RUMFORD – As dominant as the Madawaska girls were on the slopes, so too were the boys on the trails.
Madawaska skiers placed second, third, fourth and sixth in the classical cross country race at Black Mountain on Saturday, lifting the Owls to a convincing 24-point win in the Class C Nordic combined state championship.
“The biggest thing for us, the reason these kids develop like they do, is partly because of the new facilities we have back home,” said Nordic coach Yvon Levesque. “Near us, we have two of the new Maine Winter Sports facilities, and these kids all train there, too. Three months of the year isn’t enough to train, which is what the high school season is, so they get better by working there all the time.”
The biggest thing for the Owls on Saturday was to keep the Freeport Falcons in their sights. On Thursday, Freeport trailed Madawaska by a single point after the freestyle competition.
“We are a lot more confident in our classical style, because that’s how we train,” said Madawaska’s Troy Cyr. “I’d still say our finish is amazing, though.”
Cyr finished second, teammates Tyler Levesque and Kevin Daigle took third and fourth, and George Bragdon took sixth as the Owls put all six of their skiers in the top 12 places.
“The confidence we had in our classical technique, that’s what pulled us through I think,” said Daigle. “Last year we had what we call a rebuilding year, so it was nice to come back and be so strong.”
Fort Kent finished third in the classical race Saturday, and third overall in the Nordic combined standings. John Bapst took fourth, while North Yarmouth Academy claimed fifth.
Locally, Winthrop, paced by Danny Soltan in 25th, took seventh place, while Jay High School’s Joe Gagnon (13th) led the Tigers to a ninth-place finish. Dirigo placed 11th.
Waynflete repeats
Last year, the Waynflete Flyers’ girls’ ski team was absolutely dominant. No other team even came close to their top finish, but they knew this year would be a different story.
“We lost some kids to graduation, and we knew coming in that teams like John Bapst would be very strong,” said coach Lindsay Reagan.
“That motivated us more, I think,” added skier Holly Whitney. “It was better for us that way.”
Better indeed.
Waynflete got top finishes from Whitney, Gretchen Knoth, Jeannie Pearson and Hannah Orcutt and held off a tough John Bapst team by 10 points to claim its second consecutive Class C girls’ Nordic championship.
“We spent a lot of time training in classical for this,” said Reagan. “We knew that that is most other teams’ weaker discipline, and we wanted to be strong in both.”
Freeport came home in third place, while Fort Kent and Fort Fairfield followed in fourth and fifth.
Justin Cyr of Fort Kent was the first overall finisher, coming in nine seconds ahead of Freeport’s Lucy Garrec.
Livermore Falls placed sixth in the Nordic combined, while Dirigo took ninth.
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