals win.

Carroll knew his finals match would be tough despite the fact that he had already beaten Schenk earlier in the season.

“It was tight. I didn’t want to take any chances,” said Carroll. “The first time around I beat him by a little more, but I didn’t want to take any chances. It was a tight match … he’s good.”

Carroll got some extra motivation from watching Amabile claim his first title.

“Leo and I have been teammates forever, came all the way up through youth, and it definitely felt good watching him and him winning really pumped me up and I think that’s what really helped me,” said Carroll.

Both Amabile and Carroll were grateful to have DeRosier, who is retiring from coaching at the end of the season, in their corner for their state title wins.

“He’s been my coach all the way up through, started in Pre-K when I was four. I’ve been with him for a while so it’s going to be pretty emotional with him leaving, but we went out with a bang, so I’m happy,” said Carroll.

“He’s been my coach since I first started. It’s just, I don’t know, I can’t thank him enough for everything,” added Amabile.

DeRosier had a simple question for both Amabile and Carroll after they came off the mat victorious.

“I asked them how it felt because they were state champs. No one can take that away from them, they are state champs,” said DeRosier.

Anderson has been making noise on the Maine wresting scene for the past two seasons — and on Saturday, he cemented himself as one of the state’s best.

“He was very focused the whole day,” said Sanford coach Brent Coleman of Anderson. “I couldn’t see any distraction in his eyes. He set a goal at the beginning of the season, we all helped him work to it and he earned it.”

Anderson fought his way through one of the toughest brackets in Class A with a pin in the 160-pound quarterfinals and a 6-2 decision over Nokomis’ David Wilson in the semifinals.

The Sanford standout put on a show in the finals as he jumped out to a 7-1 lead after the first period on Oxford Hills’ Dawson Stevens and would cruise to a 16-3 major decision victory.

“I just knew as soon as I stepped on that mat that he had to take it away from me and I wasn’t going to let him take it away from me at all,” said Anderson.

Anderson came into the state meet with an aggressive gameplan.

“Definitely attack because you can’t score if you’re not (on the) offensive,” said Anderson. “I took it upon myself to make sure I took more shots, I had better rides on top, when I was on bottom get right out. I just took it upon myself to beat him in every phase of the match.”

Anderson didn’t show much emotion immediately after the final buzzer sounded, but that was for a very simple reason.

“I would have been a little bit more excited if I didn’t feel dead,” said Anderson, who revealed what Coleman told him after the match. “He just told me that he was unbelievably proud … and you have hands, you have arms, you have legs, you have everything that you wrestle with, but the only way you can win a match is with heart.”

All three state champions are now turning their attention to this weekend’s All-State meet and the upcoming New England Championships.

“On to the next job,” said Coleman of Anderson’s mindset. “He knows we have more work to do. We have All-States and then New Englands. He’s happy with the state championship, but he’s not the type to settle, you know, (he) wants more.”

“First at regionals, first at states, hopefully first at All-States and hopefully a New England placer. I know it’s going to be tough next week, but definitely going to New Englands (is the goal), obviously,” added Anderson.

Amabile, who just missed out on a medal at last year’s New Englands, has some unfinished business in Providence.

“Definitely get on the podium at New Englands,” said Amabile of his goals. “I (lost) in the blood round last year and it kind of still eats at me.”

NOTES: A pair of seniors joined an exclusive club on Saturday with Skowhegan’s Cody Craig (106 pounds) and Marshwood’s Bradley Beaulieu (138) each winning their fourth career state championship … Marshwood won the team title with 184 points. Noble was second with 80.5 and Skowhegan was third with 73.5 points … Marshwood had three state champions with Beaulieu, Matthew Thompson (120) and James Thompson (195) … Noble had one champion with Austin Shorey taking down Scarborough’s Jeremy Sendrowski in the 145-pound finals.