Mt. Blue seniors Julia Ramsey and Tucker Barber were individual champions and led their respective teams to team titles.

“I’m so proud of them,” Mt. Blue coach Claire Polfus said. “They skied really hard, it’s a really hard course, and they just really rocked it. So it was just fabulous.”

Ramsey took first in the girls’ race, leading a pack of six Cougars finishing in the top 20 as Mt. Blue ran away with the team title.

Ramsey finished the 5-kilometer race in 16 minutes, 59.8 seconds. She was the only skier in the girls race to break the 17-minute mark.

Ramsey was concerned about the conditions due to a little bit of fresh snow on the course, but that went away once she started.

“I think maybe the sun helped a little bit,” Ramsey said. “It was just really fast, really fun, and that’s what I love, the fast conditions and the downhills, that’s what I think I do really well.”

With her affinity for downhills, Ramsey said the key to taming course’s biggest uphill, the renowned High School Hill, was her mentality.

“It’s really hard,” she said. “You got to keep your head in the game there, because it’s right before the finish, and you’ve used all your energy, and it’s just so steep, and you just have to push it so hard because you know it’s the last hill. I think a lot of people lose it, mentally, there. You’ve just got to say, ‘I’m almost done, I’m almost done,’ and just keep going.”

Maranacook’s Laura Parent placed second, nearly 30 seconds behind Ramsey at 17:29.7.

Mt. Blue’s Meg Charles rounded out the top three, finishing in 17:47.4.

“I’m really happy with how I went. I felt really, really good the whole time,” Charles said. “The kick was perfect, and downhills are usually a struggle for me, so to have the kick be perfect, like, not sticky on the downhills, made it that much easier to be like, ‘Yeah, this is totally fine.’

“It was very exciting.”

The Cougars finished with 25 points, well ahead of second-place Maranacook, which had 47.

Joining Ramsey and Charles in the top 20 for Mt. Blue were Gretchen Huish (10th), Chelsea Seabold (11th), Zoe Huish (17th) and Grace Andrews (19th).

“My other girls did fantastic, they had really good races — our third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh girls,” Polfus said.

Two other tri-county area skiers placed in the top 20 of the girls’ race: Emily Gerencer of St. Dom’s took 12th and Leavitt’s Emily Thibodeau was 18th.

The boys’ team competition was much closer. Mt. Blue took first with 39 points, while Maranacook was right behind with 40 points and Freeport was a close third with 44 points.

Barber, who won the Class A state championship last year, shredded the field with a time of 13:38.5, far ahead of second-place Yacob Olins of Freeport, who finished in 14:27.2. Yarmouth’s John Lane was third (14:30.6).

“Tucker had a breakout season last year, and this year, he’s had a few races where he’s struggled, so it’s just so good to see him back where he was last year,” Polfus said.

“This course is perfect for him, like where other people hurt, he just goes really fast. So he really thrived.”

Barber credited a gear change that happened right before the race for his performance.

“The wax was a little weird before the race, and then at the last minute, my coach threw some stuff on, it worked beautifully,” Barber said. “As soon as I started racing, I was like, ‘Ah, I feel great.’

“I just took it as hard as I could. On the flats, I tried to save as much energy, and then High School Hill, the big hill, I just gave everything I had, and I still had some left.”

Behind Barber, the next-highest tri-county area finisher was Oxford Hills’ Cameron Bancroft, who came in eighth (15:27.5).

“I was aiming for top-20. I had no idea I’d be top-10,” Bancroft said.

He said he felt better Saturday than he did in the Vikings’ other races last week. He also had the benefit of the experience he gained at last year’s Sassi Memorial.

“I had a good rest leading up to this, and we’ve been training really hard in the last couple weeks,” Bancroft said. “Also, I was really confident going into this. Last year, High School Hill felt like a monster, and this year, I’m bigger and stronger, and it felt smaller and easier. Not to say it was easy, but easier.”

Right behind Bancroft in ninth place was Mt. Blue’s Nolan Rogers (15:30.4).

The Cougars had three other top-20 placers, Isaiah Reid was 12th, Sam Stinson took 17th and Sam Smith came in 20th.

The Oxford Hills boys placed fourth, led by Cameron Bancroft, Nate McNutt, who finished 24th, and Tom Bancroft, 28th.

Leavitt was fifth, paced by Noah Lind (21st), Jason Labbe (22nd) and Roy Varney (25th).

Telstar’s Gaelan Boyle-Wight finished 26th.