RUMFORD — Hannah Allen’s blond pony tail bobbed back and forth as she bounced between the race finish line and the bucket that held the used bibs.

Already finished with her race — Allen was the 48th girl to leave the start gate out of 178 — the Mt. Blue skier threw on her warmup jacket and started collecting bibs from other finishers.

“It’s just sort of instinct,” Allen said. “I know when I finish my race, I want to get my bib off and get out of there as fast as I can. It almost stresses me out to see other people going through that.”

While she collected bibs, she also made it to the starting area to offer teammates last-minute advice before they started their run, including Mt. Blue’s Molly Fissette.

“I try to always make time for that, to make sure my teammates are ready,” Allen said. “To give them a couple of last-minute tips or whatever.”

From the starting area, Allen slid back to the finish and resumed bib collection briefly.

The Sassis would have been proud.

Allen, Fissette and their Mt. Blue teammates placed first Saturday at the 20th annual Sassi Memorial Ski Race at Black Mountain in Rumford. But positional standings and winning races took a back seat to many on this day.

The Sassi Memorial is the largest single-day high school skiing event in Maine. It was a race in memory of Jonathan Sassi, a four-year skier at Mountain Valley High School who died in a car accident in 1991, one month before he would have graduated.

Last December, his father, Joe, succumbed to cancer. On the 20th anniversary of the race, the primary sponsor, the local Chisholm Ski Club, announced that the race will now, going forward, memorialize Jonathan and Joe, a longtime librarian for Rumford and Mountain Valley high schools.

“My wish for all competitors is that you have the best race you’ve ever run,” former Mexico and Oxford Hills principal Walter Buotte told competitors before the start of the race.

For some of the competitors, the bone-numbing wind and frigid temperatures were of no consequence. Emily Atwood added another title to her list of accomplishments, blazing the slick trails in a time of 15:28.2, one and a half seconds better than Sarah Abramson of Falmouth.

Mt. Blue’s Shelby Aseltine placed third, followed by Abby Mace of Maranacook and Allen.

“The KVAC is such a small pond,” Allen said. “It’s great to have a chance to see what else is out there in terms of competition.”

Cam Woodworth of Falmouth captured individual honors on the boys’ side, followed closely by Leavitt’s Derek Drouin.

Drouin’s teammates on the girls’ side, Lucy Knowton and Allison Fereshetian, led their squad to a fifth-place finish behind Mt. Blue, Gould Academy, Yarmouth and Mt. Ararat. Edward Little snuck into sixth, three points back of Leavitt.

“There were downhills where it was like, I couldn’t go anywhere,” Fereshetian said. “I was hoping the whole time that High School Hill wasn’t going to be into the wind.”

High School Hill is an infamous uphill section of the 5-kilometer course at Black Mountain at about the 4k mark. Coming down the other side of the hill was much easier, thanks to last week’s rain and this weekend’s hard freeze.

“It was rough out there,” Allen said. “There’s something about this course, though, it never matters what it’s like outside, you’re always going to be tired when you finish a race here.”

“My lungs feel like they’re going to collapse,” Aseltine said after finishing her race.

Conditions eased up a bit as the boys took to the course two hours later. The wind died a bit, and the sun had warmed the air to a balmy -10.

Leavitt took advantage and earned a win over Gould and Mt. Blue. Tom Rabon followed Drouin’s second-place finish with a seventh. Dylan Chase in 16th and Travis Adams in 27th also scored for the Hornets.

Kelton Cullenberg was the top finisher for Mt. Blue in sixth position.

One of the unique qualities about the Sassi is that it allows teams from all three classes to match up against each other.

“You don’t get a chance to see all of these teams together too often,” Oxford Hills coach Chris Easton said. “It gives teams a good chance to see where they stand overall.”

Copy the Story Link