Coach Tony DeMuro knows its early yet in the winter season, but his Mount Desert Island boys swimming team was encouraged by its win in Friday night’s Penobscot Valley Conference Relay Carnival.

MDI may be the first boys team besides Bangor or Old Town to win the traditional season opener. The Old Town boys won the Relay Carnival in 1996 and Bangor had won it ever since.

“It’s never happened before for us, so we’re pretty excited,” DeMuro said before Monday’s practice.

The Trojans scored 204 points to edge Class A Bangor, which finished second with 178 points. Defending Class B state champion Old Town put up 156 points for third place.

MDI kicked off the meet with a win in the 200-yard medley relay, which was swum by Frank Carbone, Justin Garver, Kevin Staples and Frosty Pepper in 1 minute, 49.33 seconds. DeMuro said that’s the team’s fastest medley relay time in several years.

Staples and Carbone were members of the winning 200 backstroke (1:54.49), along with Sam Burne and Ben Muir. Garver also swam on MDI’s winning 200 breaststroke team (2:11.13) with Eric Eaton, Randy Walls and Henry Warden.

“We have a real strong team, with 20 kids, and they’re all good,” said DeMuro. “[The medley relay win] was a good way to start the meet.”

MDI’s girls finished second to Bangor.

Although the Relay Carnival win was a nice boost with which to kick off the winter, the Trojans are looking at dual-meet matchups against the Indians and Rams to get a true test of where they are. MDI, which finished third at the Class B state meet last year and is considered a strong contender this year, has never beaten either team in a dual meet.

“It’s a long season, and we know Bangor and Old Town are going to get better,” DeMuro said.

MDI will host Old Town Dec. 19 and Bangor Jan. 23.

Tigers log record-breaking stats

The Fort Fairfield girls basketball team got off to a good – and historically significant – start to the 2003-04 season in Saturday’s win over Wisdom of St. Agatha.

The Tigers scored 89 points and finished with 43 field goals, both of which are school single-game records.

The old records dated back to the 1977-78 season, coach Larry Gardner said.

Nutter resigns tennis post

The only tennis coach Woodland High has known has decided to resign from that position.

Rich Nutter, who also coaches the highly successful volleyball program, has given up the tennis job because of traveling logistics.

Nutter lives in Bangor but didn’t have a problem traveling to Woodland for tennis practices and matches because his father George lived in the area.

But George Nutter died last year, and Rich Nutter sold his father’s house. Nutter has a camp on Big Lake near Princeton, but he can’t stay there until the lake is out from under the winter ice, and with the spring season starting in April, ice-out by then is unlikely.

“That was the biggest thing,” Nutter said. “I don’t have a place to stay.”

Nutter is able to stay at his camp during the fall volleyball season.

Nutter started the tennis program with the boys in 1977 and the girls in 1983. His combined record with the programs is 282-182.

The boys were Class B Eastern Maine champions in 1984 and EM Class C runners-up in 1998. The girls took EM Class C honors in 1993.

“I told the superintendent [of schools] I was hoping they’d find someone who could keep the tradition going,” said Nutter, who substitutes at the school and envisions more time with his wife and on the golf course. “It’s like it’s my baby, you know?”

Veazie, Corson honored

Dexter’s Brittany Veazie and Skowhegan’s Jessie Corson were among seven Maine high school girls named to the National Field Hockey Coaches Association’s Northeast Region team.

Other honorees included Brittany Chadbourne of Gardiner, Greely of Cumberland’s Julia Chase and Hayly Ross, Katie Curran of South Portland, and Massabesic of Waterboro’s Stephanie Walker.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.