Nebraska team dominates Mainers

BREWER – For Jake Smith, competing in Monday’s opening meet of the 21st annual Maine-Nebraska Friendship Series was a successful venture on a couple of counts.

The reigning Nebraska state wrestling champion at 189 pounds not only won his match, he got his first look at the Atlantic Ocean during his team’s trip to Mount Desert Island earlier in the day.

“It was awesome,” said Smith, who also is a fullback and linebacker on the Bennington High School football team. “I got to see the ocean, that was fun. I’ve only seen it once before, when I went to California.”

Smith and his Nebraska teammates dominated the first of four meets to be held against regional Maine squads during the next six days. The series continues at Winslow tonight, followed by meets Friday at the Portland Expo and Sunday at Lincoln Academy in Newcastle.

Nebraska won all but two of the matches contested at Brewer High School, the only exceptions being brothers Chris Barkac and Jeremiah Barkac of Parkman and Dexter High, who each won by pin.

Chris Barkac, the four-time state champion who will compete at Norwich University next winter, stopped Nebraska’s Austin Carmichael in 1:25 of their 130-pound match. Jeremiah Barkac, who recently completed his sophomore year as a two-time state champion, pinned Devin Zitek with 2.2 seconds left in their 103-pound match.

“He was stronger than I thought he was going to be,” said Jeremiah Barkac. “I was trying to set something up, but I didn’t get it and I had to go to different moves. I had to change the look.”

Other Maine highlights included Brent Brawn of St. Albans and Nokomis High of Newport rallying to extend Nebraska’s Tony Green to overtime before losing a 6-4 decision in a 189-pound match. Brothers Sam Webber and Shane Webber of Mt. Blue High of Farmington each dropped a one-point decision, Shane Webber by a 4-3 count to Zach Small at 145 pounds and Sam Webber by 1-0 to Shane Castillo at 119 pounds.

Several other Maine wrestlers were competitive, but against a squad of Nebraska all-stars drawn from the state’s 230 high school programs, it was just as much a learning experience.

“They really focus on technique,” said Brawn. “They don’t try to muscle it unless they already have the move in, and then they just add the muscle to it.

“The better Mainers are technically sound, but the mediocre ones, me included, will go to a move if we think we know it right, and then go to muscle and mess it all up, and that will cost you.”

There was little margin for error among the Maine contingent against a Nebraska team that featured seven state champions, including 265-pound Caleb Tyler, who went 37-0 in wrestling last season and also is a reigning state Golden Gloves boxing champion.

“We’re right in a hotbed of wrestling in the Midwest with Iowa and Kansas and Oklahoma and Colorado,” said Nebraska team leader and coach Tom McCann, who has been part of the Friendship Series for the last 20 years. “In all those states around there wrestling is very popular, so there are a lot more opportunities for wrestlers.”

Jake Smith, for one, is trying to make the best of this opportunity.

“I thought I wrestled great, a real sound match,” said Smith of his victory over Foxcroft Academy’s James McPhee. “The kid I wrestled was very strong, but I’m just loving this experience. I’m having the time of my life right now.”

“We’re all glad to be here, to have the chance to come here and wrestle and have a great time doing it.”