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Morning Sentinel
HIGH SCHOOL SKIING: Roadrunners take home Alpine title
By DAVID McLAUGHLIN Correspondent Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 02/23/2008

BETHEL -- Mt. Abram High School placed three finishers in the top four of the Class B slalom race at Sunday River on Friday afternoon, sparked the Roadrunners to a girls Alpine state title.

Coupled with Thursday's win in the giant slalom, Mt. Abram outscored second-place Fryeburg, 69-115. Yarmouth was third with 119 points.

"The girls skied phenomenal this week," Mt. Abram Alpine coach Bob Luce said. "Before the race, we talked about winning as a team and not as individuals and they went out and did just that."

Yarmouth's Lauren Stackhouse won the slalom event to win her second individual Class B Alpine title, turning in a two-run time of 1 minute, 12.19 seconds, but it was after Stackhouse completed her runs that the Roadrunners raced to the front.

Erica Luce (1:15.87) finished second, Noelle Lake (1:16.86) third and Emily Luce (1:17.11) fourth. Jillian Withee also finished 28th for Mt. Abram.

"I am so excited about our Alpine team," Erica Luce said. "We knew we had to think about the team first, and put together good runs without falling down."

With her effort in the slalom race, Erica Luce took over the lead in the girls Skimeister competition. Entering today's final event, a 5k classical race, she holds a 41-61 advantage over Julianna Lord of Yarmouth. Luce will need an outstanding effort in the classical race to keep the pace because Lord is one of the top Nordic skiers in Class B.

"I'm just going to go as hard as I can for as long as I can," Luce said. "I'm planning on coming across the finish line and collapsing."

Last season, Lord and Luce were locked in a battle for second place behind graduated champion Emma Prysunka of Maranacook. Like she did this season, Luce won both Alpine events but was overwhelmed by Lord's in the Nordic events and finished third.

"I have really been focused on the Alpine racing because we wanted to do well in that," Luce said. "My best Nordic race is classical so I am going to give it my best."

Winslow's Emma Walters put together a pair of excellent slalom runs to finish eighth. Walters two-run combined time was 1:22.38. Maranacook's Kayla Brown (1:25.65) and MCI's Rebekah Kallgren (1:26.29) finished 15th and 16th, respectively.

Tory Quinn and Matthew Nale powered a strong effort by the Waterville boys Alpine team, lifting the Purple Panthers to a fifth-place finish. Quinn placed 10th in Friday's slalom while Nale was 13th.

Maranacook's Sean Vallant (11th), Jackson Witherill (12th) and Sean Daigle (17th) gave the Black Bears three top 20 finishes to land the No. 4 spot in Class B Alpine. Fryeburg finished as the top boys Alpine team with a 74-90 edge over Yarmouth.

Class B championships will come to a conclusion today with a girls 5k classical race at Black Mountain in Rumford, starting at 9 a.m. The boys classical race will follow at 10:45 a.m.

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