![]() Sophie Noyes finished second at 100 pounds at the Maine Girls Championship. behind Lettre and Owen Bourque of Kennebunk. Senior Kobe Butters was one of the more feared heavyweights in the state, finishing third at 285 pounds. The River Hawks finished 11th at the Class A meet, led by senior Aiden Clark, who won the 14-pound title. You can tell what it will do for the sport on the female end, most definitely.” “Down at the girls state tournament, I watched as a young girl walked up to Maddie and asking for a picture with her. “It definitely inspired some young girls,” Bradbury said. ![]() Hopefully a lot of people see that and try out for wrestling now.” ![]() At least it was great to see her get the recognition and put wrestling in forefront. She made headlines all over the place even though a lot of the stations and news articles were pretty late to the party. The other great part about it is, she brought great publicity to the sport. She was the person to earn it and it was great to see that come to fruition for her, because I know what they put in day in and day out for all the wrestlers. “All the hard work and dedication that she’s put in through the years. “It was great to see and she’s definitely earned it,” Skowhegan co-head coach Tenney Noyes said. Only a junior, Ripley can repeat both feats next season. She then went on to win 107-pound title at the Maine Girls Championships. Ripley pinned Nick Allen of Wells in the first round of the 106-pound final at the Class B championships at Mattanawcook Academy in Lincoln on Feb. The top story of the season came when Oceanside’s Maddie Ripley becoming Maine’s first female state champion in an open tournament. But this one will be special, especially with what we’ve been through the last few years.” I’ve coached a long time, and I enjoy every season. I just can’t say enough how rewarding this season was. A young team needs leaders and they did a great job with handling the younger wrestlers around them. “The upperclassmen did a great job,” Totman said. Cony finished seventh at the Class A meet. Nathan Shedd finished third at states at 220, while Kaiden Veilleux finished third at 195 pounds. Jonny Lettre won the 285-pound championship at the Class A meet, a year after winning the 220-pound title. It paid off on the mat for the Rams as well. And I thanked the kids for that, because they’re the ones that bring that, the coaches can only do so much.” There was a lot of excitement around wrestling, and we had missed that for a couple of years. The amount of improvement to do well in most of the tournaments that we were in and dual meets. We knew going in that we had nice numbers, but not a lot of wrestling experience. You couldn’t have asked more from a team. The kids on the team responded well to everything that we demanded of them as far as the work, dedication, managing their weight. It was really positive experience for everybody, coaches included. ![]() “Every day, every practice, every meet, every tournament. “There was just an energy that was around this team,” Cony head coach Shawn Totman said. Cony, for example, had more than 30 wrestlers this season. Several programs reported an increase in numbers after struggling a bit during the coronavirus pandemic. High school wrestling took a major step forward in central Maine, as well as the state, this season.
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