The Fort Kent Community High School girls Nordic ski team raced to the Class C Maine State Championship at Black Mountain in Rumford Thursday, and the Warrior boys also stood out as Class C runners-up.
The Fort Kent girls topped the competition with 781 team points. They were followed by Waynflete School of Portland with 769. Orono High School finished in third place with 760 team points.
The Warrior girls claimed four of the top 10 individual combined race scores at the meet.
Rowan Tanguay earned the highest individual race score for the Warrior girls in the combined Women’s 5K Classical and Pursuit races with a second-place time of 38:28.1. Nancy Martin took fifth place at 39:59.3. Annabelle Reardon finished in seventh with a time of 40:37.1 and Mira Kelly earned a ninth-place finish with a time of 42:15.1.
On the boys end, Mt. Abram Regional High School took top honors with a team score of 767. Fort Kent finished with 763 and Waynflete was third with 759 points.
Individual race scores for the Warrior boys included Fletcher Marquis in fifth place with a combined time of 33:08.3. Mitchell Harvey skied to eighth place with a time of 33:47.1
and Raphael Sanclemente rounded out the top 10 for the boys at 34:30.7
Both Warrior teams trained at the Fort Kent Outdoor Center under coach Carl Theriault.
“While the weather conspired against them with 57 degrees making for a slushy mess for the classic race, and a deep freeze overnight turning the skate race into a fast ice sheet, the Fort Kent Warriors fought hard to win the Girls Nordic State Championship, and the boys were state runners-up in a very close battle with Mt. Abram, leaving them just a couple points out of the win,” Theriault said.
“I couldn’t be more proud of these great kids who worked their tails off in very challenging conditions to realize their team goals of a win and a runner-up placing at the Maine State Championship,” Theriault added. “It takes a village to make this work and the skiing family in the Valley is strong.”