University of Maine baseball coach John Winkin has become the first college baseball coach in New England to reach 900 career victories.

Winkin, now in his 21st season as the head coach at Maine, went over the 900 mark by virtue of the Black Bears’ four-game sweep of Boston University last weekend in Boston. His career record now stands at 903-617-11, a .593 winning percentage.

Winkin, who has been coaching baseball for 40 years, began the season ranked 13th among active Division I baseball coaches with 895 wins. He is 18th all-time in the Div. I ranks.

Maine has made six trips to the College World Series in Winkin’s tenure, the last coming in 1986. He has guided the Bears to 11 NCAA Regional appearances and 17 postseason berths in 20 years.

Winkin, a native of Englewood, N.J., was named Northeast Region Coach of the Year in 1976, 1982-84, ’86 and ’91, Division I New England Coach of the Year in 1975, and College Division National Coach of the Year in 1965.

A 1941 graduate of Duke University, Winkin began his career at Colby College in Waterville, where he spent 20 years as a baseball coach and athletic director. He arrived in Orono in 1974, replacing the late Jack Butterfield.

Ice chips…. Chris Imes, who was the Maine hockey team’s iron man all season, took it to the extreme during last Thursday’s scintillating 4-3, triple-overtime victory over Michigan at the NCAA Final Four.

In that game, Imes played an incredible 49 minutes, 55 seconds while skating 66 shifts. That means he was on the ice for almost half of the 100:28 marathon, skating an average shift of 45 seconds.

Imes will be in Minneapolis Saturday for the annual East-West Shrine All-Star Game, where he will compete for the East team. The Shrine game was played in Orono during its first two years.

There were numerous milestones achieved by this year’s squad.

Black Bears junior defenseman Jeff Tory got his name in the record books with a goal and two assists in Providence. His 13th goal tied him with Dwight Montgomery (1979-1980) and Jack Capuano (1987-1988) for the school’s season scoring mark among defensemen.

Tory just missed grabbing the record for season points by a defenseman, recording 55 on the strength of 42 assists. Keith Carney had 56 points in 1990-91.

Junior Blair Allison ended the 1994-95 season with a handful of goaltending records to his credit. He now owns school season records for: appearances (44), victories (32), and minutes played (2,511:18).

Allison, who also owns the career record for consecutive appearances with 48, was picked for the all-tournament teams at the Regionals and NCAA Championships this season.

The UMaine hockey team will wrap up its incredible season Saturday with its awards banquet, which is entitled, “Stars on Ice.”

The festivities, put on by The Friends of Maine Hockey booster group, begin at 5:30 p.m. in Alfond Arena with a social hour and a silent auction featuring player memorabilia. Dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m.

Nationally-renowned sportscaster Gary Thorne, an Old Town native, will be the guest speaker and emcee for the evening, which will include video presentations, the announcement of team awards, and plenty of hockey talk.

Tickets are $25 per person and may be reserved by calling Murray Bain at 866-3681. Space is still available.

Thursday is the eighth National Student-Athlete Day, an event co-sponsored by the National Consortium for Academics and Sports and the NCAA. It’s purpose is to acknowledge the achievements of student-athletes in the classroom and in the community.

This year, more than 70 colleges will honor some 20,000 student-athletes and more than 10,000 high school students will receive certificates recognizing their efforts.

Athletes who were nominated for consideration must have had a grade point average of at least 3.5 and get recommendations from professors, administrators and coaches.