Maranacook’s Robbie McKee highlighted the first day of the Class B Alpine State Championships on Monday at Big Rock Mountain in Mars Hill.
McKee, a sophomore, finished third in the boys giant slalom event, finishing in 44.28 seconds on his first run and 44.14 seconds on his second. Cape Elizabeth’s Ian Geikie finished as the champion in the event, with a top time of 42.93, which came on his second run. His first run time of 43.27 was second-best of the day. Mountain Valley’s Curtis Gauvin finished second.
“Robbie’s third place (performance) was outstanding,” Maranacook Alpine coach Ronn Gifford said. “He had two smoking runs. We’ve been working on a few things lately, trying to ease up on his edge pressure…you need to be subtle with your edging (at Big Rock) or you’ll kill your speed. He’s been working on that lately and really brought everything together today in two outstanding runs.”
McKee’s performance helped the Black Bear boys to a fifth-place finish for the day, with 90 team points. Cape Elizabeth has the lead after Day 1 with 34 points, followed by Yarmouth (62 points), Fort Kent (69 points) and Lake Region (88 points).
Two of McKee’s teammates finished just outside the top 25, as Collin McGarr finished in 26th place (48.05) and Carter McPhedran finished in 28th place (47.98).
The Maranacook girls had success as well, as senior Janika Pakulski finished seventh with runs of 46.13 and 46.34 seconds, respectively.
Pakulski was joined in the top 15 by sophomore Katie Ide, who finished 12th in 47.32 seconds.
After Day 1, the Black Bear girls are in fourth place with 66 points. Yarmouth is in first with 36 points, followed by Fort Kent (53 points) and Spruce Mountain (61 points).
“Overall, I think both teams did great,” Gifford said. “Particularly if you look at our pack times — which sounds a lot more like cross-country running or cross-country skiing — but I look at the same thing at Alpine. I think both teams were the best they’ve been all year. When you look from top to bottom from the scoring four, the girls were just over five seconds and the guys were just over nine, it was fantastic skiing all the way around.”
With warm temperatures expected throughout the week, Gifford said the Alpine course was in good condition Monday, and expects the weather to hold out Tuesday for teams to compete in the slalom events and finish out the competition.
“There’s not many years where I would say, ‘Boy, I’m really looking forward to that 5 1/2-hour trip north,” Gifford said. “But I’m glad we’re up north right now. It was actually below freezing all morning, and the (girls race) had good, firm conditions. The sun and the wind really turned on us (Monday) afternoon and started to warm up, but the hill held really, really well.”
Dave Dyer — 621-5640
ddyer@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @Dave_Dyer
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