RUMFORD — The field and the course were both smaller than usual, but Telstar’s Ella Akers was still just as happy with her victory in Thursday’s freestyle Nordic race at Black Mountain of Maine.

Akers finished first overall with a time of 18:38.1. The cohort was small, with only 14 skiers battling for time on the 4.5-kilometer course, but snowstorms across the state the last few days made the conditions ideal.

“It was fun,” Akers said. “My goal was to come in under 20 minutes, since the course is a little shorter, and it’s kind of due time for me to start seeing decreases in my times.”

Akers was the only Rebels skier on the girls side. Telstar coach Kristen Powell said the smaller race was a great confidence booster for Akers, and “she puts in a lot of effort, so it’s good to see her feel good about it.”

“She is committed, she has a good time, but she takes it seriously,” Powell said about Akers. “She’s very driven, she’s definitely a leader on the team. It’s a small team, but everybody knows that if they have a question, she’ll have an answer for them.”

On the boys side for Telstar, Kayan Degruttola came in first at 18:43.5, and Reece Pierce was the runner-up at 19:00.4. Davon Degruttola came in sixth at 24:42.8.

“The season is going really good,” Degruttola said. “In terms of time, this is probably one of my better ones, but it’s also the first race this year.”

Degruttola said the team has had to do a lot of drylands training this season, and they did not get on to the snow until after Christmas. Despite the weather-related setback, he said the Rebels still expect to do well this season.

Pierce, a freshman skier for the Rebels, said his confidence on the downhills helped his result, because he is usually afraid to collect speed going downhill, due to previous injuries. He has been skiing since he was three years old, and he said he is excited to be a part of the team this year.

“Usually, I’m scared when I go down them but this time I tried harder,” Pierce said. “Normally I’m scared because I’ve fallen on hills a lot.”

Akers said readjusting her mindset during her third high school season has been key, especially on challenging course hills.

“It’s hard not to get out on the trail (and) come to the hills and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, this is awful, I feel like I’m dying,’” Akers said. “I’m just really working to try to tell myself to just go as fast as you can up this hill and you’ll get a break after. Just keep going, keep pushing and you won’t regret it. Mindset’s the biggest thing for me.”

The Rebels competed in the Roy Varney Hornet Classic on Monday, and Powell said Thursday’s smaller race was a nice change of pace.

“I think it’s nice to see some of the teams that have the same number of kids and it’s a little bit more of a similar playing field, so to speak,” Powell said. “We traveled up to the state meet together to Fort Kent with Rumford last year, so we know some of those kids and so it’s just nice.”

Mountain Valley had four boys skiers in Thursday’s race, taking third, fourth, fifth and eighth place. Falcons Coach Dylan Cayer said the day went “very, very well” for being the second race of the season.

“Obviously, the snow has been really poor, so it has been hard to get on snow,” Cayer said. “We had a first-time skier today (Khalil Hamdi) end up getting third, so that was quite the accomplishment. It’s his first race ever, it’s his first year skiing, so I’m very happy about that, that couldn’t have gone better. All my boys are improving.”

Hamdi joined the Falcons Nordic team this season, because he said he does not want to see the team “die out” due to a lack of numbers.

“I liked the sport, but the main reason’s because I don’t want it to die out,” Hamdi said. “There’s very little people on it, and Coach Cayer is also my soccer coach, so I want him to stay with this team.”

While Hamdi may be new to the Nordic team, he said he has been skiing for four years. His goal for the season, he said, is to “not get injured and do decent for my first year.” He finished with a time of 20:15.5 to lead the Falcons.

Other Mountain Valley skiers included Joseph Packard (fourth place, 21:38.1), Aidan Granados (fifth place, 23:36.5) and Whyatt Perham (eighth place, 24:57.9).

There are no girls skiers for the Falcons this season, which Cayer said has unfortunately been the norm during his four-year tenure as head coach. His first and only girls skier, Brooke Buotte, was a senior newcomer on the team last year, and made it to the Eastern qualifiers.

Cayer said he expected a different result at Thursday’s race, due to the lack of race preparation the Falcons have been able to accomplish with weather-related variables.

“I’ll be honest, this doesn’t sound great, but I expected them to kind of do worse than they did, just because we haven’t had a lot of races,” Cayer said. “Our first race on Monday, I only had two of the boys there, so kind of expected them to struggle a little bit more for fitness, but they pulled one out. I can’t complain.”

Cayer said there’s been several practices that the Falcons are running laps in the gym since they can’t be out on the snow, but said Black Mountain and Chisolm Ski Club did a great job grooming the trails for Thursday’s race.

Megan Spaulding from Dirigo came in second for the girls, with a finishing time of 25:25.1. She said she was pretty happy with her time, especially considering the fact that she raced a 7-kilometer race at Titcomb Mountain in Farmington on Wednesday. She also said back-to-back races are not common for the Cougars, and she relied on technique and endurance to finish strong Thursday.

Sylvia Hodsdon finished in third at 27:40.5 and Marley Berry finished in fourth at 1:03:34.2, to make it three in a row for Dirigo. On the boys side, Darryl Curtis finished in seventh for the Cougars (24:43), John Lane finished in ninth (28:48) and Tomlin Suttles finished in tenth (43:26.1).

A Chisholm Ski Club race volunteer speculated that the race’s low attendance might have been in part because of the week’s already packed schedule, with the 7-kilometer race on Wednesday and the Sassi Memorial race slated for next Saturday at Black Mountain.

“I’d like to have a race where all of my skiers are healthy and participating, just in a sense of like, team spirit,” Powell said about Telstar.

« Previous

Next »

Related Stories