One of the best years in recent memory for Maine sports is coming to a close, after athletes provided astounding performances across the Pine Tree State and at the highest level of national competition.
From high school gyms to NBA stadiums, Maine athletes spent much of 2025 delivering jaw-dropping moments and thrilling their fans along the way. From the unprecedented ascendance of Newport’s Cooper Flagg, to the resurgence of the University of Maine men’s hockey team, to the continued magic of high school buzzer-beaters and shocking upsets, this has been a year absolutely packed with incredible sports moments.
Ranked from fifth to first, here are some of the best plays that Maine fans got to experience along the way during the wild ride of 2025:
5. Ruth White becomes an All-American
In only her freshman year at the University of New Hampshire, Orono runner Ruth White quickly became one of the top 10,000-meter runners in women’s college track. White repeatedly broke school records at UNH on her way to a top-nine finish in nationals, earning her All-American second team status with a blistering time of 32:20.60 in the 6.2-mile race in Eugene, Oregon.
4. UMaine women’s soccer stuns top team
This didn’t look like UMaine soccer’s year, until the very end. Beleaguered by injuries, the Black Bears looked certain to break their streak of two-straight America East tournament championships. UMaine nearly missed the playoffs entirely, but found their stride in the conference tournament once again.
Matched up against the top-seeded Bearcats from Binghamton, UMaine found some double overtime magic from junior midfielder Victoria Dungey.
Teammate Jordane Pinette beat defenders with her speed and then delivered a perfect pass to Dungey, who finished it for the unlikely game-winner with 4:38 left in the second overtime. That win sent the Black Bears to the conference title game where they took home their third-straight America East championship.
3. Cooper Flagg’s buzzer-beater
Flagg, the first-ever Mainer to be taken number one in the NBA draft, has compiled a long list of unbelievable plays and never-before-seen moments in Maine sports this year — both at the start of his rookie season with the Dallas Mavericks and at the conclusion of his freshman campaign at Duke University.
If there’s one moment that best encapsulates his arrival on the national stage, it may have been the buzzer-beating three-pointer he knocked down in the Sweet 16 against Arizona. With his Duke team up by just three points in the final seconds of the first half, Flagg took over.
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He got a pass from a teammate after a loose ball, quickly started a fast break, dribbled to a few feet beyond the 3-point arc, pulled up for a deep three and knocked it down as time expired. With the ball in his hands for only about four seconds, Flagg dealt an emphatic blow to Arizona and proved yet again why he went on to win almost every player of the year award in college basketball last season.
2. UMaine hockey double overtime thriller
The UMaine men’s hockey team did something this year it hasn’t done in more than two decades: it brought home the Hockey East tournament championship. That spirited run in the conference playoffs was punctuated by an iconic semifinal win over Northeastern in double overtime.
After squandering a 2-0 lead to go down 3-2 in the third period, all hope seemed lost for the Black Bears. But a late equalizer, followed by senior center Nolan Renwick’s goal at the 11:02 mark of the second overtime, gave UMaine the thrilling victory en route to the conference title game.
UMaine’s Charlie Russell set up the winning goal by maneuvering into open ice in the right faceoff circle and passing the puck to the far post. It hit off the leg of the crouching Renwick and went in for Renwick’s ninth goal of the season.
“I don’t know if [Russell] meant to hit me with that one, but right spot, right time and I can’t complain about it,” Renwick said after the improbable win.
1. ‘The steal’ for Caribou girls basketball
The Vikings’ shocking overtime win in the Class B state championship deserves a place among the all-time best moments in Maine sports history.
If the ending of the state title game against Biddeford had been in a movie script, it would have been rejected for being too unbelievable.
Down 48-47 in the final seconds of overtime, Caribou was surely going to lose. Biddeford had the ball, and Vikings star Madelynn Deprey had just accidentally made a free-throw despite trying to miss to give her team one last chance at a rebound and score.
That cut the lead to one, but gave Biddeford the ball back. All the Tigers had to do was inbound the ball and run less than two seconds off the clock.
That’s when freshman guard Quinn Corrigan saved the day for Caribou.
Corrigan intercepted the inbound pass and was fouled while putting up a shot with less than a second left. She stepped up to the line and made both shots, cementing one of the most remarkable championship wins ever seen in Maine high school basketball.
“I just knew we needed a steal to get in front, and I just read their play,” Corrigan said afterward.
Caribou won the game 49-48, and Deprey had 31 of those points for the Vikings.
That wild finish rivaled — and by some accounts, surpassed — another historic Caribou basketball moment when Mike Thurston heaved a last-second shot to win the 1969 state championship. While Thurston’s iconic moment became known as “the shot,” Corrigan and her Vikings teammates etched themselves into Caribou history with “the steal.”
And there should be little doubt that it was the top play in Maine sports this year.