EDDIES, DEVILS EVACUATED Construction of the new ice arena at Bowdoin College has put a crimp in state championship preparations for the Edward Little and Lewiston indoor track and field teams. With adjacent Farley Field House off limits for the remainder of the season, an eight-team competition last Saturday, Jan. 19, originally left the Red Eddies with a prospect of a full month off prior to the Class A championship at the University of Southern Maine on Feb. 18. “We only had four meets on our original schedule,” said EL girls’ coach Rebecca Hefty. “Fortunately for us we were able to pick up another meet at Colby, so we will have one more.” Lewiston does not compete at the smaller Colby site, but the break does promise the Blue Devils an opportunity to fully recover from nagging muscle pulls on both teams. “We’re changing our stretching regimen,” said Devils coach Ray Putnam. “I think we’re going to start ending practice early and focusing on that.” EL does participate in the midweek jump meets at USM, but the fits and starts of an odd calendar do have an effect on runners. “It seems like a short season with only four meets,” Hefty said. “Then you factor in all the snow days we’ve had, when we haven’t been able to practice.”

SPENCER FOR HIGHER Another weekend, another fun format, another Nordic ski win for Spencer Eusden of Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School. Eusden captured the boys’ sprint competition on the Vikings’ home course Saturday, backing up his victory at the Maranacook Wave Race a week earlier. With the field whittled in half at the end of each abbreviated race, Eusden swept the quarterfinal, semifinal and championship rounds of the event, topping closest pursuer Tyler DeAngelis of Maranacook in the first two segments and defeating Winthrop’s Justin Carpenter and Danny Soltan in the final. Emily Harriman of Maranacook rallied to capture the girls’ competition after Leavitt teammates Allison Fereshetian and Melissa Kelson led previous portions.

CLIMBING THE HILL You might think that record snowfalls and subzero morning temperatures would create a dream alpine skiing season for area teams. And you’d be wrong. There were times during that one, notable January thaw week that smaller mountains were forced to close due to sparse snow conditions. At other times, large quantities of the white stuff fell in such short order that it didn’t make for optimum conditions. “We had three races canceled,” said Edward Little coach Tara Eretzian. “We lost two giant slaloms and a slalom. Ski parents are flexible, anyway, but all of us have had to e-mail our parents and ask them to be more flexible than ever with schedules.” Local schools were able to get in a multi-team meet, the Telstar Invitational at Sunday River, last Thursday. Jon MacKenzie and Tom Puiia of Mountain Valley finished one-two in the boys’ slalom, while Erica Luce of Mt. Abram dominated the girls’ race. Emily Luce edged sister Erica by two-hundredths of a second in a GS at Sunday River on Jan. 17, with Mitch Snowe of EL cruising to the boys’ victory.