Presque Isle junior Max Bartley competed on his home course last Wednesday with great success.
Bartley is now undefeated through the first two meets of the season. After winning at Madawaska Dec. 14, he followed that up with another impressive victory in the most recent meet held at the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle.
Bartley competed the course in 16 minutes and 31.7 seconds, which was almost a full minute ahead of runner-up David Roy of Fort Kent, who came in at 17:26.5.
The Wildcats scored 55 points, placing them third behind Caribou (21) and Fort Kent (25) and ahead of Madawaska (66) and Ashland (69).
Garrett Morneault finished 14th overall in 21:22.7 and was second for PI behind Bartley.
Leading the way for the Hornets was Tristan Pelletier, who was eighth overall in 20:08.6.
The Wildcat girls did not have a full team competing and did not figure in the team results, but Izzy Jackson claimed the runner-up spot for the second consecutive meet. She was behind only Madawaska’s Isabelle Jackson and recorded a time of 20:47.1.
Caribou defeated Madawaska by two points for the team win. Fort Kent, Fort Fairfield and Ashland followed in consecutive order.
Kassandra Nelson of Ashland claimed the eighth individual position in 23:334.9 and Jessica Halsey led Fort Fairfield by placing 10th in 25:34.6.
In Friday’s alpine meet held at Bigrock Ski Area in Mars Hill, Presque Isle’s Nick Bartlett came in first in the second race of the day, turning in a time of 1:31.7. Earlier in the day, he had placed second to Hampden Academy’s Ben Tyler with a time of 1:30.56.
Other PI competitors were Zechariah Morse, Kyler Caron, Chandler Paradis, Riley Roderick, Alec Staples and John Saucier.
Central Aroostook was led by Lane Grass (fourth in the first race in 1:33.27 and eighth in the second in 1:38.58) and Bryant Grass (fifth in the first race in 1:33.46 and ninth in the second in 1:38.69). John Gebhart, Mitchell Grass, Nick Bradstreet and Ted Wheeler were other Panther skiers.
CA placed second only to Fort Kent in the team scores for the opening race, while Presque Isle was third. The Wildcats were the runners-up in the second race, while the Panthers slipped down to fourth.
The Presque Isle girls did not post team scores, but Eleanor St. Peter had a pair of top-10 performances. She was seventh in the first race in 1:52.39 and ninth in the second in 2:01.62. Natalie Bates finished just out of the top 10 but was second on the team behind St. Peter in each competition. Sheridan Boucher and Grace Bemis were the Wildcats’ other skiers.
