RUMFORD — In 15-second intervals Tuesday, more than 50 Nordic skiers started ahead of Tyler DeAngelis of Maranacook, and that was fine with him.
His coaches told him each kilometer along the 5K course at Black Mountain exactly where he stood in relation to the early leader, Yarmouth freshman Jack Elder.
“The splits really help me out a lot,” DeAngelis said. “If I know I’m ahead, then I can push myself to stay that way. I can feel a guy behind me and know I’ve got to keep going faster.”
DeAngelis used that information for a 2-second victory over Elder in the Class B Nordic freestyle state championship at the Chisholm Ski Club.
Sarah Abramson of Falmouth opted for the opposite tack. She normally starts from the back but this time went out second and had the hard-packed trails to herself.
“My coaches wanted to make sure I had clean tracks, that I didn’t have to worry about passing people or getting stuck on a corner, which turned out really nice because these conditions were really fast,” Abramson said after waiting alone in the finish area for more than two minutes before another competitor arrived. “Coming down those hills, it was plenty to worry about that I stayed on the course.”
Abramson’s time of 14 minutes, 12.9 seconds bested a Class B field of 60 skiers by nearly a minute. Abby Mace of Maranacook was runner-up in 15:05.5.
“It was a little lonely (on the course) but the spectators were great,” Abramson said. “I could hear someone cheering all the time. Even a Yarmouth parent, they’re cheering for their kid, but they’re just so supportive of everybody coming by that you feel like you’re really part of the community. To hear them all out there made the course fun.”
Both Yarmouth and rival Falmouth backers had plenty to cheer about as the first — and busiest — of three days of the state championship ski meets took place at six locations around the state.
Under cloudless blue skies at Mt. Abram in Greenwood, Falmouth’s boys and Yarmouth’s girls opened their overall state title defenses with team victories in giant slalom.
Despite falls by two of its top skiers, Falmouth rode impressive and youthful depth to a decisive 36-57 victory over the Mountain Valley boys with Yarmouth (64), Maranacook (77), Cape Elizabeth (78) and Camden Hills (83) not far behind.
Jack Tragert, the Western Maine Conference champ from Lake Region, was the individual winner with a two-run combined time of 1:36.30. Tragert moved up from fourth after the first run to edge Alex Daigle of Maranacook, Gary Kersbergen of Maine Central Institute, Joe Lesniak of Falmouth and Drew Grout of Yarmouth, all of whom finished within six-tenths of Tragert.
“The first run I skied the pitch a little round,” he said. “So the second run I knew the course and I pretty much had the run of my life.”
Falmouth’s top four included two freshmen (Lesniak in fourth, Austin Couch in seventh) and two sophomores (Luke Andrews in 10th, Sam Hamilton in 15th). Andrews skied with a broken left thumb that required him to split open his glove and cut off its thumb to fit it over his hard cast.
“It made pushing off a little bit harder,” he said, “but once I was on the course I forgot about it and just skied.”
Falmouth also placed four Nordic skiers — Jackson Bloch, Tim Follo, Matt Goldstein and Jay Lesser — among the top 15 in the freestyle race to take the overall points lead at 74 to Yarmouth’s 99. Caribou leads the Nordic portion with 31 points and Yarmouth was second at 35.
In girls’ giant slalom, the only skiers to break 50 seconds in any run were a pair of freshmen, Elise Luce of Mt. Abram and Leika Scott of Falmouth. Luce won with a 1:36.60 combined time to 1:36.91 for Scott.
Smythe Eddy led a 5-7-9-10 showing for the Yarmouth girls, with Becca Bell, Claudia Lockwood and Taylor Horney rounding out the quartet that gave the Clippers a 31-39 victory over Falmouth.
Bell, the defending Class B skimeister, took fourth in the Nordic freestyle as the Clippers claimed fully half of the first 10 places.
Sarah Becker (fifth), Caitlin Crawford (sixth), Alison Totta (ninth) and Tara Humphries (10th) gave Yarmouth a resounding 20-point victory over runner-up Falmouth and extended the overall cushion to 28 points (55-83). Falmouth is the only school within 100 points of Yarmouth, the four-time defending state champion.
Staff Writer Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or at:
gjordan@pressherald.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
