Kim Pike, Alpine ski coach at Cheverus High, has heard the grumbling.
The Class A state championship meet will be held in Presque Isle and Mars Hill this week, despite the fact that Aroostook County contains no Class A schools. The school closest, Hampden Academy, lies more than two hours to the south.
Yes, it will be a long trip. Yes, it will probably cost more in food, lodging and travel than if the meet were held in the western mountains.
Pike remembers similar grumbling a decade ago when Fort Kent hosted the Class A meet in 2001.
“We went up there and we had a ball,” Pike said. “They put on a really good show. So keep your eyes open, have fun and learn.”
The state championship ski meets in Class A, B and C get underway Tuesday at three sites around the state, although the same three-day schedule will be followed, with giant slalom and freestyle held the Tuesday, slalom Wednesday and Nordic classic Thursday.
The Class A meets will be held at the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle and Big Rock Ski Area in Mars Hill. Mt. Blue is the six-time defending champion for girls and four-time defending champ for boys.
Those streaks don’t seem likely to end this week, although Fryeburg Academy’s boys may take the Nordic title, with Mt. Ararat also in the mix. Edward Little seems Mt. Blue’s only threat for the girls’ overall title.
The Class B meets will be held at Black Mountain in Rumford for Nordic and Mt. Abram in Greenwood for Alpine. Yarmouth is the four-time defending girls’ champion and the Falmouth boys will attempt to defend the title they won last winter to end a four-year Yarmouth reign.
“In Alpine, there’s no question it’s Falmouth (boys),” said Yarmouth Coach Bob Morse. “They are deep with six solid kids. I think any one of them has a chance to win it.”
Actually, two of them now probably don’t. Luke Andrews recently broke his thumb in training and will skip slalom and ski giant slalom with a cast. Francesco Montanari, an exchange student, is on vacation in the Caribbean.
Andrews and Montanari helped Falmouth through an unbeaten Alpine season and Western Maine Conference championships.
Yarmouth won the team titles for boys and girls at the Sassi Memorial race in January, a classical race that drew skiers from all across the state.
Morse said the Class B girls’ Alpine race is wide open, with no clear-cut favorite. The Nordic side will feature an interesting four-way battle between Becca Bell of Yarmouth, Sarah Abramson of Falmouth, Abby Mace of Maranacook and Sadie James of Mt. Abram. Another skier to watch is Yarmouth’s Tara Humphries, who received the go-ahead to race two weeks after her appendix burst.
The Class C meets will be held at Saddleback Mountain for Alpine and the Rangeley Lakes Trails Center for Nordic. Fort Kent and Freeport appear to be the only schools with enough balance to challenge for overall supremacy. Those two schools have won every Class C combined title — boys and girls — over the past six years, three for each school for each gender.
In Nordic alone, Merriconeag’s girls and North Yarmouth Academy’s boys should pose strong challenges. In Alpine, Alex Rose of Livermore Falls is shooting for his third straight titles in slalom and giant slalom.
NYA lost the Nordic conference title to Yarmouth by two points even with an unusual occurrence during the WMC freestyle race at Libby Hill in Gray. Jake Susla, who was coming down with a cold, suffered some respiratory problems along the course. Teammate Robert Field and Falmouth skiers Tim Follo and Matt Goldstein (a certified EMT) all stopped to assist Susla, who was eventually ferried out of the woods by snowmobile.
An ambulance arrived, but Susla required no hospitalization and attended school the next day. Field, Follo and Goldstein were all recognized for their sportsmanship by coaches. Susla plans to race in Rangeley.
“Looking back on the whole incident, it’s something that makes the Nordic community so unique,” said NYA Coach Kalie Dunn. “It was a tremendous display of sportsmanship that these boys threw away their own races to help.”
Staff Writer Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or at:
gjordan@pressherald.com
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