Girls’ Nordic MVP: Mt. Blue’s Ramsey gets healthy, wins titles

Julia Ramsey wrapped up her high school Nordic skiing career with state titles in the classical and freestyle, which led Mt. Blue to the girls’ team championship.

Cougars coach Claire Polfus said that what sets the senior is intelligence and technique combined with physical strength.

“Strength-to-weight ratio, I think she’s one of the strongest out there in the state right now,” Mt. Blue coach Claire Polfus said.

Last year, Ramsey’s body let her down. She was coming off a sophomore season in which she earned two top-five finishes at the state championships — third in the classical and fifth in the skate.

So, she was primed for big things as a junior in 2015-16. But she … just … couldn’t.

The effort was there, but the speed was not.

“She had a bout with mono,” Polfus said.

“I would see her in practices and races, and I knew she was making effort — I knew her as an athlete — but she just wasn’t going fast. Like her body physically couldn’t go fast. That was really frustrating and really hard for her.”

This season, Polfus said it was hard to tell if Ramsey was over the illness until she won the Sassi Memorial on Jan. 28.

“The Sassi was a turning point,” Polfus said.

Ramsey built on that momentum, and fulfilled the potential she showed as a sophomore by sweeping the Class A state championships.

“Because she was healthy, everything else could come together,” Polfus said. “And that’s really nice to see in a senior year, to have all that stuff come together, her years and years of work on her technique and her strength, and then her health coming back into it.”

Mt. Blue’s Julia Ramsey comes off a hill as she approaches the finish line of the 5.5-kilometer classical race at the Class A Nordic skiing state championships at Quarry Road Trails.

Girls’ Nordic Skiing All-Region

Athlete of the year: Julia Ramsey, Mt. Blue

First Team

Julia Ramsey Mt. Blue Sr.

Meg Charles Mt. Blue Jr.

Gretchen Huish Mt. Blue Fr.

Chelsea Seabold Mt. Blue So.

Emily Gerencer St. Dom’s So.

Emily Thibodeau Leavitt Sr.

Second Team

Zoe Huish Mt. Blue Jr.

Grace Andrews Mt. Blue Sr.

Tyme Finnerty Edward Little Sr.

Marta Opie Telstar Jr.

Tamra Benson Leavitt So.

Bea Stewart Monmouth Fr.

Honorable Mention:

Sadie Johnson-Ouillette, Oxford Hills, Fr.; Olivia Swift, Oxford Hills, So.; Ava Petrin, Leavitt, So.; Risa Marble, Mt. Abram, Sr.; Liliana Meehan, Dirigo, Sr.; Koley True, Telstar, So.