County ski championships decided
Sports Reporter
PRESQUE ISLE/MARS HILL — The second and third legs of the Aroostook League skiing championships were held last week and when the final results were tabulated, the Caribou girls and the Fort Kent boys walked away with championships.
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
ON THE PROWL — Fort Fairfield’s Melissa McKenney, sporting painted on Tiger whiskers, skied to a 10th-place finish in last Tuesday’s County freestyle meet.
The Vikings scored 86 points when totaling results of Saturday’s alpine meet at Bigrock in Mars Hill, last Tuesday’s Nordic freestyle meet at the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle and the previous week’s Nordic classical meet in Caribou. That score put them just ahead of Fort Kent, which had 89 points, while Presque Isle took third with 195.
For the boys, the Warriors had 107 points to best Caribou (132) and Presque Isle (192) for the top spot.
In the skimeister standings, which take into account an individual’s placement in all four disciplines, Caribou’s Laura Collins won the girls’ title and Fort Kent’s Logan Doak was the boys’ champion.
Collins placed second in the Nordic freestyle, third in the Nordic classical, first in alpine slalom and 16th in the G.S., and her 22 points put her ahead of runner-up Kate Morneault of Fort Kent, who had 30 points. Presque Isle’s Lauren Schiff, with 61 points, placed sixth overall.
The Warriors’ Doak claimed the top position in the boys’ skimeister standings with 14 points. He won both the G.S. and slalom races while placing third in the Nordic freestyle and ninth in the Nordic classical.
Presque Isle’s Jacob Towle was third with 57 points, followed by Wildcat teammates Thomas Freeman and Gabe Player with 75 and 76 points, respectively.
In Saturday’s downhill races at Bigrock, Lydia Kieffer of Caribou was first out of 23 total skiers in the girls’ G.S. with a time of 1:37.83.
Presque Isle’s Emma Bartlett was third at 1:40.84 and teammate Chelsea Carroll eighth in 1:51.79.
In the girls’ slalom, Collins had the fastest time in 1:33.95. Three Fort Kent skiers followed, with PI’s Carroll registering a fifth-place finish in 1:44.28. The Wildcats’ Bartlett was eighth in 1:59.33.
Just out of the top 10 was PI’s Shannon Sweeney, whose time of 2:03.45 put her at 11th.
Team results for the girls saw Fort Kent win the slalom with 21 points, followed by Caribou with 26 and Presque Isle with 31. The Warriors also were first in the G.S. with 17 points. Caribou was the runner-up with 31 and PI was third with 34.
Doak was dominant with victories in both competitions. The Warrior skier won the slalom in 1:21.64 and the G.S. in 1:27.07. A total of 34 skiers from Caribou, Central Aroostook, Fort Fairfield, Fort Kent and Presque Isle took part.
Central Aroostook skiers Spencer Stetson (fourth, 1:29.48), Logan Brewer (sixth, 1:31.2) and Josh Cook (eighth, 1:37.81) were other top performers in the slalom, while in the G.S., Taylor Garrison (second, 1:30.48), Brewer (third, 1:31.67), Stetson (sixth, 1:33.7) and Cook (eighth, 1:34.14) led the way for the Panthers.
For Presque Isle, Kyle MacCallum was ninth in the slalom in 1:39.27 to lead his squad. He was also 15th in the G.S. in 1:39.52, which was also the fastest time posted by a Wildcat skier.
Nathan McLaughlin of Fort Fairfield was fifth in the G.S. in 1:33.17.
Central Aroostook was first as a team in the G.S. with 19 points, with Fort Kent second with 21, Caribou third with 49 and PI fourth with 63. The slalom team winner was Fort Kent with 11 points, followed by CA with 29, Presque Isle with 48 and Caribou with 55.
Last Tuesday, local skiers braved sub-zero wind chill temperatures to compete on the five-kilometer course at NHC. In the end, Caribou proved its dominance by taking both the girls’ and boys’ championships.
Caleb Chapman of the Vikes raced to the individual title in 16:10.9 as his team had a meet-low of 12 points. Fort Kent took second with 38, while Presque Isle was third with 47 and Madawaska fourth with 59.
Jon Rochester and Jesse Rochester, both of Presque Isle, were next. Jon was seventh in 18:32.8 and Jesse eighth in 18:40.2 out of the field of 25 varsity competitors and 39 total skiers.
Isaac Wortman of Fort Fairfield came in at 30:00.2.
The girls’ race was much closer, but Caribou had four skiers among the top six to score 15 points and defeat Fort Kent, which had 22, as well as Fort Fairfield (46) and Presque Isle (66).
Vicky Bernard of Fort Kent won the race in 21:35.1. Melissa McKenney of Fort Fairfield 10th in 25:27.7. A total of 18 competed in the varsity race, while there were 29 girl skiers overall.
Bonnie Corey and Schiff were the fastest Presque Isle skiers, with Corey in 15th in 31:52.4 and Schiff one spot back in 32:00.6.
McKenney had three teammates behind her in order, as the Tigers’ Victoria Plourde was 11th in 27:12.6, Kylie Plourde 12th in 28:49.7 and Veronica Plourde 13th in 29:26.6.
