HIGH SCHOOLS

York’s Taylor again earns state basketball honors

York High senior Nicole Taylor has been named Maine Gatorade girls’ basketball player of the year for the second consecutive year.

Taylor, who will attend the University of Vermont on a basketball scholarship, led the Wildcats to the Western Class B title by averaging 16 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.0 steals and 2.1 assists. She finished as York’s all-time leading scorer with 1,442 points.

“Niki Taylor’s stats and awards speak for themselves, but they do not do justice to the work ethic and leadership she has supplied to our program,” said York Coach Rick Clark. “She works hard every chance she gets to make herself a better player.”

BOXING

PORTLAND BOXING CLUB: Novice welterweight Joe Fitzpatrick of Falmouth and novice bantamweight Christian Castaneda of Portland won titles in the 14-15 year-old division at the New England Silver Mitts championships in Lowell, Mass.

GOLF

PGA: James Driscoll shot a 9-under 63 despite playing the final four holes in 2 over, taking the first-round lead in the Puerto Rico Open at Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.

Will MacKenzie was two strokes back, and Angel Cabrera, Omar Uresti and Brendan Steele were three shots behind the leader.

SLED DOG RACING

IDITAROD: Trent Herbst of Ketchum, Idaho, was the first musher to reach the checkpoint in the ghost town of Iditarod, about 534 miles from the start of the 1,150-mile race from Anchorage to Nome in Alaska, but Herbst had yet to complete a mandatory 24-hour rest.

Other front-runners, including four-time defending champion Lance Mackey of Fairbanks, Alaska, and four-time champ Martin Buser of Big Lake, Alaska, had satisfied the requirement before following Herbst into Iditarod.

Mitch Seavey, the 2004 champion, withdrew after severely injuring his hand while cutting open a bale of straw at the Ophir checkpoint.

SPEEDSKATING

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Havard Bokko of Norway upset defending champion Shani Davis of the U.S. to win the 1,500-meter title at Inzell, Germany.

Bokko beat Davis by 0.05 seconds, covering the distance in 1 minute, 45.04 seconds.

There also was an upset in the women’s 3,000, as Ireen Wust of the Netherlands beat two-time Olympic champion Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic.

TENNIS

BNP PARIBAS OPEN: Donald Young of the U.S. earned a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Potito Starace of Italy in the first round at Indian Wells, Calif.

NALBANDIAN SIDELINED: David Nalbandian of Argentina is expected to be out for two months because of surgery on his left leg and groin.

CYCLING

PARIS-NICE RACE: Andreas Kloeden of Germany beat Samuel Sanchez of Spain in a sprint finish to win the 119.7-mile fifth stage and take the overall lead at Vernoux-en-Vivarais, France.