RUMFORD — Tyler DeAngelis couldn’t pass up the chance to enjoy a beautiful February day. Twenty minutes after winning the Class B 5K Nordic classical state championship race, DeAngelis was back out on the course, taking a cool down lap, while his teammates were hanging out at the finish line, others in the lodge.
“It’s so nice out here,” DeAngelis said, of the final day of Class B state ski championship competition. “I wanted to take advantage of the snow, wax and the great day.”
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DeAngelis nipped Caribou’s Caleb Chapman by one second to win the classical title. DeAngelis finished the 5K course in 14 minutes, 30.7 seconds. Caribou won the classical team title. Maranacook was fourth.
Falmouth cruised to the boys overall title with 159 points. Yarmouth was second with 250, followed by Maranacook (263).
The cool down ski capped a long day and a successful week for DeAngelis, who also won the Class B freestyle title Tuesday. He was at the Black Mountain course for his final high school race at 7 a.m. and by 7:20, he had finished a test run of his skis.
“I like a really long slow warm up,” he said. “For 5K races, you need to be ready at the start.”
Eventually, DeAngelis disappeared for about 20 minutes, retreating to a place he had found when he was a freshman, a corner spot on the bottom floor of the lodge, where he could quietly stretch and prepare for the race that loomed ahead.
“I’m happy that I won, but I was hoping we would of done better as a team,” DeAngelis said. “We enjoyed it and put in a lot of work to get to this point.”
Skiers faced a tough course Thursday, with a downhill early, then a very long, grinding climb to the final kilometer, which turned into a sloping downhill race to the finish line.
“This was a really tough course, I was getting splits and knew where I was compared to the top skiers,” DeAngelis said. “It felt good to win but I really wanted to do better.”
Also for Maranacook, Walker Thompson finished eighth.
Yarmouth won the girls classical title, placing four skiers in the top eight spots. Maranacook’s Abby Mace won the race with a time of 16:37.9, 18 seconds faster than Falmouth’s Sarah Abramson.
Mt. Abram’s Sadie James finishd third with a time of 17:02.8.
Yarmouth won the overall ski championship with 119 points. Falmouth was second with 194, followed by Mt. Abram (283), Caribou (334) and Maranacook (400).
“I am really happy with how I raced and how we did as a team,” James said. “This was a really difficult course and I knew I had to put it all down on the long hill.”
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Mt. Blue continued its string of overall Class A state championships, winning both the boys and girls titles in Aroostook County.
The Mt. Blue girls stretched their streak to seven straight overall titles, scoring 171 points. Edward Little was second with 187, while Greely was third at 288.
The Mt. Blue boys, meanwhile, won their fifth straight, scoring 222 points. Oxford Hills was second with 354, while Greely was third at 369.
Hannah Allen and Emily Ramsey went 1-2 in the classical race for the Cougars. For the boys, Dustin Staples finished fifth, Brody Hines seventh and Jonah Jones ninth.
“We are extremely excited about all of this,” Mt. Blue Nordic coach David Nordstrom said. “The kids did an outstanding job all week.”
The Mt. Blue girls won the Nordic title with 52 points, beating Edward Little (72). Fryeburg won the boys Nordic title with 57 points. Mt. Blue was second with 84.
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The Fort Kent girls won their third straight overall Class C title at Rangeley Lakes Cross Country Ski Club by finishing second in the classical competition. Merriconeag of Freeport won the Nordic team title.
Fort Kent won with 144 points, followed by Freeport (172). Merriconeag won the Nordic title with just 14 points.
The Freeport boys won their second straight overall title, finishing with 225 points. Fort Kent was second with 242. North Yarmouth Academy won the Nordic title.
The Winthrop girls finished fifth in the classical competition. MaryClair Blanchard finished 14th and Molly Lindsey was 15th. The Winthrop boys finished 10th.
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