Once Calais High guard-forward Lanna Martin decided she wanted to play basketball for an NCAA Division II school, deciding which college to play for was easy.

“Everyone I talked to said I should go with my gut feeling,” said Martin, who will head to St. Anselm in Manchester, N.H. next year.

It helped that Martin already has some friends and family at the school.

Martin, who will attend St. Anselm on a tuition and fees scholarship, said she considered Division I Towson in Baltimore and Division II St. Michael’s in Colchester, Vt.

“I didn’t want to go D-I,” she said. “It’s too much commitment. I wanted to be closer to home and I’m kind of set on academics, too.”

Martin, a 5-foot-7 guard-forward, was a first-team All-Maine selection last year and has twice been named the Eastern Maine Class C tournament’s Most Valuable Player. She averaged 17.7 points, 11 rebounds and 6.2 steals per game in her junior season.

She said the Hawks coaching staff envisions her in a shooting guard-small forward role.

“All I know is [St. Anselm coach Bill Vermette] is really excited about the freshman class coming in,” Martin said. “I’m just looking forward to a good, strong team.”

Martin won’t be the only former first-team All-Mainer on the St. Anselm’s roster. Former Presque Isle star Brianna Blanchard is a sophomore starter this year. Martin stayed with Blanchard on her official visit.

Martin also has three cousins at the school.

Now that the big decision has been made, Martin is eager to focus on her senior year at Calais and a second straight state Class C title.

“I’m very relieved,” she said.

Minor change to tourney schedule

The Eastern Maine basketball tournament will have one minor change when the 2002 version of the tourney opens at the Bangor Auditorium in February, but will look the same for the most part.

The tournament schedule was released Monday.

The tourney will open Friday, Feb. 15 with a Class B girls quarterfinal at 3:05 p.m. There will be four games that day and Class B quarterfinals will continue Saturday.

This year, all of the quarterfinals in each classification will be held consecutively. For example, the Class D quarterfinals will begin Saturday, Feb. 16 at 7:05 p.m. and continue all day Monday, Feb. 18 until that round is finished. The Class C quarterfinals will start Tuesday, Feb. 19 and run through the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 20.

Last year the Class D quarterfinals started Saturday night, continued Monday morning and finished Tuesday night, with the Class C quarterfinals starting Monday afternoon.

Eastern Maine tournament director Bill Fletcher said the change was made to give each classification the same amount of time between rounds.

MPA, NFHS winter sports news

The Maine Principals Association sports committees and the National Federation of State High School Associations have made some rules changes and schedule announcements regarding the winter season. Wrestling, skiing, gymnastics, indoor track and swimming are the affected sports.

. The MPA Wrestling Committee voted unanimously to host the all-class state wrestling championships at the Bangor Auditorium Feb. 8-9. The first round will be held on six mats Friday and the second round will be Saturday. This is the second year of the all-class meet (it was held at the Augusta Civic Center last year).

. The 2001-02 ski season will end on March 9, which is two weeks later than usual. The MPA membership had voted last year for a two-year trial extension.

. The date of the 2002 New England Indoor Track Championship has been changed to March 1. The meet will still be held at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center of Roxbury Community College in Roxbury, Mass.

. The MPA gymnastics committee voted to raise state championship meet qualifying scores for the season. The new scores will be 8.2 for the vault, 7.4 for the beam, 6.5 for the bars, 8.2 for the floor exercise and 30.3 for the all-around. The committee also approved sending alternatives to the New England championships, to be determined on the day of the state championship in each category, with gymnasts already attending in the all-around category to fill in thereafter.

. Swimming news comes from the NFHS, which has eliminated the option for high schools to use 18-inch starting platforms in pools with water depths from 31/2-4 feet. At this water depth swimmers must start from the deck or in the water. The NFHS is considering a standard depth of five feet for the 2002-03 season.

Clay a state Heisman winner

Sumner of East Sullivan’s Michael Clay and Carrabec of North Anson’s Jamie Manzer were named the Wendy’s High School Heisman Maine winners last month.

Clay, the top boy, and Manzer the winning girl, were two of 102 finalists from across the country and were chosen from 20 other state finalists.

The two Maine winners each received a silver medal and $500 for their schools. State finalists are picked based on their academic, athletic, and community service accomplishments.

Clay is a cross country and track and field athlete for the Tigers.

Neither Clay nor Manzer made it to the next round of 12 national finalists. The national winners were to be announced Dec. 8.