RUMFORD — Cape Elizabeth senior Killian Lathrop didn’t care much for the fresh powder that fell from Tuesday’s snowstorm, especially after his first run at Black Mountain.
By time the boys began their second run, the course was packed down, and Lathrop whizzed down the course with a time of 52.60 seconds in the Class B Alpine boys giant slalom state championships on Wednesday. His time in the first run was 52.79 and he ended up with a winning combined time of 1:45.39.
Yarmouth’s Eleanor Donahue won the girls giant slalom, Spruce Mountain’s Bailey Coates came in fourth, the highest finish among area skiers.
The slalom portion of competition will be Thursday at Black Mountain.
The giant slalom played out similarly for Lathrop’s brother, Tiernan, who finished second with a combined time of 147.23.
“(The fresh snow) was not ideal,” Killian Lathrop said. “The powder kind of scares me … but I kind of just made do. The course maintenance did an awesome job. They cleared it right out so that wasn’t a problem.
“But the second run, the firm snow. love it. It was fast.”
And so were the Lathrop brothers.
The Fort Kent boys have the highest team score after the first day, with 753 points. Behind them is Yarmouth (731), Maranacook (717), Gray-New Gloucester (711), John Bapst (707), Lake Region (701), Caribou (675), Mountain Valley (647), Spruce Mountain (635) and Mt. Abram (609). Cape Elizabeth is 13th with 542 points.
“There is a little sibling rivalry going on there,” Cape Elizabeth coach Jen Lackari coach said of the Lathrop brothers. “The rivalry between them works really well because they feed off each other, but it is fun.”
Top area finishers included: Rangeley’s Charles Pye (13th, 1:54.73), Gray-New Gloucester’s Keegan Brooks (15th, 1:56.88), Leavitt’s Ethan Gates (19th, 2:01.97), Spruce Mountain’s Jacob Paradis (20th, 2:02.05), Mountain Valley’s Sebino Heemskerk (29th, 2:08.77), Mt. Abram’s Sullivan Butler (30th, 2:08.89) and Telstar’s Jaxen Call (61st, 2:31.74).
“(The boys) struggled a little bit. We had a couple of spills,” Spruce Mountain coach Darian Paradis said. “But Jacob Paradis, he had the best finish. He did pretty good today.”
Fort Kent was led by Griffen Sibley, who finished eighth at 1:52.33.
“It’s a mental game, too, right,” Fort Kent coach Leslie Marquis said. “They did really well mentally at the top. Everyone was having a really good time. Their focus came together when they got into starting position, so I think that really paid off for them today.”
In the girls giant slalom competition, Donahue topped the pack with combined time of 1:51.09. Coates, Spruce Mountain’s fourth-place finisher, completed the course in 1:55.30.
But Maranacook owned the top 10, with Anna Erb, Dana Reynolds and Caroline Welch finishing fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.
The top 10 team scores include: Maranacook (765 points), Fort Kent (748), Cape Elizabeth (743), Yarmouth (727), Rangeley (713), Spruce Mountain (706), Mountain Valley (698), Mt. Abram (655), John Bapst (649) and Lake Region (632).
Top area finishers include: Mt. Abram’s Alice MacKay (12th, 2:00.45), Mountain Valley’s Madison Papiano (16th, 2:03.05), Telstar’s Eleanor Hoff (19th, 2:03.05), and Gray-New Gloucester’s Ella Delisle (21st, 2:05.54).
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