NORTH BERWICK — Back in 1982-83 when the Noble Invitational was born, it would have been hard to envision what it has now become.

Those first few years, it was an eight-team tournament open only to Maine Class B teams. And it was absolutely a boys-only competition.

This year, the two-day event boasted 40 teams, including New England powerhouses Central Catholic from Lawrence, Massachusetts; Bishop Hendricken from Warwick, Rhode Island; and New Hampshire toughies like Salem and Concord.

Add in a girls-only tournament that drew 82 individuals running concurrently with the co-ed divisions, and it was five mats of action spread across two gyms that provided Maine’s wrestler with plenty of top-end competition.

“We have a few kids on our team that thrive on that type of competition,” said Ben Madigan, coach of Edward Little’s second-year varsity program. “The beginner wrestlers who have had pretty decent success in the state, they get to see what else is out there. Something to aspire to. To say, ‘man, that kid is that good. How do I get that good?’”

Among the spectators in the crowded main gym was Mike Morin, head coach at the University of Southern Maine.

“You’ve got most of the top talent in the state of Maine here and this tournament, even from last year to this year, it seems like it has kind of exploded in terms of the number of teams,” Morin said. “You have some quality teams from out of state, so it’s giving these (Maine) guys a chance to see out-of-state competition.”

The girls tournament has added another important competitive layer to the Noble Invitational over the past two years. This year, the girls tournament featured the top Maine teams in defending New England champion Noble, Mt. Blue of Farmington and Massabesic of Waterboro.

Nokomis sophomore Ava McGinnis has been wrestling for close to 10 years. She’s had plenty of bouts against boys over that time. Girls-only tournaments make the sport more accessible, she said.

“Growing up, I wrestled just guys, maybe one or two girls,” said McGinnis, competing in the 152-pound bracket. “I like that I can grow as a wrestler. The sport is growing a lot because there’s a lot more girls tournaments and more girls coming in. Girls get scared or intimidated by (wrestling boys), so I think if there were more girls events, a lot more people would get into it.”

Participation in girls wrestling increased 40% last season, growing from 93 to 131 participants, and coaches are predicting a similar growth when the numbers are tallied after this season.

Mt. Blue brought eight girls to the tournament, including defending state champion Brooklynn Webber, who was competing at 114 pounds.

Webber said she’s seen “tons” of growth just in her three years at the high school level. “I think coaches are finally realizing that girls can wrestle and it’s happening all around the country, not just here in Maine. I know I go back to school and I’m recruiting girls and my friends are recruiting girls at every other high school, and to have tournaments like this, it’s good that girls are getting competition and getting out there more.”

The MPA has held a girls end-of-season individual tournament since 2019 and added a team championship component last season. The next key step is having more in-season tournaments like the one held at Noble, said Mt. Blue coach Mike Hansen.

“They really want to wrestle girls and their fear is that they’re going to have to wrestle a boy,” Hansen said. “Once you remove that fear, the girls just started rolling in. We have 17 girls in our youth program, 10 on my middle school team, 10 on our high school team.”

Massabesic sophomore Savannah Thyng agreed.

“There can be a lot of stress, but once you have a community of girls, it helps a lot,” Thyng said.

In other states, girls wrestling has already progressed to the point where the end-of-season tournament features 32-wrestler brackets and schools have completely separate teams and schedules for their girls. That’s what Massabesic junior Nevaeh Grunhuvd was used to when she and her sister, Sophie, were competing in Montana last season.

Asked to assess where Maine stands in its growth of girls wrestling, Grunhuvd said, “I think it’s almost there. There are a lot of girls here who have the passion for the sport but there technique isn’t quite there yet. So, it’s almost there where Montana is, it’s just we need more girls to come and want to join. In a few years, it will be up there.”