Girls compete for the first time at the Maine-Nebraska Wrestling Exchange

For 40 years, the Maine-Nebraska Wrestling Exchange has been one of the most eagerly anticipated mat events for high schools in the Pine Tree State.

This summer, the annual Dual Series saw a special twist: for the first time in history, girls’ teams competed against each other.

Last month, a group of the state’s best female wrestlers traveled to three competitions – two at Pierce Junior/Senior High School in Pierce, Nebraska, and one at Northwest High School in Grand Island, Nebraska – against a team of Nebraska all-star wrestlers.

“I enjoyed it. Overall, it was a really good trip,” said Ciara Farias, a senior at Gardiner Area High School. “It was definitely worth it. … I’m glad she was the first (girls’ team) to go. It was definitely a good experience.”

The boys series was hosted by Maine in early July at four different locations: Massabesic High School in Waterboro, Camden-Rockport Middle School, Dirigo High School in Dixfield and Noble High School in North Berwick.

The Maine-Nebraska Wrestling Exchange was founded in 1984 by Wally LaFountain, longtime Winslow coach and referee who is a member of both the Maine Wrestling Hall of Fame and the Maine Amateur Wrestling Alliance Hall of Fame. LaFountain, who led Winslow High School to state championships in 1958 and 1960, started the event as a goodwill series to promote and grow the sport in both states. The series changes host states each year.

The Maine All-Star team featured the state’s top talent, including Zady Paige and Piper Leone of Belfast; Kathleen Cote, Delaney Frost and Hannah Perro of Noble; Savannah Thyng of Massabesic; Lily Soper of Bucksport; Sophie Noyes of Skowhegan and Farias of Gardiner. The team also included Maddie Ripley of Oceanside, who was wrestling in her final Maine-related event.

Ripley, the only female wrestler in state history to win an open state tournament, a feat she accomplished in 2023 and 2024, graduated in the spring. The 2023-24 Varsity Maine Female Athlete of the Year will wrestle next year at Wyoming Seminary, a prep school in Forty Fort, Pennsylvania. It is considered the best prep wrestling program in the country, and both the boys’ and girls’ teams advanced to the 2023-24 National Prep Wrestling Championships in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

“There was definitely a lot of good talent on my team,” Farias said. “They definitely consisted of some of the best. It was really good to have them there and their support, how they cheered us on and we cheered them on. When we warmed up before the tournaments, we talked about what moves we wanted to work on during the matches and we worked on them. When we warmed up, we had good wrestling partners – that helped us.”

The addition to the Maine-Nebraska Exchange continues a boom in girls wrestling in the state of Maine. A total of 97 wrestlers competed in the girls wrestling state championships, the highest total ever for the tournament and nearly double the number expected in 2023.

“It’s just so cool to see the girls and be a part of it. I think this is what so many girls have wanted for so long,” said Perro, who won the 100-pound title at the Maine girls wrestling championships and helped the Knights win the tournament’s first team title. “And now that it’s actually here, it gives the girls so many opportunities. They don’t want to wrestle boys. … When I was younger, girls wrestling wasn’t that big, and if it was, it was freestyle. It’s really cool to see it growing in high school in folkstyle.

“In Nebraska, there are all-girls wrestling teams on the high school team. I think Noble will have (its own) wrestling team next year – that’s what I keep hearing.”

Like Maine, girls’ wrestling is growing in popularity in Nebraska. The Nebraska School Activities Association has voted to allow girls’ wrestling as a high school sport starting in 2021 and to host a separate state tournament for girls by 2022.

“It was very different, they did things in a different style,” Farias said of meeting the wrestlers from Nebraska. “There are a lot more girls wrestling there. One of the coaches talked to us when we got there. There are 50 wrestlers (at the school) in one wrestling room and 22 of them were girls.”

“They were really strong and fast,” Perro added. “Many of them train year-round and many of them do strength training programs at their school. It’s almost mandatory there and I think that’s a big difference. We talk about it a lot, but you don’t necessarily have to do it.”

Perro said the Nebraska wrestlers also showed a different style on the mat.

“They tie the hands very strongly,” Perro said. “I think that was something we all expected before our fights. When we watched each other wrestle, that was all we noticed. They would just grab your wrist (at the start of a fight) and that’s how they got control initially. In Maine, a lot of people tie up first, but they were really big (with the tying of) the hands.”

Nebraska won on all three days of competition, winning the duels with scores of 56:16, 61:30 and 49:24.

But it wasn’t all work for the team from Maine. During their stay in Nebraska, the group had plenty of opportunities for fun, including camping, fishing, ATVing, and ziplining across a river.

“We went to a few different water parks,” Farias said. “We stayed in a cabin, we were able to camp and have a campfire. Staying in the cabin and hanging out by the river all day (was the most fun).”

“There was no water there — like in Maine, where everywhere you go there’s at least a small pond or something,” Perro said. “When we were there, we had to drive 2½ to 3 hours just to get to a river. … There were cows in the river, which I’d never seen before. It was so many acres and cows everywhere, that was probably my favorite part.”

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