NEWRY - Familial bragging rights can be an awesome motivational tool.

Mt. Abram ski coach Bob Luce will take any advantage he can get, and the fact that three of his team's skiers live under his roof can make for some interesting dinner conversation.

It also makes it a lot easier to hammer home a particular concept or philosophy.

Those three skiers - Erica and Emily Luce and Noelle Lake - finished 2-3-4, and Jillian Withee placed 28th to help Mt. Abram earn the Class B girls' alpine combined ski title.

"Slalom is the great equalizer in skiing," Bob Luce said. "You never know until after this event what's going to happen. I was pretty nervous all night last night and all day today, so it feels pretty good to see them go 2-3-4 like that."

Senior Erica Luce also finished second in Thursday's giant slalom, both times coming in behind Yarmouth's Julia Stackhouse. With her team's success, though, silver was just fine with her.

"We know it's just about the team, that's why we're all here," Erica Luce said. "(Yarmouth) lost a skier yesterday because she was going all out, and it ended up hurting the team, so we just wanted to make sure."

As the oldest of the three girls, Erica has had the responsibility of setting the example - and of setting the bar high for the others to reach.

Lake, a junior, burned up the course with the third-fastest time in the second run of Friday's slalom and finished third. Still, she insists, like everyone else on the team, she was just trying to stay focused, and stay on her skis.

"Slalom is my thing, that's what I'm best at," Lake said.

Emily Luce, a sophomore, had the third-fastest time in the first run, and took fourth place in the slalom race.

"I felt pretty solid all the way down," Emily Luce said. "I needed to make sure I stayed on my feet for the team."

The trio paced the Roadrunners, but Withee and fifth skier Caitlin McFarland were equally as important.

"If the fourth doesn't finish, you're all done," Bob Luce said. "And sometimes you forget about our fifth skier, because she hasn't scored all year, but if we'd needed her, she's been there. She's stood in every race and she's been our safety net."

Mt. Abram was the lone top contender to have each of its top five skiers complete each of their four runs over two days without a fall.

Yarmouth lost a skier during the giant slalom and slipped into fourth place after the first day. Fryeburg suffered a fall in Friday's slalom. The Raiders had started the day 11 points back, and they still finished second, but with 72 points in the slalom, Mt. Abram's final cushion grew to 46 points.

In the overall picture, though, Yarmouth rebounded to edge Mt. Abram by one point in the slalom race. The Clippers hold a nine-point advantage over the Roadrunners after three of the four events, but the Clippers' strongest event is the classical cross country race. They defeated Mt. Abram by 59 points in the freestyle race Thursday.

On the boys' side, Fryeburg had a large lead after the giant slalom, and needed it. Yarmouth and Falmouth each placed four skiers inside the top 20 to finish with 31 and 33 points respectively, but the Raiders held on with 48 of their own to earn the Class B boys' alpine title by 15 points over Yarmouth.

"We told the boys they had to stand up," Fryeburg coach Peter Atwood said, admitting to letting off the gas pedal just a bit. "Just enough to make sure we had four solid runs. Yarmouth has a solid team, they have some great skiers."

The Raiders earned just 28 points in the giant slalom on Day 1.

"It was nice to have (that lead)," Atwood said. "We have four seniors on this team, and they knew, too. This means a lot to them."

Mountain Valley lost a pair of skiers to falls in the second run of the GS on Thursday, which crippled their chances. The Falcons finished fifth, one spot back of Maranacook.

Senior Joe Atwood of Fryeburg, who won the GS, also placed first in the slalom to earn his fourth gold medal in two years at the state races.

Yarmouth is in command of the boys' overall competition through three events, holding a 78-point lead going into today's classical race.

Class B concludes its racing this morning at Black Mountain in Rumford.