Skiers competing for County titles
By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
Last Tuesday, the Aroostook County Nordic classic championships were held at the 10th Mountain Ski Center in Fort Kent, with the Caribou girls and boys sweeping the titles.
SAMANTHA KEARNEY of the Central Aroostook Panthers, here competing in a regular season meet, turned in a pair of top-five performances at Saturday’s Aroostook League Championships for alpine skiing, held at Bigrock Ski Area in Mars Hill.
LANCE MCKENNEY 
of the Fort Fairfield Tigers, competes in a regular season ski meet, placed first overall at the Aroostook League classic championship meet held last Tuesday in Fort Kent.
The Caribou girls won with 10 points, followed by Fort Kent with 40, Presque Isle with 42 and Fort Fairfield with 56.
Lydia Streinz of Katahdin was the winner on the five-kilometer course with a time of 22 minutes and one second. Her sister Hannah Streinz was the runner-up in 22:08
Caribou took the next four positions, with a group including Sarah Doak (22:46), Ashley Richards (22:48), Chelsea Bard (23:52) and Anna Soderberg (24:15) finishing in order.
Presque Isle’s top performance came courtesy of Danielle Allen, who was 11th overall in 27:26.
Fort Fairfield’s Veronica Plourde was 17th in 29:28.
The boys’ race also went to Caribou, but by a much closer margin. In fact, the Vikes and host Warriors tied with 27 points, but Caribou won on a tie-breaker as the team’s fifth skier came in before Fort Kent’s fifth skier.
Presque Isle placed third with 42 points and Madawaska was fourth with 44.
The overall winner was Lance McKenney of Fort Fairfield, who clocked the course in 18:44. Daniel Streinz of Katahdin was nine seconds back in 18:53 and Kamran Husain of Fort Kent placed third in 18:57.
Rounding out the top 10 were Brendan Cyr of Caribou (20:08), Jon Rochester of Presque Isle (20:25), Matt Toussaint of Fort Kent (21:15), Cody Johnson of Fort Kent (21:29), Keith Draper of Caribou (21:36), Darin Jandreau of Madawaska (21:53) and Riley McDuffie of Caribou (22:11).
Presque Isle’s Jason Bartley just missed out on the top 10, placing 11th in 22:15.
Malcolm Milligan of Ashland took 24th in the 36-skier field with a time of 24:24.
At Bigrock Ski Area in Mars Hill Saturday, the alpine County meet took place with titles decided in slalom and giant slalom.
It was a big day for the Fort Kent Warriors, who continued their dominance by winning titles for both girls and boys.
The Warrior girls claimed the slalom victory with 19 points. Presque Isle ran second with 37, while Central Aroostook was third with 50 and Caribou fourth with 67.
Emma Bartlett of PI was the individual winner with a combined time of 1:44.18 for her two runs. Fort Kent skiers took the next three positions (Danielle Ouellette, 1:45.45; Alexa Pelletier, 1:47.65; and Rudy Martin, 1:49.89), followed by fifth-place finisher Samantha Kearney of Central Aroostook in 1:52.23.
Local skiers fashioning top-10 efforts were Cameo Madore of PI in eighth in 1:57.9 and Whitney Cote of CA in ninth in 1:58.9.
Fort Kent also scored 18 points to take the GS title. Central Aroostook was the runner-up with 41, followed by Presque Isle with 43 and Caribou with 57.
The Warriors’ Pelletier was the winner in 1:42.62, with Bartlett claiming the No. 2 slot in 1:44.69. Fort Kent’s Martin was third in 1:46.03 and Kearney was fourth in 1:47.52. Wisdom’s Taylor Hobbs rounded out the top five in 1:50.08.
Shannon Sweeney of PI took 10th in 1:55.44.
On the boys’ side, Fort Kent featured the five fastest slalom competitors to score a perfect 10 points and get the team title. Presque Isle had 41, Caribou 62 and Central Aroostook 63.
Brandon Ouellette came in first place in 1:29.85 to lead the parade of FK skiers.
Bryce Smith of Presque Isle was sixth in 1:35.88. Central Aroostook’s Austin Caverhill was eighth in 1:39.06 and Kyle McCallum of Presque Isle was ninth in 1:39.57.
The Warriors’ Ouellette made it a clean sweep of individual titles by also taking the GS in 1:36.4. That helped his team claim first place with 13 points.
Smith placed third in 1:38.91, while Wildcat teammate Gabe Player was fifth in 1:39.95. McCallum ninth in 1:42.77.
For Central Aroostook, Caverhill led the way by placing 13th in 1:45.42.
