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| Contributed photo/jMavor Photography Brendan Cyr of Caribou, competing in a regular season meet, was the fourth-place finisher at the Aroostook League classic ski championships held in Fort Kent last Tuesday. |
By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
Last Tuesday, the Aroostook County Nordic classic championships were held at the 10th Mountain Ski Center in Fort Kent, with the Caribou girls and boys sweeping the titles.
The Caribou girls won with 10 points, followed by Fort Kent with 40, Presque Isle with 42 and Fort Fairfield with 56.
Lydia Streinz of Katahdin was the winner on the five-kilometer course with a time of 22 minutes and one second. Her sister Hannah Streinz was the runner-up in 22:08
Caribou took the next four positions, with a group including Sarah Doak (22:46), Ashley Richards (22:48), Chelsea Bard (23:52) and Anna Soderberg (24:15) finishing in order.
The remainder of the top 10 included Rudy Martin of Fort Kent (25:10), Lauren Chapman of Caribou (26:37), Ginger Kieffer of Caribou (26:52) and Gentle Prescott of Fort Kent (27:18).
Fort Fairfield’s Veronica Plourde was 17th in 29:28.
The boys’ race also went to Caribou, but by a much closer margin. In fact, the Vikes and host Warriors tied with 27 points, but Caribou won on a tie-breaker as the team’s fifth skier came in before Fort Kent’s fifth skier.
Presque Isle placed third with 42 points and Madawaska was fourth with 44.
The overall winner was Lance McKenney of Fort Fairfield, who clocked the course in 18:44. Daniel Streinz of Katahdin was nine second back in 18:53 and Kamran Husain of Fort Kent placed third in 18:57.
Rounding out the top 10 were Brendan Cyr of Caribou (20:08), Jon Rochester of Presque Isle (20:25), Matt Toussaint of Fort Kent (21:15), Cody Johnson of Fort Kent (21:29), Keith Draper of Caribou (21:36), Darin Jandreau of Madawaska (21:53) and Riley McDuffie of Caribou (22:11).
At Bigrock Ski Area in Mars Hill Saturday, the alpine County meet took place with titles decided in slalom and giant slalom.
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| Contributed photo/Dave Allen Graphics Courtney Burby of the Caribou alpine ski team makes her way down the mountain during a recent meet. Burby placed seventh in the slalom competition at the Aroostook League Championships, held Saturday at Bigrock in Mars Hill. |
It was a big day for the Fort Kent Warriors, who continued their dominance by winning titles for both girls and boys.
The Warrior girls claimed the slalom victory with 19 points. Presque Isle ran second with 37, while Central Aroostook was third with 50 and Caribou fourth with 67.
Emma Bartlett of PI was the individual winner with a combined time of 1:44.18 for her two runs. Fort Kent skiers took the next three positions (Danielle Ouellette, 1:45.45; Alexa Pelletier, 1:47.65; and Rudy Martin, 1:49.89), followed by fifth-place finisher Samantha Kearney of Central Aroostook in 1:52.23.
Alexis McCrossin was the fastest Caribou slalom skier in 2:02.54, good for 14th position.
Fort Kent also scored 18 points to take the GS title. Central Aroostook was the runner-up with 41, followed by Presque Isle with 43 and Caribou with 57.
The Warriors’ Pelletier was the winner in 1:42.62, with Bartlett claiming the No. 2 slot in 1:44.69. Fort Kent’s Martin was third in 1:46.03 and Kearney was fourth in 1:47.52. Wisdom’s Taylor Hobbs rounded out the top five in 1:50.08.
Courtney Burby of Caribou was seventh overall in 1:51.49 and Shannon Sweeney of PI took 10th in 1:55.44.
On the boys’ side, Fort Kent featured the five fastest slalom competitors to score a perfect 10 points and get the team title. Presque Isle had 41, Caribou 62 and Central Aroostook 63.
Brandon Ouellette came in first place in 1:29.85 to lead the parade of FK skiers.
For Caribou, Sean Barbosa led the way with his 12th-place finish in 1:46.03.
The Warriors’ Ouellette made it a clean sweep of individual titles by also taking the GS in 1:36.4. That helped his team claim first place with 13 points.
Nolan McDuffie of Caribou was eighth in 1:41.68 and McCallum ninth in 1:42.77.
For Central Aroostook, Caverhill led the way by placing 13th in 1:45.42.
The freestyle portion of the Aroostook County Nordic championship was held Tuesday in Caribou.
The Class C state championship gets under way Monday and is held through Feb. 20 at Bigrock in Mars Hill for the alpine portion and the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle for Nordic events.
The Class B state meet is slated for Feb. 20-22 at Black Mountain in Rumford.
