Whenever she wants to see Sunday River, Samantha Largess only has to look out her bedroom window.

The mountain has served as Largess’s back yard and playground, so it’s no surprise that she was born to go down hills of packed powder, and go down them fast.

“I think I started to ski when I was 2. My dad (Jim) always told me that ever since I could walk he wanted me out there, but my mom (Bonnie) wouldn’t let him.” Largess said.

Growing up on the slopes helped shape the Telstar junior into the dominant girls’ skier in Class C, but so did being born with a nice touch on the snow and a great sense of balance. So did skiing with older twin brothers Adam and Jake, who competed for Telstar when it was in Class A. So did having Gould Academy alpine development coordinator Cindy Brown as a neighbor and mentor.

“She has a great ability to glide,” said Telstar alpine coach Anne Reis, who also coached Largess as an energetic eight-year-old J-5 skier. “She knows how to get it down the hill fast, faster than anybody else. You can coach that, but she seems to come by it naturally.”

Skiing USSA events and training with Gould prepared Largess for her freshman year at Telstar, when she swept the Class C championships, winning the slalom by .46 of a second and edging fellow Telstar freshman T.J. Cowin by just under a second in the giant slalom.

She dominated again as a sophomore, taking the slalom by .79 of a second and cruising to the GS title by nearly four seconds.

As unexpected as the freshman sweep was, Largess says the repeat may have been more unexpected.

“Sophomore year I did not expect to win at all because I stopped doing USSA my freshman year, so my sophomore year I expected to be top 10, but not to win again. That was pretty shocking,” she said.

She’s already shocking herself this year. She swept last week’s meet at Sunday River, even though she wasn’t particularly pleased with how her performance felt,

“She just stuck her nose in it and let it rip,” Reis said.

In the slalom, an event she said she hates, she not only topped her competition but bested all of the times posted by the male competitors except one.

“(Slalom) is more technical and I like to go straight and I like to go fast,” she said. “That’s a lot of turning, and you can ask any of the coaches I’ve ever had, that’s my biggest problem.”

Largess candidly admits that field hockey has eclipsed skiing as her favorite sport. She still likes to compete and still has the drive to win, though. For that, she credits Reis and the inspiration she gets from her family and teammates, particularly Cowin, who finished second behind Largess for the Class C title in the GS the last two years.

“Skiing is definitely not my favorite sport. I’ve been doing it a little too long,” she said. “It’s fun, but I’d rather just go out and ski around than actually race. It’s hard to keep going. I want to keep winning, but I also know that there are plenty more people out there that have been working hard and probably deserve it a lot more than I do.”

Her coach begs to differ.

“She comes to have fun. She loves skiing and being with her teammates,” Reis said. “She doesn’t get stressed out like some other kids do. She keeps it all in perspective. She works hard every day and focuses on what she needs to do to get the job done. She knows a lot of other kids are working just as hard, so she wants to keep one step ahead of them.”