Local skiers avoided long bus rides and sleeping in hotel rooms and were able to compete on familiar courses as the Maine Principals’ Association Maine Skiing Championships for Classes B and C were held Feb. 16 and 17 at both the Nordic Heritage Center and Bigrock Ski Area.
Leading the way in team results were the Caribou boys, who were third overall in Class B Nordic, and the Central Aroostook boys, fourth in Class C for slalom. The Wildcat boys were fifth in Nordic, as were the Viking girls.
In the Feb. 16 boys’ 5K classic cross country race, held at NHC in Presque Isle, Lukas Lagasse of Caribou placed fourth overall among Class B participants with a time of 16 minutes and 50.5 seconds.
Presque Isle’s Noah Rossignol came in fifth in 16:57.7, while Riley McDuffie of Caribou was 10th in 17:36.2 and teammate Michael Marquis 11th in 17:36.8.
Bryce Coffin and Caleb Willett, both of Caribou, and Max Bartley of the Wildcats also finished among the overall top 20.
Thomas Krause of Fort Fairfield was seventh in the Class C boys’ race with a time of 17:45.8. Malcolm Milligan of Ashland took 17th in 18:34.4. Limestone-MSSM skiers Paddy Keith-Hardy and Grier Osterman were 24th and 27th, respectively.
In the girls’ Class B race, Caribou’s Sarah Doak was sixth overall in 19:27.5, while Viking teammate Lauren Chapman was 15th in 21:16.8. Four other Caribou skiers (Kaitlin Ring, Madeline Gudde, Eileen Patton and Ciara Richards) finished consecutively in 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th.
Tori Koch was Presque Isle’s best finisher in the race, taking 33rd in 23:53.5.
In Class C, Caitlin Paradis of Ashland was the top Aroostook County finisher. She took 28th in 24:31.6. Lillian Ashby of Fort Fairfield came in 42nd in 27:53.3.
The freestyle boys’ race was held the next day. McDuffie and teammate Daniel Randolph were seventh and eighth, respectively. McDuffie’s time was 16:04.5 and Randolph came in at 16:06.3. PI’s Rossignol was 14th in 16:32.7.
Milligan placed 10th in Class C in 16:23.5. Keith-Hardy grabbed the 25th slot and Osterman was 28th. Krause placed 30th.
The girls’ freestyle race saw Doak take seventh in 18:17.4. Chapman was 14th in 19:52.9.
Isabelle Jackson of the Wildcats led her team by placing 26th in 21:05.3.
Paradis took 34th in 23:40, while Sarah Watt led Fort Fairfield with her 52nd place effort in 28:03.9.
In the Class B giant slalom in Mars Hill, Presque Isle’s Bryce Smith was the state boys’ champion in 45.69 seconds. His teammate, Nicholas Bartlett, was third in 46.05 seconds. Andrew Russell took 37th in 56.81 seconds to pace the Vikings.
Alyssa Sweeney had the top effort for girls. The PI skier came in 10th in 51.14 seconds. Ciara Richards paced Caribou by taking 36th in 1:01.86.
Zack Grass of Central Aroostook was eighth in 47.92 seconds, with Lane Grass taking 18th in 50.31. The girls’ Class C race saw Samantha Kearney of the Panthers take sixth in 49.64.
For the boys’ slalom, Smith came in fourth in 43.09 seconds, while Jon Saucier of PI was 15th in 52.64 seconds. Scott Bray of the Vikings had a run of 1:01.75 to take 27th and lead his squad.
Sweeney took 22nd in the girls’ slalom in 56.92 seconds. Richards was 40th in 1:07.65.
In Class C, Lane Grass was ninth in 49.9 seconds and Taylor Campbell 16th in 53.03 to lead the way for the host Panthers. Kearney claimed the ninth position in 50.28.
In the skimeister competition for Class B, which takes into account an athlete’s placement in all four skiing disciplines, Saucier of Presque Isle was fifth overall, with Samuel Gray and John Freeman also in the top 10, while for the girls, Richards of Caribou was sixth and Jojo Fields of the Vikings ninth.
