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.

“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.

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.”

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.

“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.”

Copy the Story Link

Friday marks 90 days since the end of the last legislative session in Maine, which means new laws take effect.

Maine Morning Star asked legislative leaders to weigh in on which new laws they think have the potential to impact everyday life for Mainers. There were some common themes, particularly changes to guns, housing and healthcare policy. 

In addition to the individual bills that were approved to become law, the supplemental budget will also take effect Friday. The budget includes sweeping changes that Assistant House Majority Leader Kristen Cloutier (D-Lewiston) said “will make life easier for families in Maine.” She pointed specifically to investments in housing and child care as well as lowering prescription drug costs for older Mainers. 

“The budget really allowed us to do things for folks at every life stage, which I think is really important,” Cloutier said. 

New gun laws

Gun reform rose to the top for leaders of both parties when asked about how individual lives will be shaped by new laws. 

Though there were many pieces of gun legislation considered during the last session, only two will become law Friday. This includes the 72-hour-waiting period after certain purchases, which passed by a narrow margin, with some legislative Democrats joining all Republicans in opposition. Gov. Janet Mills said she was “deeply conflicted” about the reform but allowed it to become law without her signature. 

Cloutier, who represents Lewiston, which was the site of the state’s deadliest mass shooting last October that killed 18 people and injured 13 more, said the new law will make communities safer. 

But Senate Republican Leader Trey Stewart of Aroostook County said, “Any right delayed is a right denied.” 

So while he agrees it will be one of the most impactful laws to come from the last legislative session, especially for the many Mainers who own or possess at least one firearm, he doesn’t see it as a positive one. 

While Cloutier said she is proud of the progress that was made to reform the state’s relatively lax gun laws, she also highlighted the Maine Mass Violence Care Fund that was created last session in response to the Lewiston shooting. 

The $5 million fund created through the supplemental budget will support victims by covering out-of-pocket expenses not covered by insurance that are connected to a mass violence event. While the gun legislation often dominated conversations, Cloutier said she thinks this fund “will be of equal benefit, maybe greater.”

Helping people stay housed

Friday will unlock the $18 million earmarked in the supplemental budget for the rent relief pilot program, which was considered a win for advocates who have long pushed for some form of rental assistance. 

Over the past several weeks, the Maine State Housing Authority has been developing the program based on the specifications spelled out in the budget, explained Director of Communications Scott Thistle. The program — which MaineHousing has dubbed an “Eviction Prevention Program” — is scheduled to open to applicants in October.

The law specifies that the program will provide eligible people with up to $800 per month in rental assistance paid directly to a person’s landlord for up to two years. To be eligible, a household must be at risk of eviction, fall below 60% of area median income and not owe more than $19,200 in back rent, among other criteria. 

Cloutier also highlighted a new law to provide more transparency around the fees that a landlord can impose on a renter prior to tenancy. Those protections will also apply to residents of mobile home parks.

Students without adult family members or guardians to help secure housing for them will benefit from a housing subsidy program also created with the supplemental budget, an initiative that was highlighted by Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) as well as the Senate Majority Office.

Accessing healthcare 

Jackson and the Senate Majority Office also pointed to multiple new laws that will make healthcare more accessible and affordable. 

For example, a new law that was sponsored by the Senate president will collect data on prescription drug coverage of generic drugs, which will give a sense of whether insurance companies are pushing patients to brand-name drugs when cheaper options are available. 

Likewise, another new law will help the 80 community health centers across the state provide affordable prescription drugs to more people. Those centers already provide primary care to one in six Mainers. 

There will also be better price transparency for patients now that healthcare providers will be required to give good faith cost estimates to uninsured patients and insurers will have to provide out-of-pocket estimates for insured patients. 

And patients who are sent to collection agencies will be protected from additional fees or costly litigation with debt collectors thanks to a new law originally sponsored by Sen. Mike Tipping (D-Penobscot), which prohibits unfair practices related to medical debt.

PORTLAND, Maine – With eleventh hour guidance from the state, Maine gun retailers on Friday began requiring a three-day wait period for gun purchases under one of the new safety laws adopted following the state’s deadliest mass shooting.

Maine joins a dozen other states with similar laws, requiring that buyers wait 72 hours to complete a purchase and retrieve a weapon. The law is among several gun-related bills adopted after an Army reservist killed 18 people and injured 13 others on Oct. 25, 2023, in Lewiston.

The new law wouldn’t have prevented the tragedy — the gunman bought his guns legally months earlier — but Friday’s milestone was celebrated by gun safety advocates who believe it will prevent gun deaths by providing a cooling-off period for people intent on buying a gun to do harm to others or themselves.

“These new laws will certainly save lives, both here in Maine and throughout the nation,” said Nacole Palmer, executive director of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition.

Gun store owners complained about the guidance, released just Tuesday, and the loss of sales to out-of-state visitors during Maine’s busy summer tourism season. They also said the waiting period will take a toll on gun shows.

In Kittery, Dave Labbe from the Kittery Trading Post said there would be close to zero completed rifle sales at its main store beginning Friday as customers subject to the waiting period will have to return to pick up their firearms. He is worried shoppers won’t buy guns because the waiting period requires them to make an extra trip to the store.

“You can imagine how I feel,” he said.

Unlike other Maine dealers, Kittery Trading Post’s out-of-state buyers of rifles and shotguns have the option to move those sales to its New Hampshire facility to complete a same-day purchase. But that increases business costs and inconveniences customers. In some cases, the customer may prefer to ship the firearm to a dealer in their home state, Labbe said.

Some retailers claimed the guidance was late, and vague.

“It’s as clear as mud,” said Laura Whitcomb from Gun Owners of Maine. She noted gray areas include the legal definition for the “agreement” that must be reached to trigger the waiting period.

Critics of the law have vowed to sue. They contend it harms only law-abiding citizens while doing nothing to stop criminals from accessing weapons illegally. They also contend people who intend to harm themselves will simply find another way to do so if they are unable to purchase a gun on the spot.

The waiting period law went into effect without the signature of Democratic Gov. Janet Mills. It was one of a series of bills adopted after the mass killings at a bowling alley and a bar and grill in Lewiston.

Mills told lawmakers during her State of the State address that doing nothing was not an option after the tragedy.

The laws bolstered the state’s “yellow flag” law allowing weapons to be taken from someone in a psychiatric crisis, criminalized the transfer of guns to prohibited people and required background checks for people who advertise a gun for sale on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace or elsewhere.

Maine is a state with a long hunting tradition and the bills drew opposition from Republicans who accused Democrats, who control both legislative chambers, of using the tragedy to advance proposals, some of which had previously been defeated.