Erskine Academy’s Patrick Vigue and Sam Helm both achieved wrestling milestones last Saturday.
Helm, a senior, earned his 100th career victory in a match against Mt. View, while Vigue won his 100th dual meet as the Eagles’ coach.
Helm, who has wrestled in the heavyweight class his entire career, is 22-1 this season. He won the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championships last season and is regarded as one of the top 285-pound wrestlers in the state.
Vigue has been the wrestling coach at Erskine since the team’s inception in 1995. The Eagles struggled during the program’s early years, winning only one dual meet in its first season. Since then, Erskine has developed into a perennial contender for the Eastern Regional title.
Vigue’s Eagles have also been perennial contenders for the Maine Principals’ Association sportsmanship awards. Erskine athletic director Doran Stout hired Vigue to begin the fledgling program and has watched Helm develop into a dominant athlete on the mat.
“I cannot think of two gentlemen more worthy of recognition,” Stout said. “Pat built our program from scratch and has achieved high levels of success and respect while always putting the kids’ best interest and welfare first. As for Sam, he personifies leadership in our school and is a great ambassador for wrestling and for Erskine Academy.”

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Will Lundquist has put together an impressive 20-7 record as a freshman at Cony High School. Six of the 119-pound wrestler’s seven loses have been to some of the best wrestlers in the state.
Lundquist has lost three times to Gardiner’s Matt DelGallo, a defending state champ, twice to MCI’s Brandon Wright, a state runner-up, and once to Deering’s Chris Smith, a three-time state champ.
“I knew that Will would help this year’s high school team as a freshmen because of the tremendous success he had at the middle school level (second in Pine Tree Wrestling League),” Cony coach Shawn Totman said. “However, I never anticipated that he would be having this good of a ninth-grade season. He has worked hard to develop new and better technique in practice and he is fearless in matches.”
Lundquist will likely be one of the top seeds in his weight class at the Eastern A regional and his bid for a state tournament berth will be aided by the fact that DelGallo will be dropping to 112 for the end-of-season tournaments.

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Mt. Blue’s Sam Webber recently made the anticipated drop from the 135-pound class to the 130-pound class. After going undefeated during his junior year against in-state competition (Webber’s only losses were at the New England tournament, where he placed fifth), he has struggled a bit this season with three losses at 135.
Webber was recognized, along with Aaron Forbes, during “Senior Night” at a recent home meet.
Webber’s career statistics were highlighted by Cougars coach Bob O’Connor.
“Sam’s current career record is 133-14,” O’Connor said. “He has been a two-time KVAC champ, a three-time Eastern Maine champ and has made the championship round at states all three years, winning once. We also had the three older Webber’s in the gym (Scott, Seth, and Shane) and recognized all four. The Webber brothers have had a total of 12 trips to the championship round at state’s with seven titles, 12 regional titles, and an overall win-loss record of 519-40. It was great to have all four here.”

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With the season more than half done, it’s a good time to do a midseason report on local wrestlers having excellent seasons as reported by coaches.
Skowhegan is led by senior Brian Parlin (125), who is 22-1. Teammate Joey Buzzell (140) and Jake Sylvain ( 145) both have 15-1 records, while Dillon White (152) is 16-2. Cony’s TJ Vallee (171) owns a 25-2 record while Shawn White (215) is 23-1. Chris Knowles (285) is 12-2 and Lundquist is 20-7. Gardiner’s Matt DelGallo (119) is 23-0. Hall-Dale’s Zack Vickers (125) is 20-2.
Winslow’s Ben Fredette (140) is 11-4. Mt. View’s Tristan Ripley (152) is 13-4. Erskine’s Sam Helm (285) is 22-1 while teammate Alex Wood (171) is 20-7.
Madison’s Steven Kirkwood (160) has a 10-4 record. MCI’s Cinjin Goewey (135) is 18-1 and Brandon Wright (119) is 19-3. At Oak Hill, Clyde Tibbetts (171) is 17-3 while Chris Lagasse (119) is 12-3 and Ben Deschaine (125) is 10-2. Patrick McInnis (103) and Eric Columbe (112) are each 12-3 for Monmouth while Cody Guzman (160) is 12-5.
For Mt. Blue, Webber (130) is 19-3 and Aaron Forbes (112) is 9-2.