The first leg of the Aroostook League championship in skiing takes place at Madawaska Wednesday afternoon beginning at 2:30 p.m. The race will feature the Nordic classic style. \
Caribou is the favorite to win the team title for both girls and boys after having gone undefeated during regular season meets this winter. The top individual finishers all season have been Isabelle Jandreau of Madawaska for the girls and Max Bartley of Presque Isle for the boys.
The second round of the basketball rivalry matchup between the Caribou and Presque Isle girls will be held at Presque Isle High School and due to the impending storm has been moved up to 5:30 p.m. from its original time of 7 p.m.
The Wildcats, seeded fifth in Class B with a 12-5 record, defeated the Vikings in Caribou back on Jan. 9 by a score of 68-59. Caribou heads into the game ranked sixth with its 8-9 mark.
“I don’t think the game will change anything for us [in the standings], but it is Caribou and we really want to win,” said Presque Isle coach Jeff Hudson. “We want to be playing well before the tournament and it is Senior Night.”
Caribou coach Kayla Richards is hoping her team gets back on track after having lost four in a row. Injuries and sickness have been a factor lately. Richards said starting forward Alexis Rodriguez may have a torn meniscus, but she has been back on the court the past few days. Starting senior guard Gabrielle Marquis was limited in Saturday’s loss to John Bapst due to the flu and her status for today’s game is still up in the air.
“With the consecutive losses and health issues, we could definitely use a confidence booster going into playoffs,” Richards said. “Right now we’re taking it one day at a time and hoping we will all be healthy for playoffs.”
She knows her Vikings will have to execute defensively to have a chance tonight against the Wildcats.
“We will need to do a better job of containing Emily Wheaton and shutting down their perimeter shooting,” said the first-year head coach.
Hudson’s team is coming off a home win on Saturday against No. 1 Hermon and would like continue the momentum. Wheaton had a career-high 39 points in that game.
The veteran coach believes slowing down Caribou senior guard Searra Herbert will be a key factor.
“We cannot let her get going as they seem to play better when she plays well,” Hudson said. “Caribou is talented and they work very hard, so it’s going to be a tough game. We played very well up there and it’s hard to play two great games against the same team.”
The Houlton-Hodgdon girls basketball game scheduled for tonight has been postponed to Thursday at 7 p.m. due to the impending storm. The Easton at Washburn girls game has been moved to 6 p.m. Thursday.
Also postponed to Thursday was a rivalry game between the Katahdin and Southern Aroostook girls. The game was originally set for Wednesday at 7 p.m., but has been postponed to Thursday at 7 p.m. in Dyer Brook.
The Class C boys showdown between the Fort Kent Warriors and Central Aroostook also has been rescheduled to Thursday at 7 p.m.
Summaries of basketball games played Tuesday involving teams from the region are as follows:
Girls basketball
Fort Fairfield 53, Wisdom 25 — At Fort Fairfield, the Tigers hit seven 3-pointers on their way to their 12th win in 18 games.
Sara Edgecomb hit four 3-point field goals and had a game-high 12 points while Sadie Edgecomb had seven points. Emma Campbell, Amber Sherwood and Brenna Levasseur chipped in with six apiece.
For 0-18 Wisdom of St. Agatha, Cassandra Boucher had six points.
Hodgdon 36, Washburn 19 — At Hodgdon, Kora Lambert scored eight points, while Sabra Scott added seven, Sydney Howell had six and Kathryn Rediker had five as the Hawks (9-8) soared past Washburn (5-12).
Kassie Farley had six points and Raegyn Chavez and Emma Johnston had four each for Washburn.
Southern Aroostook 74, East Grand 32 — At Danforth, Southern Aroostook used a balanced scoring attack to roll by the Vikings. Sydney Brewer paced SACS (16-2) with 25 points, while Kacy Daggett added 11 and Kylie Vining had 10.
Mallory Gilman led the Vikings (4-14) with 16 points and Haleigh Shay put in 14.
SA led 13-2, 37-9 and 59-21 at the quarter breaks.
Boys basketball
Fort Fairfield 68. Wisdom 40 — At Fort Fairfield, the Tigers were paced by Isaac Cyr with 15 points en route to the win.
Liam McNamee added 14 for the Tigers, while Alex Sprague had 13 and Malcolm Langner chipped in with 10 .
Wisdom was led by Dylan Weyeneth with 11 points.
Easton 57, Katahdin 49 — At Easton, Noah Hanscomb tossed in a game-high 16 points and Collin Sotomayor scored 14 more as Easton upset Katahdin of Stacyville. The Cougars are now 12-5 and third in Class D North, while Easton improves to 11-6 and is seventh in the region.
Camden Michaud had 10 points for the Bears and Matt Pangburn and Keagan Kinney combined for 16 more.
Hunter Craig’s 15 points, John McNally’s 12 and Brody Guiggey’s eight points paced Katahdin.
Hodgdon 67, Washburn 40 — The Hawks closed out their regular season with an easy home victory over the Beavers, who finished with an 0-18 record. Individual scoring was not reported.
Southern Aroostook 81, East Grand 49 — At Danforth, Steven Rackliff scored a game-high 24 points and Garrett Siltz added 22 as Southern Aroostook (6-11) rolled to victory. Also for SA, Xavier Morales had 13 and Jayden Burpee added 12, while Hunter Burpee chipped in seven.
For East Grand, Thomas Gilman led the way with 16 points, while Matthew Potter added 14, Lendin Stoddard had 11 and Matthew Shay provided six more.
SA led 25-13, 42-28 and 64-40 at the quarter breaks.
GHCA 60, Van Buren 45 — At Van Buren, Isaac Potter scored 19 points and Austin Winslow netted 16 more to lead Greater Houlton Christian Academy (12-5) to victory. Will Austin contributed 12 points and Parker Brewer chipped in 10.
Luc Perreault had a game-high 29 points for 3-14 Van Buren and Brandon Sytulek tossed in 14 more.
The Eagles led 17-9, 33-20 and 49-31 at the quarter breaks.
