The rest period leading up to the championship meet is called a taper in swimming. In skiing, what North Yarmouth Academy sophomore Ian Moore did would be called the opposite of a taper.

At the Eastern Cup finals in Craftsbury, Vt., Moore raced in a 10-kilometer classic event on Feb. 18 and followed it with a 15K freestyle on Feb. 19.

Upon returning to Maine, Moore won the Class C classical title last Monday morning at Black Mountain, covering the 5K course in 12 minutes, 58.6 seconds, more than half a minute ahead of runner-up Josh Espy of Waynflete.

On Tuesday, in his fourth consecutive day of racing, Moore placed second to senior teammate Cam Regan in the Class C freestyle. Regan won by a little more than two seconds in 11:22.7.

NYA Coach Kalie Dunn said top skiers such as Moore, who is attempting to qualify for the junior national team, often race back-to-back at Eastern Cup weekend events, so they weren’t bothered as much racing on consecutive days in the state as those who limit their racing to high school events.

Moore has accepted an invitation to compete with four other U.S. juniors ages 16-19 in the Norwegian Junior Nationals from March 16-18. He will depart March 6 and train with the Norwegians and their coaches prior to the event.

ON FRIDAY, Falmouth became the first school in Maine to win skiing state championships in three different classes.

Falmouth dethroned five-time defending Class A champion Mt. Blue, 177-181, on the strength of a Nordic title won largely in freestyle.

Falmouth won Class B titles in 2010 and 2011 and a Class D title in 1976.

Trailing Mt. Blue by two points after a classical race Wednesday at Black Mountain, Falmouth got a 2-3-4 finish in freestyle from Jay Lesser, Jamie McCatherin and Tim Follo behind Silas Eastman of Fryeburg Academy. Freshman Sam Pratico capped the scoring in 18th to give Falmouth a 15-point freestyle victory over Mt. Blue and a 13-point edge for the two Nordic events.

That cushion proved critical when Falmouth’s normally unbeatable Alpine team melted down in Friday’s first slalom run. Mt. Blue erased a 21-point deficit to win the Alpine crown.

“(Class) A is nice to get, overall,” said Alpine coach Tip Kimball. “Fortunately, our Nordic team, they really did it for us. They kept us from going down completely.”

James Demer, one of two head coaches from Falmouth, said he’s not surprised the three boys’ Nordic champions — NYA in C, Yarmouth in B and Falmouth in A — are located close together in coastal Maine, which hasn’t enjoyed an abundance of snow this winter.

“I attribute this phenomenon to fierce competition all season, skiers (who) are friends and happen to train together in the summer, solid coaching on each team and, lastly, Pineland.”

Indeed, the staff at Pineland Farms maintained a decent base of snow nearly all season, despite the mild winter.

HERE’S ANOTHER idea to consider for skiing, courtesy of Demer’s co-coach, Jeff Walker. Instead of an overall title for Alpine and Nordic — teams that, in many programs, rarely see each other outside of school hours — how about Nordic and Alpine titles that combine the scores from girls and boys?

“The boys and girls train together daily, race together and socialize as a group,” Demer said. “It makes more sense to us to combine their scores.”

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

gjordan@pressherald.com

Twitter: GlennJordanPPH