STAFF REPORT

Winthrop’s Annie Guerette and Monmouth’s Becki Bryant won Class C state ski titles Friday while the Maranacook boys surged into the overall Class B team lead and Mt. Abram’s Elise Luce won her fourth giant slalom state championship.

Guerette won the girls Class C slalom championship at Sunday River, nipping runner-up Sarah Klein of Mountain Valley by four tenths of a second in a combined two-run total. Klein won Thursday’s slalom race by two tenths of a second over Guerette. Winthrop teammate Amy Dehaas finished fourth.

Bryant placed 11th in the slalom, good enough to win the girls Skimeister title which combines the best finishes in Nordic and Alpine competition. She scored 39 points to nip Fort Kent’s Rudy Martin by six points. Last year, Martin beat Bryant by four points for the Skimeister title.

“I think I just got better overall,” Bryant said. “I started training more in the summer and on the weekends. It was enough to edge her out this year.”

Fort Kent won the girls and boys Class C championships while Mountain Valley finished second. Waynflete’s Louis Fruman won the boys slalom title while Winthrop’s Lisle Townsend placed fifth and teammate Charles Dehaas ninth.

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Maranacook surged into the overall Class B boys lead with a strong performance in Friday’s giant slalom at Mt. Abram. Freeport’s Jay Pier won the race by less than half a second over Maranacook’s Kelby Mace. Alec Daigle (6th), Alex Tooth (8), Tobias Smith (11) and Kai Pakulski (15) rounded out the top five for the Black Bears.

The Black Bears took the Alpine lead over Freeport after one of their skiers was disqualified Friday and lead the overall Class B boys competition with 90 points to 145 for Yarmouth.

“We went into the Alpine events knowing we had a pretty strong team, but Yarmouth definitely had a bad day,” Maranacook coach Ronn Gifford said. “I think their top three skiers all fell.”

Two of the Black Bears fell as well. No. 3 skier Matt Delmar fell and didn’t record a two-run time while Tooth fell in his second run but got up to finish fifth and eighth overall. The Class B events conclude today with slalom.

“We’re a better slalom skiing team than we are a giant slalom team,” Gifford said. “I think we’re in good shape.”

Cape Elizabeth won the girls giant slalom title but Yarmouth still holds the overall lead with 93 points followed by Freeport (213) and Maranacook (219). Luce won her fourth straight giant slalom title with the two fastest times of the day in both her runs. The Mt. Abram senior finished her two runs in 1 minute, 37.03 seconds, more than three seconds ahead of runner-up Chapin Doorsett of Yarmouth. Luce, who won both Alpine events last year, goes for another sweep today in the slalom.

Maranacook’s Erin Guilmet finished 10th in Friday’s race while teammate Rachel Tooth was 12th.

Competition resumes today in Class A at Shawnee Peak in Bridgton. Mt. Blue is second in the boys Alpine competition, six points behind Oxford Hills.


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