Mt. Blue slipped away with the KVAC girls Alpine crown, and Oxford Hills’ junior Liz Dieterich lit up the course Thursday, winning the slalom and giant slalom events at Black Mountain of Maine in Rumford.
Three top-10 finishes in the slalom and two in GS helped the Cougars amass the winning 1,542 points. Rounding out the 11-team competition were: 2. Maranacook (1,488), 3. Camden Hills (1,483), 4. Edward Little (1,465), 5. Skowhegan (1,417), 6. Hampden (1,383), 7. Gardiner (1,328), 8. Oxford Hills (1,116), 9. Bangor (1,091), 10. Leavitt (379) and 11. Messalonskee (340).
“We had four good finishes,” Mt. Blue coach Mark Cyr said. “Sadie McDonough had a good finish. Katie Yeaton had a good day. She is just a freshman. … I think we skied the slalom well enough to stay ahead of Camden.
“I am just happy for the girls. We won the states last year. This was the closest we could come to a state championship. If we pulled this off, it is kind of a nice back-to-back kind of championship year.”
In Thursday’s morning giant slalom competition, several Mt. Blue skiers crammed into the top 20, with McDonough (fifth, with combined run times of 1:46.24), Abbie Goodspeed (eighth, 1:51.90), Vivian Cormier (11th, 1:52.86), Yeaton (13th, 1:55.23), and Molly Kearing (15th, 1:56.04) turning in fine performances.
Dieterich took center stage, winning the GS with a blistering time of 1:44.35 and keeping just enough distance from Maranacook’s second-place finisher Anna Erb (1:44.74), Edward Little’s Courtney Larson (third, 1:44.9), and the Vikings’ Bella Devivo (fourth, 1:45.95). Levitt’s Lily Anctil finished 12th with a combined time of 1:53.34.
“We struggled a bit, particularly in the slalom,” Maranacook Alpine coach Ronn Gifford said. “Anna Erb and Ella Delisle (ninth, 1:51.9) had great giant slaloms, and everybody else in the GS skied well. In the slalom, we didn’t have a good day. Most everybody had a bobble or two.
“For the season we’ve been dealt with, as far as COVID-19 is concerned, everything has come off very well. And this was a great day to cap everything off, and we got the boys to look forward to next week.”
Dieterich said the was focused on not overthinking the course and putting pressure on herself.
“I definitely worked hard, and it definitely paid off,” she said. “The past two years made me a lot better in skiing. I just think the support I get from my teammates and my coaches also helped tremendously.
“I just wanted to have fun today. I wasn’t expecting to win, but just wanted to have fun and put it out there and just not have any regrets.”
“She is an unbelievable kid,” Cyr said of Dieterich. “Heckuva day for her.”
The top 10 belonged to the Cougars in slalom racing, as Yeaton (third, 1:43.89), McDonough (fifth, 1:45.36) and Khloe Dean (eighth, 1:51.06) all placed in the top 10.
But once again Dietrich came out top, racing in with a combined winning time 1:38.99. She was followed by EL’s Larson (second, 1:42.83) and Devivo, who copped another fourth-place finish at 1:44.77. Maranacook’s Meghan Mahoney (1:56.03) took 10th. Anctil (1:56.41) claimed 11th place for the Hornets.
“I’d say she had a pretty good day,” Oxford Hills coach Tim Hutchisen said of Dieterich. “I think she is just very smart. She was fairly aggressive on the GS, great on both runs (and) very consistent. Slalom, the way the course was set, she needed to be smart. She needed to be clean, and she was all of those things on both runs.
“I thought Bella Devivo skied well today as well. She was consistent. She had two fourth-place finishes.”
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