FARMINGTON — Mt. Blue High School Sophomore Brooklynn Webber has her sights set on some big wrestling tournaments this year, and the first All-American wrestler in the school’s history is reaching out to the community for help.

“Hi, my name is Brooklynn Webber and I am a Sophomore at Mt. Blue High School in Farmington, Maine,” Webber has written on her GoFundMe page. “I will be competing at some very high level tournaments across the country like Northeast Regionals in New Jersey, where I placed 2nd in Greco Roman division.”

The four tournaments that Webber is looking to compete in this year include the Women’s Freestyle Nationals in Spokane, WA [4/12 – 4/14], the Olympic Club Duals in Harrisburg, PA [5/3 – 5/5], the Northeast Regionals in Atlantic City, NJ [5/9 – 5/12], and the US Marine Corps Nationals in Fargo, ND [7/12 – 7/20].

According to Webber, she will be representing MBHS and the state of Maine at these tournaments. In total, Webber is asking for $7,000 to help offset the cost of travel, lodging and tournament fees for those four competitions. The amounts for each tournament are listed on her GoFundMe page.

Webber recently had a first place finish at the Maine State Girls Wrestling Championship at Winslow High School on Tuesday, Feb. 20, when she pinned Allanah Smith [114].

Along with her teammate Kendall Foster [185], MBHS girl’s wrestling finished the tournament with an overall score of 94, which placed them as runner ups to Noble High School, who made history at the tournament by becoming the state’s first girls team champion at the Maine State Girls Wrestling Championship.

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Webber continued her momentum into the first-ever New England girls’ wrestling championship, where Mt. Blue girls wrestling placed fifth overall with Webber placing fourth.

To say that wrestling is in Webber’s blood would be a mere understatement. According to her mother, Heather MacDonald, Webber’s father and three uncles all have backgrounds in high school wrestling and have won state championships. Webber added that her uncle’s children also went into wrestling.

“If you know the Webbers, they are well known for wrestling,” MacDonald shared with The Franklin Journal. “Her father held the first record for the most wins and [those records] got beat by his brothers as they went into high school.”

Webber’s father started asking her at a young age when she would follow in their footsteps, and in the fourth grade she finally decided to test herself on the mat. She was joined by Grace Allen and Logan Smith, and the three girls started to wrestle together.

Once she got to the middle school, Webber started to take her skill on the mat to the next level thanks to Coach Mike Hansen.

“He is one of my biggest supporters and he’s always there,” Webber shared. “He’s one of the people that made me fall in love with [wrestling] along with my family.”

Hansen has been a big proponent of girls’ wrestling throughout the state and in the school district, with him making an appearance before the RSU 9 board of directors on several occasions to push for the establishment of a varsity team for girl’s wrestling.

“He has opened up more opportunities than I ever imagined,” Webber stated, “and for the whole state, he’s been pushing and pushing for these girls’ tournaments.”

Webber shared that when she goes to a tournament she has big support from her family, and her younger cousins on both her mother and father’s side are following in her footsteps.

“So I’m the oldest on my father’s side,” Webber shared, “so they all look up to me, and on my mother’s side, I’m the second oldest and the oldest lives in Canada. So I try to set good examples and always help them as much as I can.”

As for who Webber looks up to, she admires Oceanside High School’s Maddie Ripley [107], who made history by becoming the first girl in Maine to win a state title while wrestling against boys in 2023. She repeated her feat this year in a different weight class [106], defeating Noah Parenteau of Belfast on Saturday, Feb. 17, at Mountain Valley High in Rumford.

“I’m looking forward to doing that well in the [Boys’ Wrestling Division],” Webber shared. “But I also want to do just as good in the girls.”

Webber plans to continue her wrestling career well into college. She doesn’t know where her career trajectory will take her, but she knows that whatever subjects she studies, she will be wrestling in her spare time.

“I never knew what I wanted to do in college,” Webber shared, “but I know that the reason I want to go to college is so I can continue to wrestle after high school and hopefully go beyond that.”

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