OAKLAND — The Mount View wrestling team made a splash on the mats last season, winning the program’s first Class B North championship.

This winter, the Mustangs went undefeated in dual meets during the regular season and are among the favorites for a regional title Saturday at Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.

The Cross Center is hosting both North regionals. Class A South is at Noble High in North Berwick, and Class B South is at Medomak Valley in Waldoboro. The state championships are scheduled for Feb. 14: Class A at Cony High in Augusta, Class B at Mattanawcook Academy in Lincoln.

Mount View, with an enrollment of 288, is one of several smaller Class B schools that manages to consistently field a strong and successful wrestling program. And while there are fewer athletes to choose from as opposed to Class A team — drastically so, in some cases — the ingredients to make a successful small-school program are similar: Get wrestlers to buy into the program, and build a pipeline from the youth program to the high school.

“I think it is partly due to our success (as well),” said Mount View grappler Tony Vieira. “It gained a little bit of attention to the team and people wanted to join more.”

Mount View, whose school district is comprised of 11 small Waldo County towns, has been a consistent title contender during coach Hamilton Richards’ 31 years leading the program.

Richards credits assistant coach Chris Cole, a former Mount View standout who is a teacher at Waldo County Technical Center, with recruiting athletes to the program.

“He’s been extraordinary at pulling kids in for us,” Richards said. “Our peewee program has been good. We’ve been working on the middle school — there’s a deficit between the peewee, middle school and high school — and we’re continuing to work on that. We’re working on the middle school, but having someone in the school district has made a huge difference.”

Cooper Wren, one of Mount View’s top wrestlers, also credited the youth and middle school programs in continuing the team’s success.

“They know what they’re doing and it’s bringing in athletes who are ready,” Wren said. “ (Gavin Milliken) is doing outstanding, and he’s only a freshman.”

‘You need to create numbers’

Large blue signs with the names and years of previous champions adorn the wrestling room at Belfast Area High School (enrollment 471). The Lions have won eight state championships — two in Class A and six in Class B — and are a consistent threat in Class B North.

Coach Travis Spencer and his assistant, Tony Gilmore, are trying to keep the program’s tradition of success alive while making sure their wrestlers have fun. Spencer, who has been the head coach since 2024, was the program’s first four-time state champion (2006-09). Gilmore was a three-time state champ.

“When you can keep it fun and they start winning matches, that’s when they get competitive and they couple each other,” Spencer said. “They want to win, and they want to have fun while doing it. It’s very important that you keep that, because if you don’t have numbers, you need to create numbers.”

Spencer’s wrestlers, including Zady Paige, are passing on those lessons of having fun to younger grapplers in the area.

“I feel like they look up to us,” Paige said. “If they see the high school team doing really well, they’re going to push themselves. A lot of younger girls, they kind of idolize me, and it’s really cool to go to their practices and they’re all over me, watching me (teach). It’s very cool to see and I want to see them do very well, too.”

After a 10-year hiatus, Mark Stevens returned this winter to lead the Lisbon/Oak Hill co-op team (combined enrollment 381). Stevens, another MAWA Hall of Fame inductee, has led Lisbon to seven Class C state championships. While times have changed, Stevens said the formula is still the same for making a program successful.

“It doesn’t matter how many kids you have in your school, you have to have a buy-in from the community,” Stevens said. “Your parents have to commit. I’m starting to see that (at Lisbon). There’s parents coming back who are fully involved and fully committed in their kids. That’s a big one.

“The other thing is teaching the kids the value of hard work,” Stevens continued. “We don’t talk a lot on the mat. They’re practicing, they’re grinding. And they feel empowered.”