Owl girls, Fort Kent boys earn state championships

Depth through four events over three days helped the Madawaska girls and Fort Kent boys capture the state Class C ski titles Wednesday.

J.J. Pinette turned in a strong overall effort to pace Fort Kent as he captured the skimeister title, awarded to the skier with the lowest overall score in the four events: giant slalom, slalom and the cross country classical and freestyle races.

The Warriors were also paced by dominating performances by Blake Sherwood, who swept both cross country events.

The cross country events were held at Black Mountain in Rumford and the downhill events were at Sunday River in Bethel.

Of the skiers competing in four events, Pinette finished first in the giant slalom and cross country classical with a second place in the slalom and a fifth in cross country classical.

Fort Kent swept all four events, especially dominating the cross country events with a team score of 13 in classical and 18 in freestyle.

The Warriors finished with 127 points and were followed by Freeport (261), Madawaska (303), Central Aroostook of Mars Hill (472), John Bapst of Bangor (534), Jay (571), Livermore Falls (624), Winthrop (637) and Dirigo of Dixfield (1,088).

The Madawaska girls earned their fifth straight title behind Jessica Ayotte, who finished second in the skimeister competition. The Owls were also bolstered by the efforts of Danielle Daigle and Meagan Toussaint.

Daigle won the slalom while Toussaint finished first in cross country classical and third in freestyle.

Madawaska finished with 198 points and was followed by Fort Kent (282), Freeport (296), Livermore Falls (318), John Bapst (344), Central Aroostook (571) and Jay (737).

In the boys competition, Fort Kent finished with an emphatic effort in cross country classical led by Sherwood’s first-place finish of 15 minutes, 25.9 seconds over the 5-kilometer course. He was followed by teammates Newt Rogers (16:15.3) and Joe Theriault (16:47.6) while Pinette came across in seventh (17:07.4).

It was the second straight victory for Sherwood as he won the freestyle event in 13:11.9 with a third-place finish from Theriault (13:49.1) and a fifth from Rogers (14:08.7).

Paul Thibodeau also aided Fort Kent with a third place in the giant slalom while Jacques Ouellette placed eighth and Pinette took ninth. Alex Mitchell paced the Warriors in the slalom with a fifth-place finish and Pinette placed sixth.

In the girls competition, Madawaska showed off its balance by finishing first in slalom and placing second in the giant slalom, second in freestyle and third in classical.

Toussaint finished up the three-day meet with a first-place finish in cross country classical (19:23.3)

The slalom proved to be the Owls best event as Daigle place first in 1:11.70. Ayotte was strong also with a fourth-place finish while teammates Kaitlyn Pelletier and Jade St. Pierre finished ninth and 10th, respectively.

Daigle also picked up a sixth place in the giant slalom and Ayotte placed eighth.