The wrestling was intense throughout the evening and Cordell Brooks and Eddie DeRoche both rose above the rest of the competitors in the 29th annual Maine/Nebraska Friendship Series on Wednesday night.

Skowhegan High School hosted the first of the four legs of the trip. Bob Craig of Skowhegan is the new Maine team leader.

Nebraska went on to beat Maine, 37-27, in this showdown.

Brooks of Oxford Hills won a 6-0 decision, while DeRoche of Mountain Valley pinned his Cornhusker opponent.

The competition proved to be extremely tight. Nebraska always brings a strong travel team and the current one is no exception.

Zach Stevens of Lisbon, a three-time Class C state champion, lost 4-2 and Danny Buteau of Oak Hill fell, 3-2. Buteau won a Class B state championship this year as a freshman.

Jake Thornton of Mountain Valley lost a 9-1 decision and Malik Geiger was pinned. In 2014, Thornton won a Class B state championship and Geiger was a finalist in the Class A state meet.

Griffyn Smith of Dirigo had been scheduled to compete, but the two-time Class C state champion had to with draw after having been bitten by a tick that required hospitalization. The series resumes Friday at 6 p.m. at Foxcroft Academy, Sunday June 29, at Ellsworth High School and Tuesday, July 1, at Marshwood High School.

Caleb Austin of Mountain Valley, a member of the Maine Freestyle team, will be wrestling at Marshwood. Austin compiled a 46-3 record as freshman and was a finalist in the Class B state meet. It was a big rematch as Austin lost 7-0 to Peter DelGallo of Gardiner. Austin had also lost regional final to Del Gallo, the two-time state and 2013 New England champion.

The Maine-Nebraska Friendship Series had its beginnings over four decades ago. It is the longest cultural exchange between two states, despite the hard economic times, which is a credit to how powerful the world’s oldest sport has become.

In April of 1984, when Wally LaFountain, an official from Winslow attended a National Federation of High School’s rules committee in Kansas City and met Mick Pierce, who coached at Lincoln Southeast High School in Nebraska.

Following the first year of the exchange, Pierce handed the Nebraska program over to Tom McCann, a coach at Kearney, Neb.. Wally LaFountain was the leader on the Maine side of the program for 10 years. In 1995, he stepped down, giving the responsibility of the exchange to Dennis Walch. After leading the exchange for nine years, Walch, a retired Westbrook coach, passed the responsibility on to Shawn Guest, coach at Morse, and he passed the baton to Craig.