Wrestlers from Maine warm up on the mat before a Maine-Nebraska Wrestling Exchange meet last month at Northwest High School in Grand Island, Nebraska. This year marked the first time girls wrestling was involved in the annual series. Contributed photo by Ciara Farias
For 40 years, the Maine-Nebraska Wrestling Exchange has been one of the Pine Tree State’s most anticipated high school mat events.
This summer, the annual dual series received a twist. For the first time in its history, girls teams were pitted against one another.
Last month, a group of the state’s top female grapplers made the trip for three dual meets — 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.
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“I enjoyed it. Overall, it was a really good trip,” said Gardiner Area High School senior Ciara Farias. “It was definitely worth going. … I’m glad this 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 sites: 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 longtime Winslow coach and referee Wally LaFountain, a member of both the Maine Wrestling Hall of Fame and 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 flips host states each year.
The Maine all-star team was comprised of the top talent in the state, 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 featured Oceanside’s Maddie Ripley wrestling in her final Maine-related event.
Ripley, the only female grappler in state history to win an open state tournament, a feat she achieved 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’s considered the best prep wrestling program in the country, and both the boys and girls teams prevailed at the 2023-24 National Prep Wrestling Championships in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
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Gardiner Area High School senior Ciara Farias, right, competes in a match during the Maine-Nebraska Wrestling Exchange last month. This is the first year girls wrestling is involved in the annual series. Contributed photo by Ciara Farias
“There was definitely a lot of good talent that was on my team,” Farias said. “They were definitely made up of some of the best. Having them there and their support, cheering us on and us cheering them on, was really good. When we warmed up before the tournaments, we talked about what moves we intended on working on during matches, and we’d work on those. When we warmed up, we had good wrestling partners — that helped us.”
The inclusion in the Maine-Nebraska Exchange continues a boom period in girls wrestling within the state of Maine. A total of 97 wrestlers competed at the girls wrestling state championships, the highest total ever for the tournament, and nearly double the amount who competed 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 brings up so many opportunities for girls. They don’t want to wrestle boys. … When I was younger, girls wrestling wasn’t that big, and if it was, it was in freestyle. It’s really cool to see it grow in folkstyle in high school.
“In Nebraska, they have straight-up girls wrestling teams on their high school team. I think Noble may have (its own) wrestling team next year — that’s what I keep hearing.”
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Like Maine, girls wrestling is growing in Nebraska. The Nebraska School Activities Association voted to make girls wrestling a sanctioned high school sport in 2021, and had its own girls state tournament by 2022.
“It was different a lot different, they did some different style stuff,” Farias said of facing Nebraska wrestlers. “They have a lot more girls who wrestle down there. One of the coaches was talking to us when we got there. There’s 50 wrestlers (the school had) in one wrestling room, and 22 of them were girls.”
“They were really strong and quick,” Perro added. “A lot of them train year-round, and a lot of them do lifting programs through their school. It’s almost mandatory (there), and I feel that’s a big difference. For us, it’s highly spoken of but it’s not like you have to do it.”
Team Maine sits for a photo before the Maine-Nebraska Wrestling Exchange last month. Contributed photo by Ciara Farias
Perro said the Nebraska wrestlers also presented a different style on the mat.
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“They’re really heavy on hand ties,” Perro said. “I feel like that was something we all tried to expect going into our matches. Watching each other wrestling, that’s all that we noticed. All they would do was grab your wrist (at the start of a match) and that’s how they would get control at first. In Maine, a lot of people go to tie up first, but they were really big (tying up) the hands.”
Nebraska swept all three days of competition, winning the duals 56-16, 61-30 and 49-24.
It wasn’t all work for the Maine team, however. While in Nebraska, the group had plenty of opportunities to play, including camping, fishing, riding ATVs and a zip line over a river.
“We went to a few different water parks,” Farias said. “We stayed at a cabin, we got to camp, have a fire. Staying at 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 drive there’s at least a little pond or something,” Perro said. “When we were there, we had to drive 2½-3 hours just to get to a river. … There were cows in the river, which I had never seen before. It was so many acres of land and cows everywhere, that was probably my favorite part.”
BANGOR, Maine (WABI) – Good morning and Happy Sunday everyone. Skies are cloudy with fog across much of Maine this morning. Rain has entered locations along the interstate and to the northwest. Temperatures vary from the upper 30s to mid 40s. Winds are out of the SE between about 5-15 mph.
Today will be a wet and impactful day with rain and even snow anticipated as a large cold front passes through Maine. Skies will be cloudy with plenty of fog lasting through the morning. Rain will expand across the interstate by the late morning hours, reaching Downeast locations by midday/the early afternoon.
By the early to midafternoon, temperatures will start to drop across northwestern locations as the cold front passes through Maine. This will result in rain turning over to mixed precipitation and eventually snow across the Western Mountains, Moosehead region, and Northern Maine. Rain will continue steadily and at times heavily across the foothills, Interstate, Coast, and Downeast. A few thunderstorms are even possible closer to the coast.
