It was something Calais senior Crystal Martin had wanted for years: a chance to attend school and play basketball with good friend Billi Blanchard, a senior guard at Presque Isle.

And for a few days this fall, Martin made the move from Downeast to Aroostook County. Her transfer went through and she was living with her aunt Verona Martin, who teaches at the school.

“I loved it,” Martin said. “I really loved it. I loved the school, I loved the people. It was a big controversy in my family … but it was all set. My parents were giving me a trial week, and after that they would drive my car up. They were going to come to my games and I would go home as much as I could on the weekends.”

Although Martin enjoyed school – especially being there with Blanchard – she chose to go home to Calais. And in the moments after the Blue Devils’ loss in Saturday night’s Eastern Maine Class C final, Martin said she doesn’t regret her decision to return to Calais.

“I knew this is where my home is,” she said. “Nobody expected this at all and I was happy to be here. And I’m glad in the end I didn’t let the team down.”

The Blue Devils, who lost three starters and most of their offense from last year’s team, were a bit of a surprise to return to the Eastern Maine Class C final.

Martin averaged 15.6 points and 5.6 rebounds in Calais’ three tournament games. She was named to the Class C all-tourney team Monday.

Martin decided to leave Presque Isle because by the time she got there, students were already several weeks into the school year. Many Aroostook County schools start early because of the potato harvest break later in the fall.

“I didn’t want to make up the school work and I just decided, it’s my last year, I’m going to be leaving for college anyway, I might as well stay home with my family while I could,” Martin said.

Martin had an emotional reunion with her sister Lanna after Saturday’s Eastern Maine final. Lanna Martin, last year’s Miss Basketball and a freshman at St. Anselm in Manchester, N.H., drove through a snowstorm Saturday to get to the game at the Bangor Auditorium. But the weather made travel slow and Lanna Martin didn’t arrive in Bangor until moments after the game ended.

The sisters saw each other for the first time in a hallway in which a crowd of Calais fans was milling after the game.

Mona Martin, the girls’ mother, said Lanna wasn’t able to get radio broadcasts of the game, so she called Lanna and former Calais teammate Nanci Feck, who was driving with Lanna, with periodic updates.

New Englands approaching

Maine high school track and field, wrestling and gymnastics athletes will head to New England championships starting this weekend.

The regional track and field competition will be held Friday at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center in Roxbury, Mass.

Top boys qualifiers include Old Town standouts Tyler Eastman (shot put), Kalle Eko and Tim Niles (long jump), Brewer’s Robert Gray (long jump), Gunner Siverly of Bucksport and Hampden’s Eric Libby (400 meters), MDI’s Brandon Westphal (800 meters), Brian Herasymchuk of Hampden (1 mile) and Sumner of East Sullivan’s Ryan O’Keefe (2 mile).

Top individual girls qualifiers include Brewer’s Heather Clark (mile), Cassie Hintz of Old Town (2 mile), MacKenzie Rawcliffe of Hampden (long jump and 55-meter hurdles) and Erica Commeau of Brewer (long jump), Brewer’s Danielle Lainez (55 hurdles), Mount View of Thorndike’s Caitlin Biggs (55 meters) and Rachel Biggs (200 meters), Oriana Farley of Hampden and Sharon Fuller of Old Town (800 meters).

Wrestling New Englands are set for March 7-8 at Lowell High School in Lowell, Mass. The gymnastics competition will be held March 15 at Salem High in Salem, Mass.