FARMINGTON — The Mt. Blue boys and Maranacook girls ski teams have not won Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference titles just yet, but they certainly put themselves in position to do so heading into Day 2 of the KVAC skiing championships Saturday at Titcomb Mountain.
Behind a strong all-around performance, the Cougar boys opened up a 44-111 lead over second place Maranacook Wednesday at Black Mountain on Day 1. The Black Bear girls team has a 96-124 lead over Camden Hills, while in the Mountain Valley Conference championships, Telstar leads both the boys and girls overall with a 49-90 edge over the Mount Abram girls and 78-81 advantage on the Mountain Valley boys.
“It was a great day,” Mt. Blue alpine coach Mark Cyr said. “It wasn’t just skiing well, they skied like a team and they skied smart more than anything.”
Balance was key in the Cougars march to the lead, as they had five alpine skiers finish in the top 12. Dylan Roberts and Kyle Farrington led the charge in second and third, respectively, while Anthony Franchetti was sixth, Miles Pelletier — who has a 23-43 lead over Camden Hills’ David Flint for KVAC boys skimeister — took eighth and Hunter Bolduc was 12th.
“We’ve been talking to the kids about team skiing, and the fact that we don’t need kids to get that gold medal but we need to pack three or four in the top 10 or 12,” Cyr said. “That’s how you win championships.”
The Black Bears girls, meanwhile, employed a similar strategy as they placed 10 skiers in the top 18 in the cross country freestyle to help build a 28 point lead in the overall heading into Saturday’s races. Abby Despres paced the nordic squad with a second place result, finishing just a single second behind Mt. Blue’s Julia Ramsey.
“The girls obviously did awesome,” Maranacook nordic coach Steve DeAngelis said. “…We’re in good shape for the pursuit with the girls. We just have to hold our position. We feel like we’re in a good spot but it won’t be easy.”
Heading into the pursuit the Black Bears lead the Cougars 25-31, while in slalom Maranacook will have some ground to make up despite getting a second place performance from Erin Guilmet and fourth from Rachel Tooth on Day 1 in giant slalom. The Black Bears are tied for third with Oxford Hills and Edward Little with 71 points, trailing both Hampden (61) and Camden Hills (35).
“Erin and Rachel skied extremely well, finishing second and fourth, and the rest of the girls all skied really well too,” Maranacook alpine coach Ronn Gifford said. “…(Camden Hills) will be the team to beat come Saturday and hopefully we’ll be close on their heels.”
On the boys side it will be tough for anyone to catch Mt. Blue in alpine — the Cougars have a 41-point lead over second-place Edward Little — but the race in nordic is still undecided. The Cougars are in front with 25 points, but hold only a slight lead over Leavitt (26) and Maranacook (28). The Black Bears’ Ethan Harriman won Wednesday’s race by nearly 10 seconds and teammate Luca DeAngelis took fourth.
Individually, Skowhegan junior Mike Miller will be looking to make it a clean sweep in alpine. He won the giant slalom Wednesday with a time of 54.90 seconds.
“(Wednesday) it was all about using the right wax on the skis and being able to ski smart and fast on the flat part of the hill,” Skowhegan coach Bill Finley said. “That’s probably where he excelled and where he won the race.”
Evan Crawley — 621-5640
ecrawley@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @Evan_Crawley
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