Snow will expand across areas to the northwest of the interstate this evening, reaching all the way down to Interior Midcoast communities, the Bangor region, and Interior Downeast areas by sunset and into the start of the night. Precipitation will taper off across Western Maine shortly after sunset, before exiting the entire state around midnight tonight. High temps today will vary from the low 40s to low 50s with SSE to NW gusts reaching 20-25 mph.
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WABI Weather 4/19/26 AM(WABI)
Snowfall totals will vary under 2 inches across Western, Northern, and Interior Downeast locations. However, a few pockets of 2-4 inches are possible, mostly in higher elevations across the mountains. Rainfall totals will accumulate around a half inch to three quarters of an inch when all is said and done.
WABI Weather 4/19/26 AM(WABI)
WABI Weather 4/19/26 AM(WABI)
Precipitation will be out of Maine by midnight tonight, with cloudy conditions giving way to mostly clear skies by sunrise. Lows overnight will dip back below freezing across much of the state, from the low 20s to mid 30s tonight, so cover up any plants or flowers outside. WNW gusts will reach 20-25 mph. A Small Craft Advisory is expected offshore.
WABI Weather 4/19/26 AM(WABI)
Skies will be partly to mostly sunny across the interstate and coast on Monday morning. However, by the late morning to midday hours, clouds will build with a few scattered rain and snow showers in spots. Conditions will remain on the cloudier side in the afternoon before clearing up around sunset into the start of Monday night. Highs will be chilly on Monday, from the low 30s to upper 40s. WNW to SW gusts will be a bit breezy, reaching 20-25 mph, which will add to the wind chill factor.
WABI Weather 4/19/26 AM(WABI)
High pressure will build on Monday night, remaining overhead on Tuesday. Skies will be sunny in the morning, becoming partly to mostly sunny in the afternoon. Highs will remain cool, in the 40s across the board with North to SW gusts only reaching 15-20 mph.
A weaker low-pressure system could bring showers across Maine on Wednesday and Thursday. There is a bit of model uncertainty on exactly when it will impact Maine. The GFS has impacts on Wednesday, while the EURO, GRAF, and GDPS models have most of the impacts on Thursday. We will continue to monitor this system and potential impacts. All it looks to provide as of now are cloudier skies and rain showers, with some snow shower chances farther to the North.
By Friday and Saturday, conditions are trending on the drier side with sunshine and average temperatures returning to the forecast.
WABI Weather 4/19/26 AM(WABI)
SUNDAY: Highs from low 40s to low 50s. Cloudy with AM fog. Rain becoming widespread throughout the day, turning over to snow to the north & west during PM. SSE to NW gusts reach 20-25 mph.
MONDAY: Highs from low 30s to upper 40s. Partly to mostly sunny early. Developing clouds with scattered rain/snow showers by midday/afternoon. WNW to SW gusts reach 20-25 mph.
TUESDAY: Highs throughout the 40s. Sunnier AM. Partly to mostly sunny PM. North to SW gusts reach 15-20 mph.
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WEDNESDAY: Highs from low 40s to low 50s. Mostly cloudy with a few rain showers. Few AM snow showers possible North. SSE to SSW gusts reach 20-25 mph.
THURSDAY: Highs from mid 40s to mid 50s. Cloudier skies with rain showers possible. Some AM snow showers possible North. NW gusts reach 20-25 mph.
FRIDAY: Highs from upper 40s to mid 50s. Partly cloudy. NNW gusts reach 20 mph.
Editor’s note: This story was originally published in September 2022.
When it comes to Maine hiking, summiting Katahdin is the ultimate achievement.
Maine’s tallest mountain stands at 5,269 feet, and there are a number of different trails hikers can take to get up and down Katahdin. And while some are harder than others, none are easy.
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But the views are incredible.
Whether it’s the rugged terrain of the Knife Edge or the vast landscape of the 200,000 acres that compose Baxter State Park below, here’s a look at what it’s like to climb Katahdin.
