The Foxcroft Academy wrestling team came into the Class B North championship Feb. 9 at Ellsworth High School looking to defend the squad’s title for the fourth year in a row. The Ponies knew it was not going to be easy, but quickly realized how hard it was going to be.

Foxcroft Academy sophomore Lucas Ames is thriving with a more unique athletic combination -- basketball and wrestling.

More than two dozen mushers and their teams from across Maine, New England, and Quebec took to the trails for the annual 100-Mile Wilderness Sled Dog Race on Feb. 2. Entrants competed in 35- and 70-mile races, starting and finishing by the Leisure Life Resort.

Brook trout are among the state’s most treasured natural gifts, and Maine is lucky to have more places to catch wild brookies than any other state in the lower 48. And according to a state fisheries biologist, anglers on the state’s largest lake have been hauling in some huge brookies of late.

Dustin Simmons had plenty of individual motivation at Saturday’s Penobscot Valley Conference wrestling championship meet. Three previous trips to the championship finals had produced nothing but disappointment. And the clock and scoreboard weren’t working in the Foxcroft Academy senior’s favor late in his last bid for a conference title against Gabriel Stone of Dexter in the 160-pound final.

Undefeated Josh Harvey of Young’s MMA in Bangor won the New England Fights 37 main event at the Cross Insurance Center on Friday night, Feb. 1 before most of the sold-out crowd of 1,200 even realized it.

For the seventh time in as many meets Penquis Valley High School senior Cymeria Robshaw won the 55-meter dash during the final regular season Penobscot Valley Conference/Eastern Maine Indoor Track League competition at the University of Maine.

Nikki Hamilton has always been an athlete. When she was a kid you’d likely see her exploring the woods, playing sports or riding her horse Blackjack. No sitting around indoors for her! One winter when she was 12 years old her dad, Kirk, encouraged her to consider ice racing.

Josh Harvey’s big meal Wednesday reflected his continuing weight cut in advance of Friday night’s NEF 37 mixed martial arts show at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.

A two-division format for eight-player football involving 10 schools that would begin play next fall gained the approval of the Maine Principals’ Association football committee Thursday, Jan. 31.

With 3:21 remaining in the fourth quarter, Foxcroft Academy trailed visiting John Bapst Memorial High School of Bangor 73-68 in a Jan. 29 Class B North/Big East Conference boys basketball game. From there the Ponies went on a 10-0 run to close out the contest on Senior Night for players Jair Garcia, Jeremy Richard, Hyatt Smith, and Matt Spooner and win 78-73 as the team helped solidify its spot for the postseason later in the month.

The 12th annual Moosehead Lake Togue Derby with Ricky Craven is in the books. The event is organized by the Natural Resource Education Center at Moosehead (NREC) to raise funds for programming. Anglers from all over made the trek north to Maine’s largest lake for the action. As would be expected, Mainers make up the vast majority of participants, but organizers also sold tickets to folks from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Quebec, and Florida

Dexter Regional High School junior Justin Wing became the third Tiger wrestler to earn his 100th win this season as Wing accomplished the feat during a Jan. 26 competition at Skowhegan Area High School. Wing's win followed the previous 2018-19 100-win milestones of seniors Caleb Weeks and Isaiah Hesseltine.

For the sixth time in as many meets Penquis Valley High School senior Cymeria Robshaw won the 55-meter dash during a Penobscot Valley Conference/Eastern Maine Indoor Track League competition at the University of Maine.

John Bapst, the final team to perform at the regional,slipped past Foxcroft Academy for the final ticket to the state championships. Foxcroft, which finished 11th at the Big East championships and tied for sixth in the PVC, placed seventh in Class B North with 59.1 points.

There remains a shortage of game officials for virtually every interscholastic sport in Maine and around the country. Recruiting efforts continue from the state level to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

The structure of high school basketball in the state is expected to proceed without significant change for the next two years after the Maine Principals’ Association classification committee recently voted to maintain enrollment cutoff standards for the next two years.

The Foxcroft Academy wrestling team traveled down Route 7 on Jan. 19 to compete in a duals tournament at Dexter Regional High School. Six teams competed at this event from the the KVAC and PVC conferences. The teams were put into two pools, where the winner of each group would face each other in the finals.