RUMFORD — Hadley Prewitt of Marshwood and Andrew Christie of Falmouth skied better than the rest at the first day of the Class A Alpine skiing state championships Tuesday at Black Mountain of Maine.
Both added to their 2022 postseason success with dominant performances in the giant slalom.
Prewitt, a sophomore, and Christie, a senior, swept the giant slalom and slalom races at last week’s SMAA championships. They then left little doubt about Thursday’s outcome, skiing the fastest times in each of their two runs.
“It’s pretty good,” Christie said. “I was kind of expecting it – not expecting, but I was hoping to win. I don’t know, just experience, as a senior, I guess.”
Prewitt was the only girl to break 54 seconds in the first run, notching a 53.64. She improved her time to 52.19 in the second run.
“I thought I skied pretty well. I pushed it,” Prewitt said. “The courses were fun, they were fairly straight, so I felt like I could just push it and ski as fast as I could.”
Prewitt led a 1-2 finish for the Hawks. Junior teammate Lydia Phipps had the second-best times in each run, 54.25 and 52.95.
“They both ran really well,” Marshwood Coach Rich Luciano said. “They’ve been working hard … and they ran great races.”
Falmouth’s Celia Geci placed third, followed by Mt. Blue’s Sadie McDonough and Greely’s Ruth Weeks.
Mt. Blue, which won the girls’ team state championship in 2020, had six skiers in the top 20: McDonough, Khloe Dean (seventh), Katie Yeaton (10th), Abbie Goodspeed (14th), Vivian Cormier (15th) and Molly Kearing (20th).
Christie skied his first run in 51.21 seconds and the second in 50.71.
“I skied the top a lot cleaner and I kind of carried momentum onto the pitch. First run, I was a little choppy, like I wasn’t super smooth, but then second run, it was much better,” Christie said.
His combined time of 1:42.92 was nearly eight-tenths of a second faster than runner-up Quinn Maguire of Marshwood.
They were followed by Islesboro’s Jett Lindelof, Mt. Blue’s Josh Smith and Windham’s Nolan Dries.
The Falmouth boys have won the past four state championships (2017-20), and the Navigators have a 16-point lead over Mt. Blue. Mt. Blue has a 31-point edge over Freeport/Brunswick in the girls’ standings.
Christie and Prewitt enter Friday’s races, also at Black Mountain, among the favorites in slalom.
“I definitely like slalom more, but there’s a lot of people who are also better at slalom, so the competition’s going to be pretty good,” Christie said.
CLASS B: Brooke Boone of Yarmouth and Sam Roy of Wisdom earned giant slalom titles on the opening day of the Class B Alpine meet at Saddleback in Rangeley.
Boone posted the best time among girls in the first run – 44.48 seconds – and the second-best time in the second run (45.20) for a combined time of 1:29.68, edging Cape Elizabeth’s Dana Schwartz (1:30.25) and Maranacook’s Anna Erb (1:30.42).
Roy trailed Logan Schwartz of Cape Elizabeth after his first run but recorded the day’s best time in his second run (42.70) to take the title with a combined time of 1:26.06. Schwartz (1:26.33) and Cape teammate Tiernan Lathrop (1:26.77) were close behind as the Capers placed four skiers among the top eight.
Yarmouth leads the girls’ team standings ahead of Cape Elizabeth, which is in first place in the boys’ standings.
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