LOCKE MILLS – For four years, the only regular opponent Nick Gray had faced as an alpine ski racer who he had not been able to beat was Mt. Blue’s Jordan Stevens – his teammate.
In the two friends’ senior season, it seemed only fitting that they again finished 1-2 at Mt. Abram on Tuesday in the Class A giant slalom state finals.
This time, though, Gray pulled out the run of the meet the first time down and edged Stevens in the second run, too, to take the giant slalom title by .95 seconds.
“It feels pretty good to come in here and win at the state meet,” said Gray. “I’d almost like it more if the whole team did well and won it, though.”
Gray might get his wish, too. Paced by his finish at No. 1 and Stevens’ finish at No. 2, the Cougars took a large lead in the Class A Alpine standings after the first of two events over second-place Edward Little, 27-53.
“It was important to come out here and get a good run off the top,” said Gray. “We finished second at KVAC’s last week for the first time I can remember, and it wasn’t a very good feeling. We all felt like we had something to prove today.”
Chet Farnum, Mt. Blue’s third skier Tuesday, came in with a fifth-place finish and Reid Bond rounded out the Cougars’ top four with a 19th place finish.
“Believe it or not, that fourth spot is as important as any of them,” said Mt. Blue coach Rick Hardy. “That fourth is as important as the No. 1, because you never know who is going to take a spill.”
Leading Edward Little, which rebounded from a less-than-spectacular conference meet last week, was Tyler Dorris. His fourth-place finish along with Brian Gleason at No. 12, Sam Armstrong at No. 17 and Tyler Snowe at No. 20 kept the Eddies within striking distance of the Cougars for the overall title, which will add up the scores from all four events over three days.
“The biggest thing was to stay up today,” said Dorris. “The cross country team, we know they can win and pick up some points, and we know that we can get the overall if we can all stand up and stay strong.”
Dorris had runs of 47.22 seconds and 48.31 seconds to finish with 1:35.53, almost three full seconds back of Gray.
Gray, meanwhile, actually started three times Tuesday – the two runs that counted and a third “practice” start.
“I really don’t know what happened, other than that they were counting me down, I went and then they yelled at me to stop,” said Gray. “It was a mental thing more than anything, to get ready to go again.”
Course repair was under way six or seven gates away, but the starters did not relay the information quickly enough.
“A lot of skiers, that would have rattled them,” said Hardy, “but not Nick. He’s so level-headed.”
Lake Region’s Luke Beal finished third overall, and the Lakers’ Taylor Powell picked up the No. 6 spot. As a team, though, Lake Region had to take its final score as a ghost skier and finished in fourth overall after the giant slalom, 17 points behind third-place Leavitt. Nate Dumais led the Hornets with an 11th-place finish. Leavitt trails second-place Edward Little by 20 points.
Cheverus rounds out the top five, just two points back of Lake Region.
Cougars romp
When Mt. Blue’s third skier down the mountain, Heidi Judkins, fell less than two gates from the bottom, she didn’t clamor for her skis. She didn’t have to. While many teams rely so heavily on the top four skiers, Judkins knew what every team in Class A is starting to realize: Mt. Blue is the deepest alpine team in Maine.
Despite the fall, all five of Mt. Blue’s other downhill skiers placed in the top 10 to pace the Cougars to a 15-40 win in the giant slalom at Mt. Abram.
“It’s just a confidence we have in everyone else,” said captain Keelin Cyr, who consoled Judkins following the mishap. “We trust each other, that we can all do well.”
Lexi Drechsel paced the field with a time of 1:34.45, a time that would have placed third in the boys’ meet behind her two teammates, Stevens and Gray.
“I just knew that, being the first one out, I could really go for it,” said Drechsel. “I knew that even if I fell, we could get the time somewhere else, and I really wanted a good time to win the race.”
Teammate Tory Gray finished second, nearly two seconds slower, followed by Cheverus skier Caitlyn Barber. Cyr came in fourth, while Edward Little Heidi Dorris, Tyler’s older sister, finished fifth.
Oxford Hills packed four skiers in the top 12 as well to finish second in the team scoring. Lauren Austin finished seventh, followed by Caitlin Stauder (10), Samantha Brown (11) and Dianna Debie (12).
Skowhegan, Lake Region and Leavitt rounded out the top five girls’ team after the giant slalom.
Individually, Nicole Bussiere and Jillian Bolduc of Lewiston finished in exactly the same places as last week’s KVAC meet – 15th and 16th respectively – but did not score as a team since no other skiers from Lewiston were in the meet.
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