Mt. Blue’s Kyle Farrington is making the most of his senior year on the slopes.
Farrington, the state slalom runner-up in Class A last year, lost some weight during the off-season and is already seeing the results. He’s won all three slalom races he’s entered this season.
“He’s started out having a great season,” Mt. Blue coach Mark Cyr said. “He’s much more physically fit this year than the last three years. He’s always been a good technical skier and always had good fundamentals, but this year he’s much more agile and quicker on his feet.”
Farrington heads a strong alpine team along with fellow seniors Miles Pelletier, Dylan Roberts, Mitch Guillaume and Cody Whitney. The Cougars’ plans to defend their KVAC and state titles should receive a boost from the return of freshman Sam Smith, who suffered a concussion during training. Cyr expects him to race his first slalom at Wednesday’s Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference/Mountain Valley Conference meet at Titcomb Mountain.
“We’re looking good, as long as we can stay healthy,” Cyr said of the boys team.
Cyr is also please with the progress of the girls team, which has grown from one to five members in the last year. Jenna Hanrahan, Ashley Wiles and Ellie Pelletier posted top-10 finishes at Mt. Abram on Thursday.
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Maranacook’s Erin Guilmet, the 2015 KVAC and Class B state slalom champion and 2015 Kennebec Journal Girls Alpine Skier of the Year, is out for the season after suffering a torn ACL in mid-December.
“Losing Erin is huge not only talent-wise but emotionally for the team,” Maranacook coach Ronn Gifford said.
Guilmet’s teammates showed support at a recent meet by putting her initials in white fluorescent duct tape on their shin guards. Guilmet was in attendance and Gifford, who has extolled his top racer as much for her leadership as her talent, is pleased that she is still around to provide moral and coaching support.
Gifford is also pleased with how the rest of the girls team has responded to losing their leader.
“Rachel Tooth is having an excellent season. She’s been top five in all three slaloms,” he said. “Janika Pakulski is gaining ground in the slalom and there’s a good pack of girls behind her.”
Gifford expects the girls to remain competitive in Class B, although he admitted it’s still tough to get an early read on how things might turn out with the contraction of Class C and realignment of the other two classes. He said he is looking for the boys team, led by 2014-15 Class B slalom champion and KJ Boys Alpine Skier of the Year Nathan Delmar, to gain consistency and focus in the coming weeks.
“The boys have done well. They’re all skiing extremely well but a number of them have had a couple of miscues recently, so we’ve finished anywhere from first to fifth in our first few meets,” he said. “We need to be more consistent.”
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Farrington and Amy DeHaas of Kents Hill were the winners of the Maranacook Slalom on Jan. 18.
Both posted the best time on each of their two runs to earn first place. Farrington posted a combined time of 56.89 to win the boys’ race. Nick Newman of Mountain Valley was the runner-up. Skowhegan’s Mike Miller was third.
DeHaas turned in a combined 1:03.86 for the girls’ top spot. Ella Simon of Camden Hills was second. Maranacook’s Rachel Tooth was fifth.
The race was originally scheduled for Jan. 16 but moved back a couple of days due to a snow storm.
The Mountain Valley boys and Camden Hills girls were team champions.
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After being postponed by the Jan. 16 snow storm, the Maranacook Waves took advantage of the fresh snow on Martin Luther King Day with 94 boys and 94 girls from over a dozen schools competing.
The nordic race’s unique format divides competition by grade level, with seniors competing against seniors, juniors against junior and so forth at Maranacook Community High School.
Maranacook’s Luca DeAngelis, coming off a victory in the Leavitt Hornet Classic the previous week, won the senior race and posted the top overall time (14:06) on his home course. Tucker Barber of Mt. Blue won the junior race and posted the second-fastest time overall (14:25.4). Deering’s Peter Jordan was the top sophomore and Mt. Blue’s Dominic Giampietro the top freshman.
Meg Charles of Mt. Blue won the girls’ sophomore race with the best time overall (16:53.5). Anne McKee of Kents Hill won the senior race with the second-best time (17:00.9). Deering junior Leinani Farnsworth and Morse freshman Jenny Wilbraham won their respective classes.
Maranacook topped the girls’ team standings, followed by Mt. Blue and Kents Hill. Mt. Blue won the boys, Maranacook was the runner-up and Oxford Hills took third.
Charles and Giampietro followed their wins in Readfield with first place overall in the girls and boys 3-kilometer races at Saturday’s Oxford Hills Sprints in Paris. The Cougars swept the top three spots in the boys race, with Mick Gurney and Isaiah Reid finishing second and third, respectively, followed by Maranacook’s Luke Bartol.
Maranacook racers Moriah Charland, Nicole D’Angelo and Madelyn Dwyer finished second through fourth, respectively, in the girls race after Charles.
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Nordic skiers are preparing for the biggest cross country skiing event in the state, the Sassi Memorial Cross Country Invitational, which is Jan. 30 at Black Mountain in Rumford.
The annual event, operated by Rumford-based Chisholm Ski Club, draws roughly 500 high school skiers from all over the state and from all classes to compete in a 5-kilometer classical race. Racing begins with the girls at 11 a.m., followed by the boys at 1 p.m.
Last year’s race, which would have been the 25th annual, was canceled due to high winds and frigid temperatures. Unlike previous editions, this year’s race will not serve as the selection race for the Maine Under-16 team. The race for the U16 (born 2000 or 2001) and Eastern High School teams will be held March 5 at Black Mountain.
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @RAWmaterial33
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