RUMFORD -- Danny Soltan led an impressive assault on the Nordic course at Black Mountain helping Winthrop High School to a near perfect mark in the boys classical race on the opening day of competition in the Mountain Valley Conference skiing championships.

Winthrop scored just 11 points, placing four skiers in the top five. Soltan won the race, finishing the 5k course in 14 minutes, 48.9 seconds. Also for Winthrop, Justin Carpenter (15:08.2) was second, Alex Cottrell (15:41.4) third and Patrick Romar (16:27.8) fifth. Mt. Abram's Jake Carleton finished fourth to break up the Ramblers bid for a perfect race.

"I really wasn't sure what was going to happen," said Soltan, who last week captured the prestigious Sassi Memorial Race on the same course. "I was hoping for a top two finish, so I went hard from the beginning and just kept going."

Skiers in the MVC will return to Black Mountain on Friday for the second day of competition, which includes a 5k freestyle race along with the Alpine giant slalom competition. Mt. Abram girls were equally impressive in both the Nordic and Alpine races, scoring a combined total of 32 points to take a commanding lead in the chase for the overall girls title. Telstar is a distant second with 73 points followed by Mountain Valley with 106.

Noelle Lake took top honors for the Roadrunners in the slalom race with a two-run combined time of 1:17.64. Sisters Erica and Emily Luce finished second and third, respectively, while Jillian Withee, finished 11th to give Mt. Abram an Alpine score of 17 points.

Lauren McHatten of Winthrop finished eighth.

"We only have five skiers but they are mature enough to understand what it takes to win these races," Luce said. "We are only as good as where our fourth skier finishes and Jillian came up big for us today."

Mt. Abram's Nordic team placed four skiers in the top six to score a 15-36 win over Telstar in the girls classical race. Emma James, Maria Parrett, Nola Dixon and Georgia Dixon placed second, third, fourth and sixth, respectively, for the Roadrunners. Telstar's Brianne Bailey finished first in 19:03.7. Winthrop's Molly Lindsey and Natalie Lapointe were ninth and 10th.

Frank Del Duca of Telstar won the boys slalom event with a two-run time of 1:12.8, while Mt. Abram's Mike Bonney turned in a strong fifth place effort.