By DAVID McLAUGHLIN

Correspondent

State ski championships will be decided this week in Classes A, B and C when top skiers take to the slopes to vie for team and individual honors. While team titles may eventually come to rest in traditional places, individual awards are wide open with the number of challengers growing each year.

Maranacook girls and Yarmouth boys are the defending Class B overall champions but are expecting a serious challenge from Mt. Abram, which has improved dramatically this season.

Class B skiers will take off today at Sunday River in Bethel for the Alpine giant slalom and at Black Mountain in Rumford for the 5-kilometer Nordic freestyle race. Class C competitors also begin today and are in Aroostook County skiing their giant slalom race at Big Rock in Mars Hill with Nordic races being held at the Heritage Center in Presque Isle. Freeport is the defending title holder in both boys and girls.

Events in both classes will continue Tuesday and Wednesday.

Class A picks up the pace Thursday at Sunday River and Black Mountain. Mt. Blue is the defending girls champion and Leavitt the boys.

"It should be a real battle for the overall title in both the boys and girls," said Maranacook Alpine coach Ronn Gifford. "This year is going to be exciting because there are three or four teams capable of taking each."

Amy Gifford and Monica Purington will lead the Black Bears girls on the Alpine slopes while Jen Monsulick and Emma Prysunka take charge on the Nordic trails. Challenges will come from Mt. Abram sisters Emily and Erica Luce in Alpine and Hannah and Emma James in Nordic.

"Our girls have a balanced team in the overall, but our Alpine and Nordic teams have such young skiers compared to the other teams," said Mt. Abram Nordic coach Merit Bean. "You never know in ski racing. So much depends on standing up in Alpine and laying down your best race of the year in Nordic."

Sean Vallant and Casey Coyne are two excellent Alpine skiers who give Maranacook a shot in the boys events while Kyle Marvinney and Craig Maffei are skiing extremely well in Nordic races. Mt. Abram's Alex Crossman in Alpine and Shem Dixon in Nordic are the Roadrunners top performers heading into the state meets.

MCI's Bart Kallgren is capable of blowing away the competition but will need to finish his runs without incident to claim an individual title, while sister Rebekah, although only a freshman, could step into a top 10 effort.

Winslow independent skier Emma Walters and the Waterville boys Alpine team paced by Matt Nale, Alex Hallenback and Tory Quinn continue to gain experience as they compete at the state level.

Although Mt. Blue is a heavy favorite to capture both the boys and girls overall titles, the individual competition on the Alpine slopes will be intense. Skowhegan's Andy Calder, Mt. Blue's Reid Bond and Alex Prentiss have shown they can be serious contenders for individual titles.

"I feel very confident in our Alpine boys team," said Mt. Blue Alpine coach Mark Cyr. "We have the depth and six very good skiers."

"Our Nordic team is peaking at the right time," he added. "We are going to complement each other tremendously."

Skowhegan's Christine Bussiere and Mt. Blue's Kyle Cyr and Abby Martin are outstanding on the Alpine side while Mt. Blue's Rebecca Schoen and Meredith Allen, along with Messalonskee's Lindsay Mathes and Cony's Anna Ackerman are in position to have excellent state meets.

"The state meet is about putting together two good runs," said Coach Cyr. "Our girls team will have to ski clean runs but we should be OK."

Welley Ramsey and Derek Rowe have been battling it out at the top for the Cougars during recent races and are capable of taking the top spot at the Class A meet.

In Class C, Winthrop's Nordic, headed by Justin Carpenter and Danny Soltan, should be solid while the Ramblers' Joel Walker hopes to make a dent in the Alpine events.