The Mt. Abram girls overwhelmed the competition Thursday on the opening day of the Mountain Valley Conference ski championships. The Roadrunners took a commanding lead, 38-102, over Mountain Valley after two events at Saddleback Mountain and the Rangeley Lakes Trails Center.

The Mt. Abram boys hold a slim overall lead, 112-113 over Livermore Falls, thanks to a strong effort in the Nordic portion of the competition. Mountain Valley and Telstar also remain in the hunt with 121 and 124 points, respectively.

For the Mt. Abram girls, sophomore Sadie James ran away with the freestyle race, while freshman Elise Luce beat Lyndsey Jacques of Livermore Falls in the giant slalom. Elise’s sister Erin, a junior, finished third.

“I had a really good training plan this summer to get ready for the season,” James said. “I have been working on a lot of technique, especially with my arms and it paid off, today.”

Last season, as a freshman James crushed the competition establishing herself as a title threat in the MVC. On Thursday, James skied the course in 19 minutes 26.2 seconds, beating teammate Holly Thomas by 2:23.

The Roadrunners placed five skiers in the top eight. Winthrop took the other three spots and trails Mt. Abram 14-32 in the Nordic competition. Scoring for Mt. Abram, in addition to James and Thomas were Annah Houston and Emma Houston, who finished fifth and sixth, respectively.

“We have a really tight group,” James said. “We have been pushing each other in practice and that has really helped us.”

Winthrop made a strong bid, led by a third-place finish by Molly Lindsey. Also for the Ramblers, Maryclair Blanchard was fourth and Rachel Ingram seventh.

Luce, who turned in the two fastest giant slalom runs for the girls, put together a two-run time of 1:25.66. Jacques was second at 1:26.29.

Luce lost focus in the middle of her first run but recovered nicely to turn in a spectacular run of 42.87. She followed that with a time of 42.79 on her second run.

“I had a little mess up but I decided I was just going to go for it,” Luce said. “I poled a lot at the start today, all the way to the second gate, and that really helped me with speed.”

In the boys giant slalom race, Livermore Falls senior Alex Rose cursed through the Grey Ghost course at Saddleback, winning by more than five seconds with a two-run time of 1:23.09. Teammate Cody Jacques was third and Winthrop’s Colby LaFlamme fourth.

“The course was perfect. I look forward to these races because they are so much fun,” Rose said. “It was the kind of course where you had to come at the gates from above, so you wouldn’t be late and could ski a very fast line.”

The Mt. Abram boys made a run at the overall title, placing three skiers in the top seven scoring Nordic spots. Trent Rosenberg led the way with a third place finish, followed by teammates Nick Carlton (5th) and Jay Chenard (7th). Telstar’s Adam Mahar took top honors.

Mt. Abram’s Patrick Banahan was fifth in the giant slalom.

The MVC championships will shift Saturday to Black Mountain in Rumford with slalom races at 9:30 a.m. and the 5K classical pursuit start at 2 p.m.

Copy the Story Link