FORT KENT – Two high school students from Maine, one with loads of experience and the other with high aspirations and one year on skis, went up against the best in the country Monday in the U.S. Junior Biathlon Championship at the Maine Winter Sports Center.

Walt Shepard, an 18-year-old from Yarmouth who has been skiing for 16 years, was second Monday in the junior division, just 2.3 seconds behind the leader. Micah Berube, a 17-year-old junior at Madawaska High School who has been on skis less than two years, was dead last in the junior boys competition.

They are two of eight youngsters from Maine wearing the blue and gold of the Maine Winter Sports Center and are competing in a division of 57 in the sprint events.

In the junior men’s division, it meant skiing 2.5 kilometers, shooting five shots from a prone positions, skiing five more kilometers and shooting five more shots standing and finishing with a 2.5-kilometer sprint. The junior women and the men’s youth division were in a 7.5-kilometer race while youth women had a 6-kilometer race.

Brian Olsen of Minnesota is leading the junior division in the competition after the first day. He was ahead of Shepard by 2.3 seconds after Monday’s sprints. Ben Byrne of Minnesota was leading a contingent from his home state. They made up the top seven in the sprints, with a time of 27 minutes and 43 seconds, 10 seconds ahead of the pack.

In the women’s competition, Tracy Barnes of Colorado led the junior sprints by 1.17 seconds over Lindsay Cox of Vermont. Kelsy Bouchard of Fort Kent led the youth girls, 2.3 seconds ahead of Missy Gadacz of Minnesota

In the four divisions, Minnesota held 14 of the top 20 spots among the top five finishers.

Despite his finish, Berube was proud of his accomplishment. While he had problems on the course, and competing against the top 14 skiers in the country, he was upbeat after his finish. Berube, who has been shooting guns most of his life, found out what skis were last year.

“Last year I couldn’t stand up on skis,” Berube said, still sweating profusely from his run. “My high school coaches and coaches here [at the Maine Winter Sports Center] brought me a long ways.

“My role models, Emily Lavertu [a Madawaska High School skier] and Walt [Shepard] have also helped me catch up quickly in this sport,” he said in the new lodge at MWSC venue at Fort Kent. “I’ve been shooting for a long time, most of my life, but skiing, which I now love, was kind of tough.”

Yvon Levesque, a skiing coach at Madawaska High School brought him into the biathlon fold. Berube was a volunteer at the 2000 U.S. Junior National Championship held at Fort Kent last year, and now he is in the competitions.

“I didn’t know about this place, and now I’ve been to the biathlon training camp at Jericho, Vt., and here I am,” he said. “Shooting used to be easy, but now I have to do it after skiing several kilometers and it’s a different ball game.”

Along with training at the MWSC complex with coach Vladimir Cervenka, Berube trains daily, doing five kilometers, with his high school team. He’s tried other high school sports, but biathlon is where it’s at with this young man.

“I love doing this. It’s just awesome,” he said. “It’s the most supportive sport around.”

“Christie Bellefleur [another Madawaska skier] brought me a long way in this sport, convincing me that this is something I have to do for myself,” he said. “Now I understand, it’s the achievement.”

Shepard has been competing in biathlon for five years and has been on the American circuit most of that time. Last year he competed in Sweden, where he lived for a year.

“This is a great program [at the Maine Winter Sports Center]. It’s really effective how they can bring a skier from nothing to being excellent on skis in a short time,” Shepard said. “Personally, I just prefer this sport to any other.”

That’s the spirit that made him drive from Yarmouth to Fort Kent every other week this summer, fall and winter. It’s his first year on the U.S. Junior Biathlon team and he knows he must keep excelling to stay there.

“Everyone here is after the same thing, a spot on the national team,” he said. “I just have to keep pushing hard all the time to make it.

“I’ve dedicated my life to this sport, and it’s really something to be able to compete in the sport in my home state,” he said. “It’s real exciting.”

He has two more years to compete at the junior level in biathlon and then he will look to college at Middlebury, Vt. His goal is to compete in the 2006 Olympics.

He looks at his fellow competitors as special.

“I haven’t met a person in this sport who is not special,” he said. “All of these kids are wonderful, and our goal is all the same, success.

“I like to impart some of my knowledge to help other kids in Maine succeed,” Shepard said. “Over the next few years you will see the MWSC develop world class athletes.”