BRIDGTON — Greely senior Elyse Dinan flashed across the finish line and pumped her fists.
Several minutes later, Falmouth junior Anna Morin crossed the same line, skidded to a stop, flashed a relieved smile and, as she passed through fencing protecting the finish chute, proclaimed, “Consider me retired!”
Dinan earned another individual title and Morin helped Falmouth capture the overall team championship Saturday in the concluding event of the Class A state skiing championships.
Dinan added a slalom triumph to Thursday’s giant slalom victory and led the Rangers to a second straight Alpine title.
“About halfway down, I knew that as long as I could hold on to it I had a pretty good chance of coming in first,” Dinan said after the second of her two runs. “So as soon as I crossed the line I pretty much knew. It feels great.”
Morin, mainly a Nordic skier, was convinced to join her sister Audrey, a freshman, on an Alpine team that consisted of only three girls last winter. Forced to take a ghost skier score last winter in both slalom and giant slalom, the Falmouth girls still nearly won the overall Class A title, falling two points shy of Oxford Hills.
Morin’s insurance policy as a fifth skier proved unnecessary Saturday. Krysia Lesniak, Alex Shapiro, Maggie Coster and Audrey Morin all placed among the top 25 as Falmouth finished second to Greely in the Alpine standings and easily secured the school’s first girls’ overall title.
“That’s crazy,” said Lesniak, a sophomore who placed second in slalom, more than three seconds behind Dinan. “Going from a three-person team to winning it, thanks to our Nordic team and having a whole team this year, it’s just really exciting.”
Mt. Blue won eight straight girls’ titles before the Oxford Hills victory last year, but the Cougars could muster only three Alpine girls this winter and only two finished Saturday’s slalom, meaning the Cougars received no score and were eliminated from overall consideration despite entering the day in second place.
By virtue of their dominant performance in Alpine, Greely’s girls (Jill Booth, Kristin Dugas and Teal Otley finished 6-10-11) earned the overall runner-up plaque by leapfrogging Mt. Blue, Leavitt and Oxford Hills.
In Class A boys, Mt. Blue won both Alpine and overall titles, extending a one-point lead over Falmouth in the four-event competition to win comfortably for the sixth time in eight years.
Falmouth senior Joe Lesniak, like Dinan, won his second individual title in three days. His two-run time of 1 minute, 23.40 seconds was more than a second faster than Reilly Bolduc of Lewiston.
Although temperatures were a bit milder than Thursday’s giant slalom deep freeze, conditions were trickier. Organizers altered the top portion of the girls’ slalom between runs because so many skiers fell, and the boys were equally challenged, with seven boys and nine girls failing to complete both runs.
“It’s steep,” said Falmouth Alpine Coach Tip Kimball, “and that ice was so hard I’m surprised there’s no fish under it.”
Dinan recorded the fastest first run (45.72 seconds) but said it was still a struggle.
“The top and the headwall were pretty icy and it was definitely a huge challenge,” she said. “My legs were really tired by the end. The second run, they opened up the top and changed it a little bit, so you carried a lot more speed onto the headwall. I just trusted my skis a lot more and really set an edge better, so it was a lot more fun.”
Anna Morin won the skimeister competition, though she wound up on her backside for a portion of her first run and, despite staying upright the whole time, recorded an even slower second run.
“I’m not used to ice,” she said. “I felt out of control, and I didn’t even go that fast.”
Mt. Blue freshman Miles Pelletier won the boys’ skimeister competition.
CLASS B
Mt. Abram senior Elise Luce won her third straight slalom title, Cape Elizabeth’s girls won their first Alpine crown, and Yarmouth’s girls extended their overall winning streak to eight years as the meet concluded at Mt. Abram.
Marancook swept the boys’ competition, with Alex Daigle winning individual honors and the Black Bears taking both the Alpine and overall crowns, the latter their first since 2002.
Junior Eric Wilcox and sophomore Keaton McEvoy, both of Gray-New Gloucester, won the skimeister titles.
Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or at:
Gjordan@pressherald.com
Twitter: GlennJordanPPH
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