Axios Gerakaris, captain of the Caribou varsity wrestling team, fought for a second-place medal at the Summer Windjammer Wrestling Championships in Camden and also took second at the Belfast Duals in Belfast. The tournaments were held July 11 and 12.
Gerakaris put together a couple of wins to get to the finals where he met Camden’s Taylor Cosby, who placed third in state this past season, and lost 6-5 in the finals.
“I had a beautiful lateral drop on Cosby,” Gerakaris said. “I had a pretty nice ankle pick with the setup coach [Chico] Hernandez showed me at his Viking Wrestling Camp, which worked really nice.
“I also pinned the Cony kid in the T-bar stack, another move I recently learned at camp, and that was pretty awesome too.”
Gerakaris impressed so many of the coaches who were at the tournament that he was invited to join the North team the following day in Belfast Duals. The state’s elite wrestlers competed in dual meet format.
He wrestled against Cosby again but turn the tables as he pinned him in 39 seconds of the first period. He also pinned both of his opponents from Skowhegan and Madison before losing in the finals to Wells’ Michael Wrigley, 8-2.
Gerakaris wrestled up a weight class to 182 even thought he competed at 170 lbs. the final two days of competition.
“Summer wrestling is going to make Axios a winter champion,” Hernandez said, noting Gerakaris went 5-2 overall. “He is getting his confidence up at an all-time level now and all of this experience will pay off big time for him this upcoming season.”
