Cougars king cats of Nordic nation

FARMINGTON – Both Mt. Blue Nordic ski teams ended their seasons with dominate performances at the State Championships on Feb. 23 and 24 in Waterville at Quarry Road Trails. With warm weather bogging down the ski conditions, including temperatures peaking in the 50s, the Cougars used the slow going as fuel for their fire.

The approach for head coach Claire Polfus was inspiring a hard-nosed mentality entering the race.

“The few things we focused on was smiling, being tough and passing whoever is in front of you,” Polfus said.

The smiles Polfus referred to were on the faces of skiers enjoying the competition despite the slop that laid in front of the Cougars at States. She didn’t want the joy of the sport to be lost in less than ideal skiing snow. A slow track with the warm weather brought more difficulty to an already exhausting, effort-driven sport for the Nordic racers.

“Realizing that everyone was skiing in these conditions was important for us.” Polfus reiterated.

Mt. Blue put up results that clearly embodied Polfus’ words to show grit, grind and grin throughout the events. The Cougars of Mt. Blue took home both state titles in boys and girls Nordic skiing.

For those new to how the States’ skiing scoring works: the placement of your first four finishers is summed together for your team total, the lower the better. A team total score to determine the State Champion includes both styles of Nordic skiing, classic and skate.

The Mt. Blue girls posted an impressive 13 score in classic, 22 in skate, which combined to an absurd 35 overall score. To gain some perspective, second place at States was Deering high school with an overall 88, followed by Fryeburg in third at 101 points.

The classic race for the girls was stuffed at the top with Cougars, posting four of the top five finishes. Julia Ramsey won the classic race, Meghan Charles finished 3rd, Gretchen Huish 4th and Chelsea Seabold rounded out Mt. Blues classic with 5th.

In the skate skiing event Julia Ramsey won that as well, completing a double-headed, dominate performance. Meghan Charles mirrored her classic cruise with a 3rd place in skate, Gretchen Huish secured 7th and Grace Andrews completed the Cougars crush with an 11th overall finish.

The Cougar boys burst out with similar, sensational races with a classic total of 17, skate 24, bringing their skimpy score to a sum of 41 points. The second best total was Falmouth at 109, with Oxford Hills finishing third at 127.

Mt. Blue’s Tucker Barber completed the classic race with ample time in the shine, winning by 32.3 seconds over the second place finisher. Isaiah Reid finished 3rd, followed by Cougar comrades Dominic Giampietro who placed 6th and Samuel Stinson in 7th.

Tucker Barber won the skate skiing race to match Julia Ramsey in Mt. Blue overall wins on the day. Isaiah Reid skated his way to another bronze showing for the Cougars, with teammates Nolan Rogers finishing 5th and Samuel Smith in 15th.

Coach Polfus credited local area programs for preparing these athletes. “It’s not just this year, but the seven, eight, nine years of work for many of these skiers before to get to this point. The technique and endurance overtime setup this trajectory of success.”

“I’d like to give a shout out to the community,” Polfus added. “It means a lot to have the community’s support and we owe them a huge thank you.”