GREENWOOD — Gates behind him, turns completed, headwall conquered, Curtis Paradis could only stand at the base of Mt. Abram on Wednesday morning and watch the remaining skiers to see if any could beat his time.

None did.

A senior at Biddeford High, Paradis draped his left arm around the shoulders of his grandfather, Howard Paradis, a 2013 Maine Skiing Hall of Fame inductee following a 35-year coaching career at Madawaska High, as a parade of 86 skiers came skidding to a stop.

In Tuesday’s slalom competition, “I didn’t have the best day,” said Paradis, who had skied off the course, and then missed a gate near the bottom. “But I knew if I stayed positive I’d have a good chance of finishing strong.”

Indeed, one year after a frightening crash at the state meet put him in the hospital overnight with a bruised lung, Paradis capped his high school career with the Class A giant slalom state title to go with slalom state titles he won as a freshman and sophomore.

His combined time in two runs was 1 minute, 26.31 seconds. Runner-up Chris Burns of Oxford Hills was more than a second behind in 1:27.58 and 2014 slalom champion Tom Lesniak of Falmouth was fourth in 1:27.91 after having some troubles in his first run.

Paradis won the individual title and Mt. Blue successfully defended its boys’ Alpine team title. Later on Wednesday afternoon, at Stark’s Hill in Fryeburg, Mt. Blue wrapped up a second straight overall title with a two-day, four-event score of 168 points, less than half the total of runner-up Leavitt (374).

Oxford Hills was third at 449 followed by Greely (457) and Fryeburg Academy (504).

The rest of the afternoon belonged to Falmouth, whose girls claimed three of the top four places in the freestyle race, the Nordic title to go along with the morning’s Alpine crown, and a second straight overall championship with a four-event total (125 points) far beyond the reach of runner-up Oxford Hills (393). Greely was third at 448 followed by Edward Little (471) and Fryeburg Academy (472).

Senior Gabe Mahoney won the 5.4-kilometer freestyle race by half a minute in 13:15 with Falmouth teammates Iain Kurry (sixth), Ethan Cantlin (ninth) and Devin Ventura (10th) rounding out another Nordic team title. (Because it could muster only two Alpine skiers, Falmouth did not contend for the overall crown.)

“If they won and we didn’t,” said Falmouth senior Anna Morin, with an eye toward the long bus ride home, “that would have been so awkward.”

Morin made sure the mood was celebratory by leading a 1-2-4-10 freestyle finish along with Lucy Mahoney, London Bernier and Emily Rioux. Morin’s winning time of 16:59 was nearly half a minute ahead of Mahoney’s 17:25. Deering’s Ewa Varney took third another eight seconds back.

“The kids used the skills and fitness and training they had and really put it together,” said Falmouth first-year Nordic coach Troy Barry. “As you can see on their faces, they’re ecstatic.”

Falmouth’s boys won the Nordic title by a dozen points over Leavitt with Mt. Blue third. Falmouth’s girls ran away with the Nordic title, 40-88 over unner-up Mt. Blue. The other eight schools all scored in triple digits.

Falmouth won the girls’ Alpine title earlier Wednesday by 50 points over runner-up Edward Little despite seeing slalom champion Krysia Lesniak fall at the top of the headwall in the giant slalom, forcing her to hike up the mountain to complete her first run.

“They set it up so the top part was pretty aggressive,” Lesniak said of the GS course. “As soon as it pitched off, it got pretty turny and you had to readjust your line. I just failed to do so and took a little (fall).”

Falmouth teammates Alex Shapiro (fourth), Maggie Coster (seventh), Caroline Keller (10th) and Audrey Morin (26th) picked up the slack. Shapiro, a junior, was still feeling the effects of a Safe Passage volunteer trip to Guatemala that delayed her arrival (with a stomach bug to boot) only hours before Tuesday morning’s slalom competition.

“I hadn’t skied in almost two weeks,” said Shapiro, who wound up third in slalom. “I’m just glad I was able to make it out here in time.”

Greely freshman Nettie Cunningham blew away the giant slalom field of 80 with a winning margin of more than five seconds. Her two-run time of 1:38.12 easily outdistanced that of runner-up Brooke Lever of Edward Little (1:43.52).

Cunningham had the fastest first run in Tuesday’s slalom before straddling a gate late in her second run. She said she nearly tumbled in Wednesday’s first run but managed to hang on at a particularly challenging gate.

“A teammate’s father was right there and he called it a Bode save,” she said. “I was sliding and then my edges caught and I popped back up.”

After Tuesday’s disappointment, Cunningham basked in the glow of what was only her second victory of the season.

“Obviously, Krysia’s fall impacted that,” she said. “She’s very good. But this feels pretty great.”

Mt. Blue’s two-day Alpine total was 80 points to 158 for runner-up Edward Little. The Eddies began the day behind both Greely and Scarborough, but the Rangers (204) dropped to fourth and Scarborough (201) to third.

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

Gjordan@pressherald.com

Twitter: GlennJordanPPH

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