It was up to the Maranacook boys Nordic team to defend its Class B title Thursday and Friday at the Fort Kent Outdoor Center.
The Black Bears did so, and in dominant fashion, too.
The Black Bears held off Maine Coast Waldorf to once again claim the Class B crown at the Class B/C Nordic championships, thanks in large part to the efforts of Luke Bartol, Mark McLaughlin, Carter McPhedran and Gabe Fein. Each one finished in the top 10 of both the classical and freestyle races over the two-day stretch.
“The had a tremendous classic race (Thursday), that really set them up well,” Maranacook Nordic coach Steve DeAngelis said. “They were going to be pretty hard to catch today.”
Bartol, a junior, led the pack, finishing second in the classical Thursday and second again in the freestyle Friday (with a time of 14:06.8). His time in the event was 12 seconds behind champion Nick Neveu of Maine Coast Waldorf.
McLaughlin finished fifth in the freestyle race for Maranacook (14:40.6), while McPhedran was eighth (14:59.5) and Fein ninth (15:00.4).
“I knew it was possible for them to do that,” DeAngelis said. “(In previous years) We’ve had teams where we put four guys in the top 10 and you don’t win. You can’t control what other people do. What I was pleased by was our boys and our girls controlled what they could do really, really well. They both skied about as well as they could ski, and some even better than I thought they could ski.”
Maranacook has won the Class B boys Nordic state title three out of the last four years.
Mt. Abram finished fifth, thanks to strong performances from Brandon Hemingway (20th classical, 18th freestyle ) and David Kidd (22nd classical, 12th freestyle).
The Maranacook girls were unable to defend their Class B Nordic crown, as they finished fourth behind champion Yarmouth, Maine Coast Waldorf and Freeport.
The Black Bears did have excellent individual performances, particularly from senior Laura Parent, who finished fourth in the classical race Thursday before finishing fourth in the freestyle (16:43.9) Friday. Her time was less than two minutes behind freestyle champion Sophia Laukli of Yarmouth. Madison Taylor also had a strong two days for the Black Bears, finishing ninth in the classical and ninth in the freestyle.
“The competition both days was really good, especially the girls race,” DeAngelis said. “The Class B girls are loaded this year. Freeport and Yarmouth were really good, and we were really good. We were a very close fourth, but the girls did awesome.”
The Yarmouth girls continued their reign in Nordic, winning their 14th state title since 2000.
Fort Kent took home the boys Class C title, followed by Madawaska and Waynflete. Orono won the Class C girls crown, followed by Waynflete and Madawaska.
Dave Dyer — 621-5640
ddyer@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @Dave_Dyer
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