Maine news, sports, weather from Waterville Morning Sentinel

February 22

CLASS B SKIING CHAMPIONSHIPS: Yarmouth leads boys, girls championships

By Glenn Jordan gjordan@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

RUMFORD -- With its top three Nordic skiers lost to injury or transfer, the Yarmouth High boys ski team appeared to be in rebuilding mode.

Just last week the Clippers came up short of tiny Merriconeag in the Western Maine Championships, and in late January they managed only a tie for seventh in the all-comers Sassi Memorial classical race.

But when the boys in the bovine-inspired blue-and-white splotched suits burst forth from the starting line at blustery Black Mountain Thursday afternoon, their familiar magic returned.

Junior Braden Becker won for the second straight day as Yarmouth skiers claimed half of the top 10 spots in the Class B freestyle state championship race to sew up Yarmouth's second straight Nordic title. Coupled with a successful morning in giant slalom, the Clippers carry a 61-point cushion over Maranacook into Friday's concluding slalom race for the overall crown.

"I guess we showed up to race," said Becker, who won Thursday's 5-kilometer freestyle by four seconds (in 12 minutes, 20 seconds) over Thomas Faraday of Mt. Abram to go along with Wednesday's 14-second victory in classical, also over Faraday. "It was an amazing season. No one was expecting it."

Yarmouth's girls Nordic team was similarly dominant, even with senior leader Sarah Becker out with the flu. Fellow captain Olivia Conrad led a 5-6-7-9-10 freestyle finish to give the Clippers the Nordic title, 52-69, over Caribou.

"It was tough not to have her, but I think we all skied for her," Conrad said. "We call it the Pain Cave. We were going to have to be in the Pain Cave (Thursday) to make up for not having her."

Sophomore Emma Torres, freshman Lucy Alexander and sophomore twins Caitlin and Ellie Teare followed Conrad into the top 10 of a field that numbered 54, all of whom battled a bone-chilling wind until reaching the sheltering woods.

"It was a very windy, cold Pain Cave," Conrad. "It was not a very pleasant Pain Cave, not that a Pain Cave is supposed to be pleasant in the first place."

The Clippers were a close second to Mt. Abram in the morning giant slalom competition, and hold a 23-point lead over Caribou after three of the four skiing events in the quest for Yarmouth's seventh straight overall title.

"That's a big shock and big surprise," said Yarmouth coach Bob Morse of the twin Nordic titles. "I'm very pleased, but slalom is the equalizer. I've seen it go topsy turvy, so it's one big day coming up."

Backing up Becker's winning freestyle performance, junior Sam Alexander placed third, seniors Jackson Hall and Chester Jacobs fourth and sixth, and junior Jasper Houston ninth of 52.

"Everybody had one of the best races of their season," said Hall, who was also fourth in classical after never before finishing among the top 10 in the WMC championships. "Black Mountain has been pretty good to us."

Maranacook senior Caroline Colan won the girls freestyle race after also winning classical on Wednesday. Her time of 15:04 was 13 seconds better than that of runner-up Dana Hatton of Cape Elizabeth.

Earlier in the day, Maranacook junior Alec Daigle and Mt. Abram junior Elise Luce won giant slalom titles in blizzard-like conditions as snow whipped sideways across the Lower Androscoggin trail.

"The course was two seconds faster than normal, so I think that caught people off guard," said Daigle, the 2012 Class B slalom champ who trains at Black Mountain. "I almost fell in my first run. I was pretty out of control."

Daigle throttled back slightly in his second run, finishing in 45.23 seconds after his blazing 44.70 initial offering.

(Continued on page 2)

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