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By wrapping up its dual-meet season with a 68-9 romp over Merrimack, the Timberlane wrestling team finished with a pair of milestones.

First, the Owls reached what is believed to be a season-high victory total by finishing 23-1 and, second, the  23 wins put coach Barry Chooljian over the 400-win mark  the first coach in New Hampshire to reach that total.  He is now 402-41-5 in 27 years.

LONDONDERRY — It’s not easy being the younger brother of one of the best wrestlers in New England, but Pinkerton freshman Cam Crowell is learning to adjust quite nicely.

Cam, whose older brother Collin is a returning New England placer and has lost just one match all year, wrestled a solid six minutes to earn a 4-2 decision at 189 pounds over Londonderry’s Mack Douglas to cap off the Astros’ 42-29 victory.

With nine wrestlers out due to a skin ailment making the rounds in the area, Salem couldn't compete with Winnacunnet in a 58-11 defeat. John Rheaume, Zach Hicks and Brett Pittera had the lone Blue Devil victories. The wrestlers affected hope to be cleared to practice tomorrow in preparation for upcoming postseason tournaments.

CHELMSFORD — The third trip to the sectional wrestling finals in five years for Methuen proved no more charming than the previous two attempts. After winning its first two matches of the day, the second-seeded Rangers fell to top-seed Shawsheen 37-23 in yesterday’s championship at Chelmsford High School. Methuen finished is season with at 22-2 dual-match record. The Rangers trounced Billerica 54-21 in the quarterfinals before upending Lawrence 39-32 in the semifinals. “We had some chances we didn’t capitalize on,” Methuen coach Bill James said. “We’ve had a great season though. We’ve actually over achieved what we came into the season looking to do. We have a pretty young team and an inexperienced team.” Against Shawsheen (21-0), Methuen took a 14-10 lead after Mike Eyssi’s 8-0 decision over John Baker. But Shawsheen pins in the following two matches by Bryan Cassiey and Jesse Dillon put the Rams ahead for good at 22-14. “We ended up 22-2 and a sectional finalist,” James said. “It’s still a little frustrating because you want to win everything you do. But at the same time, being realistic, we just have to focus on the individual stuff. We have some kids who can do some damage in those big tournaments. From here on out the kids prove themselves on an individual basis. “You hope they have some high expectations. We did see a lot of the teams that will be in the sectional and I think our kids we be ready for that.” Eyssi was one of four Rangers to finish the day undefeated along with Paul Shugrue at 112, C.J. Doherty at 135 and Chris Bouchard, who won once at 189 and twice at 171. In their title matches, Shugrue posted a 17-0 technical fall over Jonathan Sterns, Doherty pinned Sean Crusoe in 1:06 and Bouchard pinned Anthony Pimentel in 2:44. “I definitely thought we had a good chance to win it,” Bouchard said. “Shawsheen was tough. But this will give me confidence going into state.” Other championship-match winners for Methuen were Sarithi Has at 103 and Jason Pendergast at 125 “I thought if we could come in and wrestle the way we know how, we’d take care of business,” Shawsheen coach Mark Donovan said. “From 152 on, we were pretty good. But in all three of our matches today someone young had something good to do with it.”

LAWRENCE — Central Catholic junior Matt Armano demonstrated perfectly last night why high school wrestling can be exciting as both an individual and team sport.

Sophomore Alec Wells decisioned former Timberlane wrestler Cole Priddy, 6-2 at 140, and was named Wrestler of the Meet for the Owls, who blasted a solid Concord team 55-8.

Georgetown 112-pound freshman Dave Ingraham got a pin in the last match to give the Royals a 36-36 tie against Beverly.

The first-year Windham wrestling team won its third varsity meet of the season, 43-36 over Campbell, a team it had lost to twice before this year. Jon Zygmont had a pin for Windham at 189.

Lawrence's wrestling team took care of business first, beating Greater Lawrence 49-22, and then found out that  thanks to Central Catholic's win over Methuen  had a earned a share of the Merrimack Valley Conference title for the first time since 1986.  Juniors Argenis Carpio and Anthony DeLeon both had pins for the Lancers (19-6).

In a season-long challenge, freshman Kevin DeAngelo won his third straight match at 145 pounds as part of Pelham's tri-meet split, losing a tight match to Goffstown and beating Trinity, who has just one wrestler.

Raising his individual record to the .500 mark, junior Jared Grazio had an impressive pin at 160 pounds despite Haverhill's 24-18 loss to Brockton.

Methuen clinched at least a share of the Merrimack Valley Conference title with a 41-26 victory over Chelmsford. Shaun McCarthy had a key 7-5 decision at 215 for the unbeaten Rangers (20-0).

Central Catholic clipped Lowell 34-21 to set up a showdown with Methuen next Wednesday. If the Raiders (18-1) win, they'll create a three-way Merrimack Valley Conference championship with Lawrence and Methuen. Central won several close decisions last night, including by Mark Strassel (135), Tom Lacroix (160) and Tyler Yeasted (189).

North Andover sophomore Danny Connelly handed Pentucket's Austin Perreault his first loss of the season, a 4-0 decision at 152, as the Knights (22-3-1) rolled over Pentucket 45-18.

On senior night, Joanel Santiago moved into the lineup and recorded a first-period pin for Lawrence in a 50-17 victory over Andover. Also for the Lancers (18-6), Juan Rodriguez had a big 3-2 decision over Andover's Brian Martin.