RANGELEY — The snow was white, the mountain black and the title, as usual, blue.
The Mt. Blue boys and girls wrapped up their Class A skiing state championships Thursday at Black Mountain in Rumford.
The girls won their third straight discipline, the 5K classic race, after opening with a runner-up finish to Greely in Tuesday’s giant slalom, to clinch their sixth straight overall title, 174-260 over Edward Little.
Fryeburg Academy was third at 364, followed by Oxford Hills (373), Greely (450), Leavitt (528) and Hampden Academy (670).
Janna Kurnick of Fryeburg won the classic race by more than 30 seconds over Shelby Aseltine of Mt. Blue, in 17 minutes, 52.7 seconds. Allison Fereshetian of Leavitt was third.
Molly Howe of Hampden won skimeister honors with 88 points to 120 for runner-up Kelsey Ouellette of Greely.
Luke Booth of Greely is the Class A boys’ skimeister. He finished with 55 points across two Alpine and two Nordic events. Ethan Burke of Hampden was second at 112 and Jakob Chandler of Deering third at 136.
Led by individual winner Tom Rabon, Leavitt claimed the boys’ Nordic title, 56-82, over Mt. Blue. Rabon edged runner-up Riley Eusden of Oxford Hills by four seconds in 14:36.1, with Sam Humphries of Greely placing third in 14:55.2.
Mt. Blue ran away with its fourth straight Class A boys’ title and 11th in 13 years. The Cougars compiled 155 points to 197 for Leavitt.
Greely was third at 370, followed by Oxford Hills (424), Fryeburg Academy (527) and Hampden Academy (554).
CLASS C: Fort Kent successfully defended its boys’ and girls’ overall titles, both by large margins at home. The girls outdistanced Freeport, 122-234.
The Fort Kent boys ended with 122 points to 222 for Freeport.
Kate Morneault of Fort Kent was the girls’ skimeister with 66 points to 122 for Alexandra Niedner of Livermore Falls. Logan Doak of Fort Kent was the boys’ skimeister, beating teammate Ted Martin, 60-88.
Two Southern Maine skiers won individual titles in the classic 5K race. Zoe Chase of Merriconeag School in Freeport beat Vicky Bernard of Fort Kent by 15 seconds in 22 minutes, 51.04 seconds. Nate Niles of Waynflete defeated Nick Michaud of Fort Kent by an 11-second margin, in 17:45.98.
Freeport and Fort Kent shared the Nordic team title, each scoring a total of 63 points in freestyle and classic. Fort Kent ran away with the girls’ Nordic title, scoring 41 points in two events. Merriconeag was the surprise runner-up despite having only three skiers, each of whom finished among the top five.
Staff Writer Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or at:
gjordan@pressherald.com
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