RUMFORD — Two weeks ago, Tara Humphries was in the hospital with a ruptured appendix.

Last week, she was back at Yarmouth High School with an intravenous antibiotic drip leading through a tube from a fanny pack to her upper arm.

On Thursday afternoon, she was hoisting the Class B state championship skiing plaque with her teammates after her second top-10 finish in three days.

The Yarmouth girls and Falmouth boys wrapped up successful title defenses in the four-event competition that included giant slalom and slalom results from Tuesday and Wednesday at Mt. Abram.

“I had no idea I would be able to ski at states,” said Humphries, a sophomore who placed eighth in Tuesday’s Nordic freestyle and eighth again in Thursday’s culminating classic race at the Chisholm Ski Club of Black Mountain.

“Tuesday felt awful; I felt like I was going to die,” she said. “(Thursday) I felt better. The ending was tough but I felt like I had a little bit of my breathing back. I’m very pleased, to say the least.”

Tyler DeAngelis and Abby Mace of Maranacook won individual classic titles under sunny skies and virtually no wind Thursday.

DeAngelis, a senior who won Tuesday’s freestyle race by two seconds, cut his cushion in half Thursday with a one-second victory over Caleb Chapman of Caribou.

Mace was nearly a minute behind Falmouth senior Sarah Abramson in Tuesday’s freestyle race. On Thursday, Abramson went out first in the interval starting order, more than 14 minutes ahead of Mace, whose coaches informed her at various points along the course exactly how she stood in relation to Abramson’s time.

“That really helped,” Mace said. “I definitely had an advantage.”

The first split told Mace she was down by 20 seconds. By the second she was up five. Still, the gap from Tuesday’s skate race was so large, she doubted she could beat Abramson.

“I just said I’ll try to get closer to her time so she won’t beat me by quite as much,” Mace said. “I did not expect to win at all.”

Mace’s time over a 5-kilometer course that bypassed fabled High School Hill was 16 minutes, 37 seconds. Abramson, in 16:55, was the only other girl to break 17 minutes.

“I put it all out there and I’m really proud of my results,” Abramson said. “It would have been fun to win, but Abby’s really deserving. She’s a great competitor.”

Yarmouth senior Becca Bell clinched her second straight skimeister title by matching her freestyle results with a fourth-place finish that gave her a four-event score of 25 points. She easily outdistanced runner-up Laura Collins of Caribou, who scored 57.

Bell caught a cold on the eve of the championships but never finished out of the top 10. Nor did her team ever place fewer than three girls in the top 10 in any Alpine or Nordic event.

On Thursday, the Clippers supported Bell with a fifth (Sarah Becker), seventh (Alison Totta) and eighth (Humphries). In addition, Alex Lucas and Caitlin Crawford placed 14th and 15th, respectively, to further cement the victory.

“We had an incredible state season this year,” Bell said. “It’s exhausting, but I have some pretty amazing teammates that are very supportive and coaches that really help out a lot.”

Yarmouth won the girls’ Nordic title with a two-event score of 48 points. Falmouth edged Caribou for second, 100-106.

Caribou took the boys’ Nordic title back to Aroostook County with a 58-63 victory over Yarmouth. Falmouth was third at 97 but clinched its second straight overall crown, 159-250, over Yarmouth and eight other schools after two dominating days in the Alpine events on the slopes of Mt. Abram.

“Our Alpine team did really well,” said Falmouth senior Jackson Bloch, who tied for sixth in Thursday’s classic race.

“Last year it was Nordic that got the (decisive) points, this year it was Alpine,” said Matt Goldstein, who was 22nd. “They had such good races.”

Falmouth claimed the runner-up plaque in the girls’ overall competition with 194 points to Yarmouth’s 119. Mt. Abram was third at 283, followed by six other schools.

Mountain Valley junior Nicholas Woods won the boys’ skimeister title with 75 points to 90 for Sean Daigle of Maranacook.

The overall title was the fifth in a row for Yarmouth’s girls, who show no signs of slowing down.

“A lot of it is that the middle school program is really strong,” said Humphries, who suffered from bronchitis and a sinus infection during last year’s championship week.

“And the girls, we all train together and push each other at practice, and during the races we’re all super close. We could have a race just among ourselves and it would still be a challenge.”

Staff Writer Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or at:

gjordan@pressherald.com