RUMFORD – Waiting by the finish line, Edward Little nordic skier Laura Gardner started counting the seconds. The clock at Broomhall Stadium at Black Mountain, she said, was now her friend. She even named it Fred.’
“Now it’s about watching it and waiting for the Leavitt skiers to come in,” Gardner said in a typical excited tone.
She had reason to be nervous. Abiding by a custom that started with former coach Jeff Meserve, Leavitt Nordic coach Jason Leavitt had back-loaded his order, sending his best skiers out last. “I didn’t do that a few years ago and it killed me,” said Leavitt, explaining that conditions on the course change as a race goes on, more often turning favorable. “I got burned a few years ago and went back to this way.”
It worked – for now.
Despite Gardner’s best efforts to sway the clock, Leavitt’s top skiers, Emily Jacobs, Katelyn Beeckel and Lauren Fereshetian, all placed in the top five and wrested the freestyle title away from the Red Eddies by one point, 28-29.
“Having high school hill’ (a large hill less than one mile from the finish) at this course really helps us,” said Beeckel, whose sister was a solid skier for past Leavitt state championship teams. “We train so much with a lot of hills, knowing that states are here and knowing we have to face that hill. We come here not wanting to waste all of that training.”
Edward Little and Leavitt have formed a competitive friendship over the years, even training together on occasion. As each racer finished, they all congratulated each other, still watching the clock.
In the boys’ race, Leavitt did the same thing, and it again worked – barely.
Mike Lessard finished third behind Messalonskee skiers Sam Mathes and Nils Koons, besting EL front-runner Dinesh Costlow by two places and leading the Hornets to a 42-43 win over the Eddies in a mirror-image finish to the girls’ race.
“We really clumped in together,” said Costlow. “After me, the guys were all within 10 seconds of each other, and that was solid. We do better in the classical race, so hopefully we can make up that one point Thursday.”
After Edward Little on the boys’ side, Mt. Blue came in with 57 points, giving the Cougars 84 total points (12 better than Edward Little). Oxford Hills finished fourth in the freestyle while Telstar rounded out the top five.
On the girls’ side, Oxford Hills, led by first-place finisher Mandy Ivey, scored 48 points, while Mt. Blue had 51 and Telstar 103 to round out the top five.
Ivey’s time of 16:05.6 was more than one minute better than Class B winner Elise Moody-Roberts’ time from Monday.
“Comparing the two days isn’t possible, though,” said Ivey. “The conditions were totally different.”
Ivey competed over the weekend in a Junior Olympic 10-kilometer qualifier race and did indeed qualify for the event, which runs March 3-14 at Truckee, California, near Lake Tahoe.
Alpine events in Class A conclude today at Mt. Abram, while nordic events finish up Thursday at Black Mountain.
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