Cross country races lead Warrior boys to title

It was well worth the seven-hour trip from the St. John Valley to the Western Mountains for the Fort Kent ski teams.

The Warrior boys and girls fared exceptionally well at this week’s Class C state championships at Black Mountain in Rumford, with the boys winning the overall state title and the girls the state Nordic crown.

The Fort Kent boys cross-country skiers came through in the clutch after they trailed by 20 points heading into that competition.

Led by a 3-9 finish by Nick Michaud and Ian Kaleta on the final day of competition, the Warriors surged ahead of Freeport and Central Aroostook of Mars Hill to win with 233 points to the Falcons’ 241.

Winthrop finished third with 331 points over the three-day competition, while Madawaska took fourth with 355 and Central Aroostook fifth with 454.

Freeport captured the girls state title with 182 points, followed by Telstar of Bethel with 212 and Fort Kent with 223.

In the boys meet, the Warriors started their comeback in the freestyle cross country race, as Michaud covered the 5-kilometer course in 12 minutes, 12.6 seconds to finish second and Kaleta in 12:33.7 to take fourth.

However, Freeport’s four scoring racers placed 10th, 14th, 15th and 16th to virtually negate that effort and the two teams each scored 55 points, leaving Fort Kent 20 points behind Central Aroostook and 19 behind Freeport heading into Wednesday’s classical race.

Michaud and Kaleta would come through yet again, but the Warriors’ other two scorers also placed in the top 20 and finished ahead of Freeport’s fourth, with Fort Kent earning 48 points to Freeport’s 75 to pull ahead for their second consecutive overall state championship.

Logan Doak finished 17th for the Warriors and Spencer Carson 19th while Lloyd Guerrete (21st) and Sam Chasse (22nd) also netted top-25 finishes in the classical race.

Madawaska’s Andrew Levesque captured seventh in the classical after finishing 11th in the freestyle.

Carter Vaillancourt sparked the Warriors in the Alpine events with a fifth-place effort in the slalom race and an eighth in the giant slalom.

Teammates Aaron Paradis took 10th in the giant slalom while Jesse Guimond was 11th in the slalom and Aaron Paradis 13th.

Despite those efforts, the Falcons raced out to a 38-point lead over Fort Kent after the giant slalom before the Warriors made up some ground in the slalom, scoring 47 points to Freeport’s 66.

“Freeport was pretty much our main competition down there,” said Fort Kent Alpine coach Greg Voisine.

The giant slalom race was held on Monday while the slalom competition took place Tuesday.

Central Aroostook’s Ethan Garrison took eighth in the slalom and Ethan Graves 10th while Garrison was seventh in giant slalom.

On the girls side, Grace Boutot captured second place in the freestyle cross country race and third in the classical to lead the Warriors’ state-title effort in the Nordic events.

Boutot clocked a 13:30.7 in the freestyle and a 15:27.6 in the classical, both of which were won by Waynflete of Portland’s Adele Espy.

Boutot’s teammates came through in both races as well, in particular the classical, where Mary Bernard and Jessica Caron finished 4-5, Nicole Chasse 13th and Victoria Bernard 17th.

Bernard and Caron also finished 4-5 in the freestyle race while Bernard took 16th and Chasse 26th to round out the scoring.

Those efforts distanced the Warriors, who scored 52 points, from runner-up Freeport, which scored 52.

John Bapst of Bangor’s Maren Askens turned in an outstanding all-around performance as she took home skimeister honors. That award goes to the racer who competes in all four events and accumulates the fewest points.

Askins placed sixth in the giant slalom, fifth in the slalom, 11th in the freestyle and 10th in the classical, good for 32 points, 39 ahead of runner-up Jenifer DeNormandie of Bethel-based Telstar.

Fort Kent’s Bernard wound up third with 97 points, adding a 31st in the giant slalom and 33rd in the slalom to her cross country efforts.

Other top Eastern Maine finishers included Susan Lavertu of Madawaska, 11th in giant slalom, and Central Aroostook’s Brooke Smith, who captured sixth in the slalom.

bdnsports@bangordailynews.net