NEWRY – Monica Purington hobbled up the hill from the Barker Base Lodge at Sunday River on Tuesday, trying not to let her crutches slip in the freshly-fallen snow.
The Maranacook High School sophomore – and her team’s No. 2 skier – cringed when her teammate and the the Black Bears’ No. 1 skier, Amy Gifford, tumbled on her first run of the Class B slalom event. The scene was too familiar.
“I just caught an edge (Thursday),” said Purington. “It threw me, and my skis never ejected. I blew out my ACL.”
Gifford was spared from any serious injuries, but her fall meant the Maranacook team was now without its top two skiers and fighting for its life in the Class B Alpine overall championship picture.
They worried, perhaps sweat more than they should have in the below-freezing temperatures, but all for naught.
Annah Young and skimeister candidate Emma Prysunka each managed top-10 finishes and Dencie LeVeen and Katy Dutile hung on to top-15 showings to help the Black Bears edge Yarmouth by three points for the Class B Alpine title, their second in a row.
“We knew when Monica fell we needed to bring it that much more,” said LeVeen. “When (Gifford) fell, it happened again. We had to show that we had a lot of depth and just move forward.”
Maranacook coach Ronn Gifford was awe-stricken at his team’s depth – depth he didn’t even know they had.
“I had a team weekend like I’ve never seen,” said Ronn Gifford. “To have Kayla Brown ski the race of her life (Thursday) and place for the team, and then today Katy Dutile stepped in as our first alternate for Monica and had the race of her life. It was just unbelievable.”
Amy Gifford did overcome her horrific first run, in which she placed 48th out of 50 skiers, to post the second fastest second run on the afternoon, lifting her back into 32nd overall.
“I was really trying to get ahead that first run,” said Amy Gifford. “I know I’m better at slalom than at GS. I had nothing left to lose, but at the same time, I didn’t want to fall again. I was kind of holding back.”
Yarmouth, meanwhile, threw everything it had into the race. Lauren Stackhouse paced the Clippers with a sixth-place finish, while Cory Kendrick and Kelsie Johnston finished ninth and 10th. Chelsea Eddy’s was the final counting time for Yarmouth in 13th position.
“I was hoping we were going to gain on Maranacook,” said Yarmouth coach Bob Morse. “We’re seven points ahead going into tomorrow’s race. It’s puts a lot of pressure on, I’ll tell you.”
Fryeburg Academy skier Amy Dyer won the slalom race in dominating fashion – again. Dyer, a senior, has won all eight Class B state high school races in which she has competed, including the giant slalom and slalom disciplines. This time, her performance was downright shocking as she put 9.45 seconds between herself and second place.
“Coming into today I was a little nervous about getting the eighth one,” said Dyer. “I was hoping not to fall and make any big mistakes. I was a little over-cautious, I thought.”
Dyer’s finish, along with a fifth-place finish by Liz Atwood, helped the Raiders to third in the Alpine race. Falmouth, Mt. Abram and Gray-New Gloucester rounded out the top six. Emma Lobozzo finished the race in second place behind Dyer, while Erica Luce was Mt. Abram’s top skier in eighth position.
With the Black Bears’ win, the Class B overall ski title hangs in the balance today at Black Mountain in Rumford. Yarmouth leads Maranacook by seven total points after three events.
Lathrop, Fryeburg cruise
What should have been another routine day at the office for the Fryeburg Academy boys’ ski team turned into a tense game of “Stand up or lose” Thursday.
Freshman Jeff Lathrop won his second race in as many days, taking Thursday’s slalom at Sunday River by 1.01 seconds over Chris Moody of Falmouth – also a freshman – to lead the Raiders to a dominating 54-point win over Yarmouth in the Class B Alpine championship.
Lathrop was never nervous or worried about standing up. He was the first skier out for Fryeburg, and set the pace for the rest of the race.
“I had a feeling I could go for it today, knowing we’d have at least four finishers at first,” said Lathrop. “All five guys, we’ve always been on a weekend program. We always get out five days a week, and just training helps us.”
Lathrop also swept the Alpine events at the Western Maine Conference championships this season.
The team’s final two skiers did have reason to sweat, though. Sam Atwood, one of five Raiders in the top 10 after the first run, fell near the bottom of the course.
“We have three boys that can win a race any day,” said Peter Atwood. “And we have two more that can ski top three, so it’s good in that sense. It would have been nice to have Sam finish, being a senior and all, but slalom can be that way.”
Matt Bell and Tim Atwood did stay on their feet, and in doing so led the Raiders to a 13-point victory over Yarmouth in the slalom race.
The Clippers are in control for the Class B overall title, though. Through three events, they are 16 points ahead of Fryeburg and 52 better than Mountain Valley. The Falcons took third in the overall Alpine competition, and trail only Yarmouth after one event on the Nordic side.
“The Fryeburg boys’ classic team has been very strong,” said Morse. “They’re big boys, and their very strong in the classic, and we haven’t beaten them at all. (Wednesday), I don’t know what happened to them.”
The boys’ overall and Nordic championships will be decided this morning at Black Mountain in Rumford.
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