Snow, or the lack of it, has been a dominant feature of this year’s Nordic season. After a brief interlude of winter, it’s unfortunately back to warm temperatures and bare ground in Boothbay. The Boothbay Region High School Nordic ski teams, like ski teams across the state, are yearning for some persistent quality snow.

On Saturday, Jan. 30, the BRHS ski teams traveled to Black Mountain in Rumford to participate in the annual Sassi Memorial Classic race. Twenty-four teams and over 300 individuals raced in the 5K event.

For BRHS, Joey Paolillo led the Seahawks, finishing 59th at 18:30, followed by Blake Erhard (122nd, 21:14), Duncan Drapeau (131st, 22:09), Gabe Purin (136th, 22:54), Reed Beavis (149th, 24:32), and Bayly Gaughan-Carrasco, (151st, 24:47). Summer Chamberlin led the girls (81st, 23:42), followed by Angela Machon (137th, 29:19), Olivia Paolillo (148th, 31:09), and Meghan Oakes (150th, 31:23).

“Our skiers did a great job at the Sassi race. I was quite pleased with how well everyone raced despite not having the greatest of wax and seeing where we didn’t really get out on snow very much last week,” Coach Nick Scott said.

Scott said not getting out on snow “looks to be the big theme of this upcoming week.” The planned race at Camden on Wednesday, when rain was forecast, was canceled. Scott said because of the warmup and anticipated rain, the location for the Mountain Valley Conference race may need to be changed as well.

In the meantime, the BRHS skiers continue to rely on inline skating, running and other forms of dry land training to prepare for races.

To see more races photos go to DWActionPhotos.com.