Thursday, February 22, 2007
The Yarmouth boys´ and girls´ ski teams swept the combined Class B championships, capping three days of Alpine and Nordic skiing in Maine´s western mountains.
"I gave them a challenge last year at the state meet and asked which team (boys or girls) would reach 10 championships first," said Yarmouth Coach Bob Morse.
"They wanted this. It´s been a great year."
The Maranacook boys and girls both finished second for the overall title, and third place went to the Falmouth boys and Mt. Abram girls.
The Class B meet kicked off Monday and by Wednesday two races were left: the boys´ and girls´ classical.
Under sunny skies and fairly warm temperatures, Hallweaver charged the course, helping her team earn the girls´ Nordic title.
Maranacook finished second, and Cape Elizabeth and Greely tied for third.
"It was never a done deal until she crossed the finish line," said Morse. "There was a lot of pressure on Molly, but she came to race and handled the pressure well."
Cape Elizabeth freshman Emily Atwood finished in second place in 18:07. Julianna Lord of Yarmouth finished third in a time of 18:20.04.
"Emily and I have been battling each other all season. She chased me in freestyle and I got to chase her this race," said Hallweaver.
"It was such a beautiful day, I threw my hat off halfway through the race. It was just a good day."
Atwood said Hallweaver was a strong competitor.
"She´s a great skier and does really well on the hills," said Atwood.
"We´ve been racing together at most meets."
In the boys´ classical, which went off first at 9 a.m., Cape Elizabeth got standout performances from first-place finisher Graham Egan (14:26.5), third- place finisher Stanis Moody-Roberts (14:54) and eighth-place finisher Tike Maccoll (15:25).
Egan completed a near sweep of his senior season: He finished fourth in his first race of the year but has finished first in every race since.
"I´ve had a really good season," said Egan. "Things have really gone my way."
But as a team, the Maranacook boys pulled out the Nordic title. Cape finished second and Yarmouth took third.
"They really came out and had the race of their lives," said Moody-Roberts.
That was the plan going in, said Maranacook Coach Steve DeAngelis.
"We knew our only chance was if all six of our guys skied out of their gourds," said DeAngelis. "I´m most proud that we had different top-four finishers both days."
Maranacook was led on Wednesday by fifth-place finisher Casey Spencer (15:02.6) and seventh-place finisher Kyle Marvinney (15:20.6).
"This was the most ready for a championship race I´ve ever felt," said Marvinney. "We were ready to go and we knew we had it in us."
Staff Writer Jenn Menendez can be contacted at 791-6426 or at:
jmenendez@pressherald.com