DALLAS PLANTATION — Alex Rose finally had “one of those days.”

And he wasn’t about to let it happen again.

One day after finishing fifth in the Class C state championship giant slalom race at Saddleback Mountain — the first time he’s finished out of the top spot in a state race in his high school career — Rose, a Livermore Falls junior, atoned, blazing a pair of runs in a combined time of 1:06.53 to earn the Class C slalom title Wednesday.

“I had a mindset and a goal,” Rose said. “I had a set goal coming to states, and I didn’t complete it (Tuesday), so today, I had one last goal, and I really focused on it. As I was going through the course, it was, ‘Remember my form, remember my technique, remember the line I picked out when I inspected,’ and everything worked out in the split seconds as I was going down the course. Turned out good, thank goodness.”

Rose was fifth after the first run in Tuesday’s GS, bobbled a bit on his second run but still hung on to the fifth overall position.

“Ski racing, anything can happen to anyone at any time,” Rose said. “Yesterday, if something could happen, it did. It was one of those things.”

Wednesday, there was no bobble.

“I wanted to make up for it today,” Rose said. “This was one of those courses you couldn’t go out there and kill. You had to back up a little bit. That was the key to today. Instead of going for it today, I took a step back.”

Not that Tuesday turned out all bad for Rose. He didn’t win, but Livermore Falls teammate Cody Jacques did.

“That was awesome, because it picks up everything for the team,” Rose said. “It’s helping the team out, and it was great to see him get up on the podium. That was awesome.”

For Jacques, who also finished on the podium in third place Wednesday, the chance to finally defeat Rose in a big race was welcome.

“It’s a good feeling, for sure,” Jacques said. “I mean, if he stands up, he wins, that’s how it works, pretty much.”

Jacques said the key to winning Tuesday race was simple.

“Let ’em go,” Jacques said. “I like to ski fast. I’m a better GS skier, anyway, I think. That’s more my event.”

The pair of skiers led the Andies to a fourth-place finish in the Class C alpine team race, in which Livermore Falls trailed by 23 after the giant slalom runs on Tuesday. In Wednesday’s slalom, Rose and Jacques’ 1-3 finish helped the team earn 73 points, closing the gap slightly.

“We made up some ground for sure,” Livermore Falls and Jay coach Kenny Jacques — Cody’s father — said. “We have a good bunch of kids out here, and we enjoy it.”

Jay’s Jake Roy shocked even his own teammates and coach with a fourth-place finish Wednesday, a score that would have worked well with Cody Jacques’ and Rose’s, if the Jay and Livermore Falls teams were allowed to ski together.

“We look forward to that being the case when the schools are combined,” Kenny Jacques said. “That’s the best finish (Roy) has ever had for us, and that was really cool.”

Sandwiched between Rose and Jacques in second place Wednesday was Freeport’s Ryan Collet with a combined time of 1:09.86. The Falcons, perennial Class C title contenders, led after the giant slalom, but struggled Wednesday, leaving the door open for central Aroostook to sweep in and claim the combined team alpine crown.

In the race for the overall Class C crown, Fort Kent jumped in front of the Falcons by 10 points, with the classical nordic race yet to run.

Anything you can do…

Not that Lindsey Jacques was impressed with her cousin, Cody’s success Tuesday. She also knew she could replicate the feat.

The difference with her quest this week at the Class C state skiing championships? She swept the alpine events.

After winning Tuesday’s giant slalom by better than four seconds, Jacques bettered that margin in Wednesday’s slalom event at Saddleback, pulling off back-to-back victories in the two disciplines.

Rare, she said, considering she hadn’t been able to finish many of her recent races.

“It’s been quite the mental battle,” Lindsey Jacques said. “The last two weeks, I haven’t stood up in a race, so I’m really happy to be out here and just standing up. It’s a good feeling.”

Jacques clocked in with a sparkling 36.56 on her first run, and nearly matched it on the second. Her combined time of 1:13.25 was 2.88 seconds faster than Ellie Begtsson of Freeport.

“It was just technical errors before, and I’m starting to think and ski smarter,” Lindsey Jacques said. “This course is all about tactics, it’s not a ‘let the skis roll’ kind of course.”

“That was a smokin’ time,” Kenny Jacques said. “that was fun to watch.”

Livermore Falls placed third as a team. Freeport placed four skiers in the top seven Wednesday for a commanding victory in the alpine team competition, and a minimal advantage in the overall Class C meet heading into Thursday’s final Nordic event.

The Falcons’ 32 points over two events was 49 better than Fort Kent in second place in the alpine competition, and with the stellar day the Falcons edged past Fort Kent into the overall Class C girls’ lead by six.

Click here for more photos from the ski meet!