Sweeney closes in on Skimeister

Saturday, February 21, 2004

By DAVID McLAUGHLIN
Correspondent

BETHEL -- Mt. Abram High School senior Mike Sweeney moved one step closer to his goal of defending his Class B Skimeister title, edging Yarmouth High School's Ben Swardlick by .04 seconds in the slalom competition Friday afternoon at Sunday River.

Sweeney finished seventh overall in the slalom with a combined time of 1:10.52 while Swardlick crossed the finish line in 1:10.56 in eighth place, leaving the defending champion owning a one-point lead heading into today's final event, the 5Km classical Nordic race.

"I'm usually pretty conservative on my first run in the downhill," said Sweeney. "My coaches convinced me to take a chance, so I went after it.

"I was excited about the race but there is still a lot of pressure in the cross country race," he added.

Maranacook Community School's Ross Bragg and Mitch Riley had outstanding runs to finish third and fourth, respectively. Bragg's two-run time was 1:06.54 while Riley compiled a 1:09.29

Yarmouth and Falmouth finished in a tie for the combined Alpine championship with 82 points each, Mountain Valley was third at 126 and Maranacook claimed fourth with 139 in the 11 team field.

Eric Trinward, of Gray-New Gloucester, continued his dominance in the Alpine events, winning the slalom race with a time of 1:05.41. Trinward won the giant slalom race Thursday.

In the girls Class B slalom competition, Yarmouth captured the overall Alpine title in a close race with Falmouth 95-100. Fryeburg Academy finished third with 108 points, followed by Mountain Valley with 137 and Marancook at 147. Maranacook freshman Amy Gifford (1:16.76) was second while Amy Dyer, of Fryeburg, completed her sweep of the Alpine events with a combined time of 1:11.76.

"I think this is the best I've skied all season," Gifford said. "Everyone works all season to do their best at the states."

Gifford consistently skied in the top 10 during regular-season meets this winter but picked up the pace as the Class B state ski meet came closer. Thursday, Gifford finished third in the Class B giant slalom race.

"I'm pretty happy with what I did," she said. "I feel I am maturing more as a racer and hope to get a little bigger for next year."

Class B teams will wrap up their state championship competition this morning with the 5K classical race at Black Mountain in Rumford.

CLASS B FREESTYLE

BETHEL -- Maranacook Community School took a giant step toward repeating as the Class B Nordic state champions Thursday afternoon. The Black Bears won the 5-kilometer freestyle race at Black Mountain in a close battle with Greely and Yarmouth high schools.

Maranacook of Readfield lost three top skiers from last year's state title team but returned enough talent to poise a threat if the team developed over the course of the regular season. As the season progressed the Black Bears took tiny steps forward until yesterday's breakout race.

"Over the season we really developed," Maranacook senior Ed Hunter said. "We just didn't know how good we could be, so what we did today is really great."

Hunter led the Black Bears' charge with a fourth-place finish in 13:57.3. Forest Tobie (14:22.5) followed in sixth, Ben Grimmnitz (14:58.2) was 10th and Josh Keniston (15:27.6) anchored the team in 16th giving Maranacook a 36-44 lead over Greely and third place Yarmouth with 46.

"Black Mountain has some pretty tough hills near the end, so you know that you have to go all out at the beginning," Hunter said. "Overall the course was pretty fast and our team did a great job."

"Our guys had tremendous races," Maranacook coach Steve DeAngelis said. "The competition was so tight and our guys were wicked great today."

Mt. Abram placed two skiers in the top 10 when Mike Sweeney and Jeff Beal crossed the finish line in a dead heat with exact times of 14:44.7 to tie for the eighth spot. Sweeney is the defending Class B Skimeister, who barely edged Ben Swardlick, of Yarmouth, during last year's competition. Skimeister is the top skier who competes in all four disciplines during the state meet.

Yarmouth took the lead in the girls 5K freestyle race, outscoring Greely 24-33. Yarmouth's Kalie Dunn (16:16.9) took first place while Jordanne Dunn (18:05.7) and Jane Tyler (18:10.3) of Maranacook finished sixth and eighth, respectively.

"Our girls skied very well," DeAngelis said. "We packed our six skiers into the top 25, it's just the other teams have a couple of big guns that we don't have at the very top."

Fryeburg beat Yarmouth 41-46 in the girls giant slalom race Thursday at Sunday River. Fryeburg's Amy Dyer placed first with a two-run combined time of 1:42.11. Maranacook's Amy Gifford (1:47.81) was third.

In the boys giant slalom competition, Eric Trinwood claimed first place in 1:35.87 with Sweeney third at 1:37.55. In the team scoring, Yarmouth edged Falmouth 30-42. Maranacook's Ross Bragg (1:38.77) was seventh and Will Purington (1:39.44) eighth.

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