Recap from John

The trip to Rumford for the Class C State Championships went very well, the Girls repeated as Class C champions while the Boys delivered their first State Hardware with a runner up 2nd place to the strongest Boy's team in Maine HS skiing, NYA.

The team warmed up for the States at the Western Maine Conference Championships on 2-8-12 at Pineland for the FS 5k,and at Starks Hill Fryeburg on 2-11-12 for the CL 5k. The WMC has proven to be the top class of skiing in Maine and the MWHS girls team finished a strong second to Yarmouth, the Boys were 4th after the FS race but due to a difficult wax day in the CL race ended up 5th, a strong finish against the States top teams. Highlights for Girls were ZCD winning the CL race and 3rd in the FS, ECD 4th in FS and 6th in CL, Samantha 6th in FS and 10th in CL, Teagan also made the top 10 with a 8th in the FS race. Jesse, Lily and Carlin also had fine finishes in a very deep field. For the boys Jack had a top ten (8th) in FS, Eli was in the top 20 both races, Graham had a fine FS 22nd, and Ben Tindall a solid 27th in the CL race. John, Zach and Lars were fighting hard for good finishes as well. On Saturday at Starks the team was treated to grilled cheese sandwiches and other goodies, thanks for the support from all the parents.

The trip to Rumford started on Sunday morning, after a light lunch and quick wax job the team previewed the 5k CL course. Most had skied the course earlier this year at the Sassi race and were getting to know the course well and dialing in the best lines and waxes. The efforts worked as ZCD blistered the CL course in a very fast 16:05 for the win by 56s over ECD, Samantha continued her late season break out with a 7th followed by Teagan in 9th, Carlin in 13th and Jesse in 14th to take a commanding lead in the Girls team results. For the Boys Jack lead the way in 5th followed by Eli in 7th, Ben was just outside the top 10 in 11th, Graham 12th, John 15th and Lars 38th. The Boys after day one were second to NYA with a good cushion over 3rd place Freeport. The CL race conditions were about perfect as the temperatures stayed cold enough to provide good glide and allowed the wax team to find a good grip wax, this was a big improvement over the WMC CL wax result. A large thanks to Henry, Ben and Jason for help in the wax room. The FS race on Tuesday was late in the day so it was challenging to keep the team busy but not too busy during the day. We contested an impromptu scavenger walk, splitting the group in boys and girls teams. The boys used  a creative and  liberal interpretation of the rules and appeared to win, however special consideration was given to the intrepid Girls who walked almost to West Paris to find the school on the search list and were awarded the win. The FS 5k race was on the traditional Rumford HS course and included a single one lap course. ZCD again finished 1st for her fifth Class C Championship!! ECD was close in 2nd -17s, Samantha 3rd -24s, giving the girls a rare podium sweep. Teagan improved to a fine 7th and another top ten finish followed closely by Jesse in 12th and Lily in 15th as the Girls ran away with the Championships. The boys closed the States racing with great skiing, Jack had another top result in 5th in 12:19 for 5K-do the math, this is FAST! Eli continued his late season surge with a 6th -13s after Jack, Graham was next in in 12th followed by Ben in 14th, John 15th and Zach 34th. Congratulations to the Boys State Class C Runner ups and the Girls repeat Class C Champions. A special thanks to the parents for supporting the Christmas Camp and the WMC as well as the State Championships. Susan and Jennifer especially did the hard advance work planning the food, transportation and lodging all year and Carol kept us well fed at States - THANKS.

JOHN