Penobscot Valley High School hosted approximately 28 schools and 56 grapplers across eight classes at Maine’s first all-female state wrestling championship. Three Dexter Regional High School Tiger wrestlers took to the mat on Wednesday, Feb. 20 hoping to be a girls state champion -- two met that goal.

The Dexter Tigers play a tenacious, cohesive brand of player-to-player defense. As evidence, if the team had not scored a single point in the second half on Wednesday morning, Feb. 20, the second-seeded Tigers still would have won the game. Coach Jody Grant’s team built a 17-point halftime lead behind its aggressive defense, shutting down No. 7 Fort Fairfield to earn a 47-25 Class C North girls basketball quarterfinal victory at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.

In Tuesday, Feb. 19’s boys Class C North quarterfinal, there were no secrets when second seed Mattanawcook Academy met No. 7 Dexter. The teams, which played twice during the regular season, advanced to the tournament largely on the strength of their defense and that was the key dynamic as they met for the third time this season.

Four Foxcroft Academy girls swam between two relay teams at the 2019 Class B swimming and diving championship on Monday, Feb. 18 at the University of Maine.

My first experience with high school basketball came back in middle school. It was the annual Dover Grammar School spelling bee, and I figured I was one of the favorites to move on to the Piscataquis County finals until that dream came to a crashing halt.

The Tigers of Dexter wrestled hard, brought home two state champs, an Outstanding Wrestler award winner, and placed second as a team behind Wells High School -- who brought 11 individual wrestlers to the tournament. Wells scored 161.50 points -- to earn the program’s third consecutive state championship -- and Dexter followed with 99 points.

The girls basketball team from Piscataquis Community Middle School ended the 2018-19 season as the Penquis League small school champions. The Pirates finished the season with an overall record of 11-4, with only one of the loses coming against a fellow small school program (the other three came vs. large school division squads).

Penquis Valley High School senior Cymeria Robshaw won the 55-meter dash and triple jump, and she came in second in long jump, at the 2019 Class B indoor championship on Feb. 16 at Bates College.

Last spring, I wrote about a project to prevent invasives from gaining access to Rainbow Lake. Rainbow Lake is one of just a dozen waters in Maine that holds native Arctic charr. In fact, Maine is the only state in the lower 48 to have any native Arctic charr. These fish are very sensitive to aberrations in the natural ecosystem.

The same four entities will be showing the state’s boys and girls high school basketball tournament games this season either online or on the TV, according to Dick Durost, the executive director of the Maine Principals’ Association.

The Foxcroft Academy swim team took part in the Penobscot Valley Conference championship on Feb. 8-9 at the University of Maine.

Penquis Valley High School senior Cymeria Robshaw won the 55-meter dash and triple jump and she came in second in the long jump at the Penobscot Valley Conference/Eastern Maine Indoor Track League small school championship on Saturday at the University of Maine.

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.