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Timberlane's young wrestling team matured quickly during the season and | paced by heavyweight champion Brian Nicoll and 103-pound runner-up Cam Sullivan, both juniors | it grew up completely yesterday at the New England Tournament.

The dice came up with a pair of nines for the Timberlane wrestling team at the Division 1 state meet yesterday, and they were big winners.

The Owls, thanks to a shocking 9-for-9 performance in the semifinals earlier in the day, cruised to their ninth straight Division 1 crown in resounding fashion.

With an almost mundane regularity, the wins keep piling up for Salem senior 125-pounder Trevor Dearden.

A two-time New England champion, Dearden hasn't lost a match in New England in two years. He's currently 34-2 on the year, with both losses coming at the rugged Beast of the East tournament in Delaware. In New Hampshire and neighboring states, he's had very few competitive matches since his sophomore year. His career mark is a glittering 171-13.

Methuen senior John Sughrue didn't get the match he would have preferred, but he had plenty of consolation yesterday at the Methuen Invitational.

Because he moved up a weight class to 130 pounds this year, there was no showdown with Salem star Trevor Dearden, but both Sughrue and Dearden came away big winners.

This was not, said Timberlane coach Barry Chooljian, your typical Timberlane-Salem dual meet.

In a rivalry that witnessed two of the greatest dual meets in area history, a 31-30 Salem win in 2000 that broke a 103-meet Timberlane winning streak in New Hampshire and a 34-33 barnburner in 2003 that snapped a 49-meet Owls' winning streak, you come to expect great meets.

Heavyweight Brian Nicoll put an exclamation point on an impressive statement made by the Timberlane wrestling team yesterday at the 54-team Lowell Holiday Tournament.

The Owls, who finished second last year by a point and a half, came back with a vengence to claim their third team crown in four years with 241 points, comfortably ahead of runners-up Concord, N.H., and Winchester, who tied with 210. Pinkerton (120) was sixth, Central Catholic (111) came in eighth and Salem, N.H. (102<1/2>) tied for 10th.

SALEM | Pinkerton sophomore Ian Beck has probably never felt less upset after a loss then he did last night.

A New England qualifier at 140 pounds last year, Beck fell to Salem senior Corbin Decker at 160 pounds for the second time in two weeks, this time by a 4-1 decision. Disappointing, yes, but Beck couldn't help but look at how the rest of the team fared, and that was outstanding.

Salem overpowered Nashua North 48-35 by recording six pins and gaining two forfeits. Alex Pittera had the fastest pin of the day, in 15 seconds at 135 pounds, and freshman Devin Dearden looked sharp with a first-period pin at 112.

2006-07: 10-6, runner-up at New England Tournament

Returning starters (6): Trevor Dearden, Sr., 125; Joe Herrick, Sr., 130; Alex Pittera, Sr., 135; Corbin Decker, Sr., 160; Ryan Stanton??, Sr., 275; David Welch, Soph., 140

The names change, but the script remains the same at the Blue Devil Classic, the traditional season-opening local wrestling tournament.

Once again, Concord, N.H., rolled to the team title yesterday, its sixth straight, while local teams Pinkerton, Central Catholic and Salem showed some superb individual talent and projected promise of better days ahead.