Hunt Trail
Hunt Trail traces the edge of a ridge on the west side of Katahdin known as Hunt Spur. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDNSara Clark (front) navigates a steep section of Katahdin’s Hunt Trail, while Sam Schipani takes a break on a boulder. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDNKatahdin Stream Falls is one of the many scenic highlights of Katahdin’s Hunt Trail. It’s located about a mile from the trailhead at Katahdin Stream Campground. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN
Abol Trail
A group of friends and family hiking down Abol Trail, Katahdin. (From top to bottom) Jeff McBurnie, Janet Jordan, Eve Jordan, Kerry Jordan (far right), Bruce Jordan, Joyce Sarnacki, Aislinn Sarnacki (far left), and Gary Robinson, in 2010. Credit: Photo courtesy of Derek RunnellsHikers climb and enjoy the open views along the Abol Trail on Katahdin, the tallest mountain in Maine, on Sept. 10, 2016, in Baxter State Park. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN
Chimney Pond Trail
Bright fall foliage surrounds Derek Runnells of Dedham as he walks along a boardwalk on the Chimney Pond Trail in Baxter State Park. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN
Cathedral Trail
A rock formation on Katahdin called the Second Cathedral is seen from above on the Cathedral Trail on Sept. 27, 2014, in Baxter State Park. Peaking out behind the Cathedral is Chimney Pond, a pristine tarn at 2, 914 feet above sea level. The closest ridge on the right leads to Pamola Peak and is traversed via Dudley Trail. And the mountain range at the center of the view is South Turner, North Turner and East Turner mountains. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDNHikers approach the first Cathedral on the Cathedral Trail on Katahdin. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN
Saddle Trail
Members of the 2015 Beyond Limits Katahdin Expedition make their way down the Saddle Trail after reaching the summit of Katahdin. Six men took 10-minute turns carrying Jacquelyn Lowman ,63, — who is paraplegic — to the summit, assisting each other along the way. The expedition took a year of planning and involved the help of about 20 people, who helped with the planning, carrying food, equipment and cooking. Eleven members of the group reached the summit with Lowman. Credit: Gabor Degre / BDNClouds settle over the upper reaches of the Saddle Trail, a route the leads to the peak of Katahdin, on Aug. 10, 2012. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN
Northwest Basin Trail
BDN reporter Aislinn Sarnacki walks toward Hamlin Peak on Katahdin on the Northwest Basin Trail in Baxter State Park. Credit: Courtesy of Derek Runnells
Knife Edge
From Baxter Peak of Katahdin, hikers can enjoy a stunning view of Pamola Peak and a mile-long ridge known as Knife Edge. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDNBDN reporter Aislinn Sarnacki hikes over Knife Edge of Katahdin on July 13, 2013. The ridge becomes just a few feet wide at some points, and the mountain drops away for thousands of feet on both sides. The trail should only be hiked in good weather. Credit: Courtesy of Derek RunnellsHikers on the Knife Edge of Katahdin have few options for getting off trail to relieve themselves of human waste. Above treeline, Leave No Trace principles recommend planning ahead to avoid the necessity of going to the bathroom in fragile alpine areas, or getting off trail as far as possible to relieve themselves on rock or gravel. Credit: Courtesy of Brad Viles
Tablelands
A hiking trail winds through delicate alpine vegetation on the tablelands of Katahdin in Baxter State Park. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN
The Tablelands of Katahdin, a relatively flat area between Baxter and Hamlin peaks, is visible from Cathedral Trail on Sept. 27, 2014, in Baxter State Park. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN
South Peak
Hikers descend from South Peak on Katahdin in 2016. Credit: Courtesy of Brad Viles
Hamlin Peak
The rocky Hamlin Peak extends to the east, and beyond it are the Basin Ponds, South Turner Mountain, Katahdin Lake and the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN
Maine Township residents vote in support of purchasing building for the relocation of the township food pantry.
A proposal for Maine Township to purchase a building at 9850 Milwaukee Ave. in Glenview to move its popular and growing food pantry received strong approval at the township’s Annual Meeting held last week at the Town Hall on Ballard Road. More than 100 residents attended the meeting where they approved buying the property for $1,429,000. The 3,000 sq. ft. building, which is located within the township, had been the home of a local restaurant. It is currently vacant. In March, Supervisor Kim Jones explained that the food pantry needs more space for food and to accommodate clients who need food. “We’ve totally outgrown it,” said Jones at the time. “We’ve been looking for more than a year.” Following last week’s meeting, Jones said about the vote, “That magical moment really encapsulated the strong support system that’s been built from neighbors helping neighbors throughout our community. The food pantry has grown in leaps and bounds throughout the last five years thanks to the dedicated work of its staff, volunteers and the public.” Des Plaines City Clerk Dominik Bronakowski served as ceremonial moderator for the event. Jones also recognized a number of employees and officials who currently serve the township. They included Assessor Susan Moylan-Krey and MaineStay Youth and Family Services Director Richard Lyon for their 20 years of service to Maine. Assistant Director of MaineStreamers, Therese Tully was recognized for her 25 years of service. The meeting also recognized former Des Plaines Self-Help Closet and Pantry Director Debbie Walusiak who was presented the Sgt. Karen Lader Good Citizen Award for her more than 20 years of service to the Des Plaines community. “Debbie is an exceptional community leader and volunteer,” said township Clerk Pete Gialamas whose office runs the annual award program. “Her work with the Des Plaines community, particularly her leadership navigating the Self-Help Closet and Pantry’s 2020 move to a larger location in the midst of the COVID pandemic really shows the depth and resolve of that leadership and dedication to service.” In 2011, the clerk’s office instituted the award in honor of Lader, a resident of Des Plaines and a 15-year veteran of the Cook County Sheriff’s Police who lost her battle with cancer in 2010. She was deeply involved with the township’s Neighborhood Watch program and active in Maine’s National Night Out Against Crime event held each August. She also worked on Special Olympics and animal rescue.
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