GREENWOOD — For the second consecutive day, Mt. Blue’s boys’ alpine ski team played it safe.

The Cougars could afford to.

And for the first time in three years, Mt. Blue is back on top of the Class A alpine heap.

Shane Smith and Jared Foster each placed in the top 10 as the Cougars used steady skiing and depth to drown the competition Wednesday in the slalom event at Mt. Abram Ski Resort, pulling out a 40-55 victory in the slalom, and a 73-129 victory in the two-day alpine event.

“They skied smart today,” Mt. Blue coach Mark Cyr said. “I told them, with the lead we had, all they had to do was put together two solid runs.”

Foster was one of the first skiers down the course in both runs, while Smith had the benefit of watching the rest of the field race for a while before he took his turn.

Sam Prentiss, North Kay, Alex Witt and Harris Roberts all finished in the top 17, as well, for the Cougars.

Edward Little, which suffered a key fall in the giant slalom Tuesday in its attempt to three-peat, suffered the same fate in the first run of the slalom on Wednesday as top skier James Jackson stumbled to a 67th-place finish in the first run.

“He was flying,” EL coach Tara Eretzian said. “He was flying, he leaned a bit backwards and that was it.”

Ever resilient, the rest of the squad picked him up. Branden Lever, the team’s fallen skier on Tuesday, placed third, while Clark Chamberlain (sixth), Ben Bowles (22nd) and Tom Lynch (24th) all snuck into the top 25.

And, all Jackson did in his second run was post the fastest time of the day, still leaving lingering questions as to what might have been.

“The three seniors this year, we’ve had them since they were babies,” Eretzian said. “They did a great job coming back and placing the way they did. They had a great day overall.”

The Eddies finished second to Mt. Blue in the overall Class A alpine standings, just in front of Marshwood and Leavitt.

The Hornets, meanwhile, were considered top contenders, along with Mt. Blue, for the team combined title, which accrues all points from both Nordic and alpine events.

But Tuesday’s GS wasn’t kind to Leavitt, and although the Nordic team made up 12 points in the freestyle Nordic event Tuesday afternoon, Leavitt had an uphill climb going into Wednesday’s action.

Leavitt finished with 72 points Wednesday, for a two-day alpine total of 141. With one event left, Leavitt would have to defeat Mt. Blue by 56 points in Thursday’s Nordic classical finale just to tie.

Class C

Led by Class C slalom champion Alex Rose, Livermore Falls again placed three skiers in the top 10 at the Class C alpine skiing championships at Lonesome Pines. This time, the Andies fell a bit short of their goal.

Fort Kent scored five fewer points than Livermore Falls in the slalom Wednesday to overcome a four-point deficit and claim the Class C alpine title by a single point.

Class B

Mountain Valley hung tough Wednesday, accumulating 79 points in the slalom to manage a third-place finish in the Class B alpine championships at Saddleback in Rangeley.

Nathan Nicols was the top Mountain Valley skier to cross, coming over the line in 12th position. Nicholas Woods placed 19th for the Falcons, Darren Jodrey came in at No. 22, and Eric Billings crossed in 26th.