The showdown brewing at the Class A Nordic skiing championships between the Leavitt and Falmouth boys would be fun enough to watch by itself.
But wait. There’s more.
Yes, the Hornets lead the Yachtsmen by only two points after Wednesday’s classical race. But Mt. Blue and Portland are in the mix, as well, with all four schools separated by only 21 heading into Thursday’s freestyle final at Rangeley Lakes Trails Center.
Harrison Knowlton (18:17.8) and Josh Therrien (18:22.9) finished fourth and fifth to lead Leavitt, which has 38 team points to Falmouth’s 40.
Rylee Knox took 10th place and Jarod Farrar 19th to put the Hornets in front.
Falmouth’s top skier was Gabriel Mahoney (17:53.5) in third. Iain Kurry was sixth, Noah Beliveau 13th and Devin Ventura 18th to round out the scorers for the defending champions.
Don’t count out Mt. Blue, which placed three skiers in the top 11.
Dan Lesko (18:35.6, seventh), Ike Doiron (ninth, 18:59.8) and Dustin Staples (19:07.3) were the top performers for the Cougars. Liam Welch was 21st to keep Mt. Blue in title contention.
Ben Allen was runner-up for Portland, who hold a 32-point advantage over Fryeburg in the fourth spot.
Individual champions were Sam Wood of Mt. Ararat (17:34.5) and Lizzie Landry of Portland (21:02.8), who edged Mt. Blue’s Sarah Wade by eight seconds.
Falmouth’s lead over Mt. Blue is a more comfortable 20-48 in the girls’ competition.
Gabrielle Farrell, London Bernier, Lucy Mahoney and Anna Morin chalked up a 3-4-6-7 sequence for Falmouth.
All four Yachtswomen finished ahead of Mt. Blue’s second skier, Julia Ramsey, in eighth with a time of 22:37.
Alicia Labbe of Leavitt was ninth and India Lucas of Oxford Hills took 1oth.
Leavitt (62), Portland (86) and Oxford Hills (89) rounded out the girls’ top five.
Leading their respective teams were Nathaniel McNutt of Oxford Hills (35th) and Max Nyholm of Edward Little (46th) in the boys’ race and EL’s Tyme Finnerty (24th) in the girls’.
The girls’ freestyle begins at 10 a.m. Thursday, followed by the boys at 11:30 a.m.
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