The Kennebec Journal

HIGH SCHOOL SKIING NOTEBOOK

February 22

High school ski season still going strong

BY DAVID MCLAUGHLINCorrespondent

BY DAVID MCLAUGHLIN

Correspondent

For many sports, the high school season comes to a conclusion when state championship games are played. Skiing, however, is just gearing up for an exciting run to the Eastern High School championships.

Saturday will mark selection races for Alpine and Nordic teams at two sites in Maine. Qualifiers make the Maine high school ski team and will compete against the best skiers on the East Coast at the Eastern High School ski championships, March 12-14.

Qualifying and selection vary between the two disciplines but, in the end, the top high school skiers in Maine are selected for the Eastern competition.

Mt. Abram Ski Area will host the Alpine qualifier Saturday. Any boy or girl high school Alpine skier who finished in the top 10 for either the giant slalom or slalom at any of the three state meets (Class A, B or C) is eligible to race.

Each athlete will take a total of four runs. Two runs of giant slalom in the morning and two runs of slalom in the afternoon. The Maine team is determined by taking the best run of the morning and combining it with the best run of the afternoon for a final finish score.

The top 12 boys and 12 girls will be selected to compete in the championships in Bartlett, N.H., at Attitash Mountain's Bear Peak.

Nordic skiers will have their selection qualifier, also Saturday, at the Sugarloaf Outdoor Center. Skiers earning a spot on the Maine team will compete in the Eastern High School Nordic ski championships March 12-14 in Gilford, N.H., at the Gunstock Ski Resort.

Unlike their Alpine counterparts, any high school Nordic high school skier in Maine can compete for a spot on the Maine team. The qualifying event will feature a classical race in the morning followed by a pursuit freestyle race in the afternoon.

The top 24 boys and 24 girls will be selected.

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As the high school skiing season winds down, it seems to be the right time to take a look forward to next winter's schedule for state championships. Similar to the plight basketball teams faced a few years back, Class A ski teams are being asked to travel to Aroostook County for the Class A state championships in 2011.

Class A basketball teams only had the trek to the Bangor Auditorium to play in the Eastern A tournament. Traveling to Presque Isle involves several hours more in travel, in addition to securing overnight accommodations. Basketball teams were able to make the change to Augusta, maybe skiing should follow a similar route.

There are no Class A teams from Bangor north, and according to the Maine Principals' Association ski bulletin, there are just seven ski teams in Aroostook County.

Throughout the season athletic directors were questioning the cost of taking teams to Aroostook County next winter and being able to justify what could cost around $8,000 for some schools.

It would seem the time is right to make a change that would benefit the constantly growing and evolving sport of skiing. Moving the regional championships and a single state championship would appear to be on the horizon.

Three regional championships: Northern, Central and Southern, which would mean Class C schools skiing against Class A schools, is hardly noticeable when you take a look at the results each year.

There are a number of parameters to be worked on. General consensus this winter would be to take the top 10 skiers from each regional, in each discipline, to an individual state ski championship meet. Also, take the top three teams from each regional to compete for the four-event title, along with the top three Skimeisters from each region.

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Catching up with a few more local skiers who have gone on to ski at the collegiate level, finds Messalonskee grad Sam Mathes, a senior at Colby College and captain of the Nordic ski team. Mathes has been skiing consistently well for the White Mules this winter... Mt. Abram's Emma James is a freshman at Bowdoin College. Last week at the Williams Winter Carnival, James finished third in the 5K classical race and fifth in freestyle... At the University of Maine at Farmington Winthrop's Jacob Gomberg is a member of the Nordic team, Monmouth's Brittany Rogers skis Alpine and Maranacook's Emily Harriman skis Nordic.