In the course of a ski season, ebbs and flows are the norm for most teams.

Ask most people in the know back in December, and there was one, clear-cut favorite to earn the distinction as the state’s best Class A squad.

Ask most people now, and it’s nearly impossible to distinguish between those at the top.

Mt. Blue was the juggernaut. Led by Shelby Aseltine and Hannah Allen at the top, the Cougars are young, and deep. Only one senior – Meredith Allen – made the roster.

They ran away from everyone at the beginning of the season, too.

“Figuring out where they fit in and everything,” Mt. Blue coach Jeff Meserve said, “That actually took a while, because they all pretty much switched places all season.”

On the other side was Leavitt. The Hornets had a veteran squad, one with prior state meet experience, but one with a lot of ground to make up as the season began.

“The team just stayed focused and chipped away a few points at a time, race by race,” Leavitt coach Dustin Williamson said.

The pursuit came to a head at the Class A state meet. Mt. Blue posted just 27 points in the freestyle race.

But the Hornets were better by one.

“To be as close to Mt. Blue as we were, we needed to kill the freestyle,” Williamson said. “And we did that, which gave us a chance on the last day.”

Mt. Blue returned the favor two days later, parlaying a 1-2 finish by Aseltine and Hannah Allen into another 27-point effort. This time, Leavitt took 28 points, barely earning a couple of places along the way.

“It has a lot to do with experience and senior leadership,” Williamson said. “They had been to states before, and they’d been in a situation like this, where every point, every place mattered.”

The two rival schools – separated by a length of Route 4 – shared the Class A Nordic title. They’d been close in the past, and they’ll be close going forward, as usual.

With two distinct paths to a shared state title, both teams have earned the distinction of Sun Journal Girls’ Nordic Team of the Year.