Skiers got to stay in the area last week, with a Nordic meet Thursday at Presque Isle’s Nordic Heritage Center and an alpine meet at Bigrock Ski Area in Mars Hill Saturday.
Local teams will use this coming week with more regular season competition as they prepare for the Aroostook League championships, which kick off next Tuesday with the classical Nordic meet and continue through Feb. 6 with the alpine event in Fort Kent. The freestyle meet takes place in between on Feb. 4, 2016.
In Saturday’s alpine meet, Presque Isle’s Nick Bartlett came in second place in the giant slalom in 1:37.54 and Jon Saucier was among the top 10 in 1:43.86 as PI placed second with 66 points, following only Fort Kent’s 54.
Jon Gebhart led Central Aroostook by placing 15th in 1:49.13 and Andy Russell took 28th in 1:57.36 and paced Caribou.
In the slalom, Bryce Smith of the Wildcats bounced back after taking 17th in the G.S. Smith took second place, only behind Fort Kent’s Bryce Madore. Smith’s two-run time was 1:37.73. Saucier capped a consistent day by taking eighth in 1:49.2.
Gebhart was in ninth in 1:49.99 and Russell again was 28th , this time in 2:07.11.
For the girls’ slalom, Alyssa Sweeney of PI was ninth in 1:48.65, while Nicole Gebhart, the only CA skier, was ninth in 1:48.34. Camryn Langille was 15th in 2:03.8 and led the way for the Caribou Vikings.
In the G.S., Eleanor St. Peter tooks sixth in 2:05.05, Lydia Patterson was seventh in 2:07.73 and Sweeney ninth in 2:08.58 as PI tallied 82 points as a unit.
Ciarra Richards of Caribou came in 13th in 2:15.96. Nicole Gebhart of Central Aroostook had a 1:01.61 clocking to claim sixth place.
Fort Kent was first in the girls’ slalom and the boys’ G.S. and slalom, with John Bapst taking the win in the girls’ G.S.
Fort Fairfield was the host school for Thursday’s freestyle meet, with racers competing on the five-kilometer course. Isabelle Jackson, a Presque Isle Wildcat sophomore, was the winner in 18:56.1.
Caribou’s Madeline Gudde was fourth in 19:44.7e, PI’s Tori Koch fifth in 19:49.9 and Kendra Furber of the Vikes sixth in 19:56. Richards and Jojo Fields took ninth and 10th respectively for the Vikings.
Mandy Graham was just out of the top 10 for the Wildcats, taking 11th in 21:54.2.
Kassandra Nelson led Ashland in 17th, timing out in 23:05.8. Sarah Watt was 22nd in 26:40.2 and paced Fort Fairfield. Sam Zwecker turned in a time of 29:42.8 for MSSM, good for 28th place out of 41 racers.
Madawaska had the low score with 25 points to nip Caribou (27) and PI (30).
PI swept the individual titles as in the boys’ race, Max Bartley was 20.1 seconds faster than runner-up David Roy of Fort Kent. Caribou’s Riley McDuffie took third in 16:00.2 and Malcolm Milligan of Ashland was fourth in 16:08.8.
The Vikes came in first place as a team as five others skiers were among the top-10, led by Dan Randolph, who was fifth in 16:28.2.
Thomas Krause of FF was 15th in 17:53.4 and Paddy Keith-Hardy had a strong race for MSSM by taking 18th in 18:13.
Caribou scored just 21 points, while Fort Kent was the runner-up with 33 points. Ashland came in third with 67 and PI was fourth with 75.
