RUMFORD — Maxx Bell’s giant slalom day nearly came to an abrupt ending on Thursday at the combined Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference and Mountain Valley Conference ski championships at Black Mountain.

On his first run, early in the morning, Bell, of Edward Little, collided with a volunteer worker who was doing course maintenance during the race. After firing off the top of the course, Bell slammed into the volunteer while entering a gate. Neither the skier nor worker, who was slipping the course, saw each other, until the bone jarring hit.

Bell, who said he was okay to continue, used the incident to turn in an impressive pair of runs to win the KVAC boys’ giant slalom title by nearly four seconds, easily the highlight of the three-day conference championships.

The worker noted knee pain and was transported to the hospital for a checkup.

“What happened made me ski more aggressive,” Bell said. “On my rerun I just laid back and let it happen.”

Happen it did. On the rerun Bell burned the course, hitting the finish line with an incredible time of 49.47 seconds, the only sub-50 second run of the day.

“I love skiing the giant slalom here,” Bell said. “My plan coming in was to be aggressive, get off early on the pitch and let it go on the bottom.”

Bell added a 50.74 on his second run for a two-run total of 1:40.71, outdistancing his nearest competitors for the title.

Maranacook’s Nathan Delmar (1:44.04), Kyle Farrington (1:44.35), of Mt. Blue, and Ryland VanDecker (1:44.53), of Oxford Hills followed Bell across the finish line.

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Mt. Blue boys’ and girls’ won the combined overall KVAC titles after entering the final day with comfortable leads. The Cougars’ boys’ team ran away with the overall title (combined scores in Nordic and Alpine races), outscoring Maranacook, 107-181.

Mt. Blue won the KVAC slalom title over Edward Little, 62-72.

In the KVAC girls’ overall competition, Mt. Blue managed to hold off an impressive surge by Maranacook on the final day, that left the balanced Cougars escaping with a 192-193 decision.

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Powered by the high level skiing of Brooke Lever and Victoria Beliveau, Edward Little won the girls Alpine title, beating Camden Hills, 87-94, after trailing by one point on opening day. The Red Eddies took advantage of the fast course and excellent race conditions to secure the win.

In one of the tightest races of the season, Rachel Tooth, of Maranacook, claimed the win in the girls’ giant slalom, where the top four finishers were separated by just two seconds. Tooth finished in 1:49.0 followed by a tie for second between Audrey Heriz-Smith (1:50.0), of Camden Hills and Lever (1:50.0); while Beliveau (1:51.0) finished fourth.

“We all had very good first runs, today, to get us into a good position. We have a strong team,” Lever said. “On the course, everything comes at you so fast, we wanted to be a little cautious and get in solid runs.”

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Mountain Valley’s Nick Newman led the Falcons to the MVC boys’ Alpine title, 37-75, over Telstar. Newman fired his way through the giant slalom gates to complete a two-run time of 1:45.16 to finish first. Maguire Anuszewski, of Winthrop, was second in 1:49.79.

“My goal was to come out on top in the MVC,” said Newman. “The course was pretty slick and fast, but there were really no issues. We were all happy to get two good runs in against good competition.”

The Telstar boys won the overall MVC championship while Mt. Abram grabbed the girls’ title.

Monmouth’s Becky Bryant captured the girls’ giant slalom title.

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Mt. Blue garnered plenty of overall team points from an inspired classical pursuit race when the Cougars placed four scoring skiers in the top seven finishers.

Luca DeAngelis, of Maranacook, continued his dominance of Nordic skiing with a first place finish but it was the Cougars who were crammed into the next few spots to take the Nordic title. DeAngelis finished the 5K, two loop course in 16:16.

Tucker Barber lead the Mt. Blue charge in second place posting a finish time of 16:20, with teammates Liam Welch (4th), Thomas Wing (6th) and Nolan Rogers (7th).

Barber started the pursuit race 13 seconds behind DeAngelis.

“My plan was to keep Luca in my sights,” Barber said. “I knew if I could do that I would have a good day because he is such a good skier.”

Leavitt’s Jarod Farrar slotted in third with Hornet teammate Carter Veilleux, seventh.

The Maranacook girls’ Nordic team was equally impressive, finishing four scoring skiers in the top eight, including three in the top four.

Black Bears Abby Despres (2nd), Laura Parent (3rd), Jaycee Greeley (4th) and Taylor Cray (8th) earned Marancook the Nordic title.

Jenny Wilbraham, of Morse, won the classical pursuit title.

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Telstar’s Carla Boyle-Wight fashioned a 21:04 to win the girls’ MVC pursuit race, followed by Bryant, of Monmouth and Emily Gerencer, of St. Dom’s.

Xavier Romanoski, of Mt. Abram, captured the boys’ MVC title in 18:23 with Keenan Martin, of Dirigo finishing second.

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Mt. Blue’s Sam Smith took top honors in the boys’ four-event Skimeister competition, defeating Cougar teammate Miles Pelletier, 35-84.