MARS HILL — There was a comeback on the hill Tuesday in the firls’ Class B Alpins skiing championships, but this year, it wasn’t Spruce Mountain coming from behind to stun the field.
Fort Kent, behind a third-place finish from Alicia Guimond in the slalom event at Big Rock, rallied from 17 points back to post a three-point win over Yarmouth in the team competition, 80 points to 83.
Lyndsay Ouellette followed teammate Guimond to the line in fifth position, while Riley Sibley made it three skiers among the top eight with her run.
Margaret Elder of Yarmouth paced the Clippers with a second-place finish. Elder finished 1.04 seconds back of Greenville’s Sheldy Cowin, who won the race in 1:19.52. Yarmouth started the afternoon with a sizable lead after a great day in the giant slalom, but that lead eroded as the times came in Tuesday.
Maranacook also improved Tuesday and leaped past Spruce Mountain into third place. Katie Ide led the Black Bears, finishing fourth.
Allison Acritelli led the Phoenix with a sixth-place finish as the team placed fourth. The first run in the slalom was tough on Spruce Mountain, with three skiers posting higher-than-average times on their initial descents.
In the boys’ competition, Killian Lathrop of Cape Elizabeth won the slalom event in 1:13.76, and the Capers ran away with the team crown, scoring just 71 points over two days to best second-place Yarmouth by 58 points.
Ian Geikie also finished in the top 10 for the Capers, sliding in to the fifth position.
Thomas Moris led the Clippers in fourth position, while Curtis Gauvin of Mountain Valley placed third.
Robbie McKee of Maranacook led the Black Bears in sixth, capping a solid week — and season — on the snow for his team.
“Out of 48 total runs, we had 46 successful, and high quality skiing,” Maranacook coach Ronn Gifford told the Kennebec Journal. “We had two falls all of the two days. It was a great overall performance.”
Maranacook placed fourth in the team competition, one place behind Fort Kent, and ahead of No. 5 Presque Isle.
Mountain Valley, behind Gauvin’s finish, slid into eighth position, Spruce Mountain finished ninth and Gray-New Gloucester 10th overall.
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