RANGELEY — It had all the makings of a beautiful beach day.

Though many people ventured to Rangeley on Sunday for summer fun in the sun, there was another event in town that lured people to the lakes region. And they weren’t lying out on mats to catch a suntan.

The Black Fly Kids Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Championship tourney was held at Rangeley Lakes Regional School for the third straight year. This year featured its largest group of participants yet.

“It was really exciting and all-around awesome,” said 11-year-old Anna Wilkins of Auburn. “I like that I got to meet new people, and it was fun.”

Wilkins and her sisters Julia, 15, and Marisa, 13,  made it a family outing. All three girls train with Central Maine Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. 

“It was good, but it was stressful to watch them,” said Rena Wilkins, mother of the three girls, who along with husband Jeff watched their daughters compete in their first competition. “I’d never done this before.”

It was the first time Central Maine Jiu Jitsu had appeared at this event. With about 10 competitors, the program did well in its debut.

“We had a lot of kids who wanted to compete,” said Jesse Erickson, one of the coaches for Central Maine Jiu Jitsu. “I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll take the drive up and check it out.’ We’d heard good things and thought we’d try it out.”

Shawn Smith, a martial arts instructor at The Foundry in Rangeley,  began the Black Fly tourney in 2014 in hopes of providing kids a chance to compete in the state. The first year the event had 49 participants from schools in Portland, Bangor, Manchester and Topsham. A year ago, teams from Winslow and Farmingdale joined and the tournament drew nearly 70 competitors. Sunday, Smith estimated he had between 85 and 90 on 13 teams.

For Central Maine Jiu Jitsu, it was one of the closer competitions for its athletes. Many of the kids compete in about four per year, Erickson said. With many of the tournaments in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the trip north to Rangeley was still close to home.

“It’s been awesome,” Erickson said. “Everybody’s been doing really well. There’s been a lot of sportsmanship going on here. All the kids seem really happy. Win, lose or draw, they all shake hands after.”

The tournament featured a number of competitions for children ages 4 to 17 on three mats. There were Gi Divisions, in which competitors fought in full karate gi uniforms. There were also the No Gi Divisions, which allowed participants to compete in shorts and T-shirts. There were age groups for both boys and girls. There was also an Absolute Tournament which allowed competitors to challenge for championship belts. 

Jayda Bailey of Levant is a veteran of the Black Fly. She won championship belts the past two years and earned her third Sunday. Being 16, it might be her last opportunity to compete in the tourney. She’s seen the tourney evolve and become more challenging each year.

“I started out here with three matches my first year,” said Bailey, who attends Hermon High School and trains at Youngs MMA in Bangor. “Last year, I had seven. There’s been a lot more competition. All of the schools are in attendance here. Instead of it being a small-town state tournament, it’s turned into an actual state competition to be the state champion for jiu jitsu.”

While a number of competitors won medals for their success in respective age groups, winning a championship belt was the ultimate, even for Bailey, who also has a state wrestling title. It’s a reward for a challenging effort on the mat. Central Maine Jiu Jitsu had a pair of belt winners. Ezra Mathieu won in the boys’ under 100 division while Isabelle Langelier won the girls. The other absolute winner was Caleb Austin, from Berserkers MMA.

“It’s not a one-and-done win,” Bailey said. “You have a lot of competition and you face a lot of different people, so you have to be talented.”

Bailey started learning martial arts when she was 4. She started attending karate classes at a local YMCA but decided she wanted something different. She found jiu jitsu more to her liking.

“It had other aspects, like striking and wrestling,” Bailey said. “I just loved it. It could take away my anxiety. When I was having a bad day, I could work out and get out that feeling, it was great.”

Wilkins, who attends Calvary Christian Academy in Turner, has been in the sport for less than a year. She has been involved in swimming in the past but was lured to the sport by a friend at her church, who happened to coach the sport. Her first outing proved pretty successful. She had four medals at the end of the day, including two firsts. She competed in four divisions.

“I wasn’t thinking that I’d win anything,” Wilkins said. “It was very exciting. I was a little nervous, but it was really fun.”

One of the attractions of the Black Fly is that competitors with varying skills and experience had an opportunity to participate and succeed. It was a wonderful precursor to other competitions to follow.

“I knew we’d do good,” Erickson said. “We’ve got a good program. I felt it was important to get up here with the kids and do some things they haven’t done. They got a chance to compete and get the nerves out. For a lot of them, it was their first tournament.”

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