This has been an abysmal season for cross country skiing in Midcoast Maine, but the Boothbay Region High School Nordic teams are hitting the trails nonetheless. With only a few weeks left in the season, the teams are still getting in virtually all of their ski time at races. Despite the poor conditions, the teams are making the best of the situation, performing well and enjoying one of winter’s premier sports.

Over the last three weeks, the teams competed at the Leavitt Hornet Classic Race, the Maranacook Waves Freestyle Race and the Sassi Memorial Classic Race. 

Coach Nick Scott reports that conditions were less than optimal for the Leavitt Hornet race on Jan. 14.

“The conditions were rather harsh for those of us that haven't been on snow very much (or pretty much at all) and despite them I thought that the entire team performed quite well. A special congratulations to Henry (Drapeau) and Hali (Goodwin) who competed in their first ever classic meet without ever really having skied before.” 

Joey Paolillo finished the course first for BRHS at 17:36, followed closely by Blake Erhard (17:41), Duncan Drapeau (18:51), Sam Betts (20:43)  and Bayly Gaughan-Carrasco (23:26). Summer Chamberlin led the Lady Seahawks with a 22:42 finish, followed by Olivia Paolillo (27:06), Hali Goodwin (27:17) and Riley Sullivan (32:48).

On Jan. 21, the teams traveled to Maranacook High School for the annual Maranacook Waves race. In this competition, waves of six to eight skiers, organized by class year, start in intervals of every 60 seconds. 

Erhard soared for the Seahawks, finishing eighth among sophomores in 16:09. Senior J. Paolillo finished 15th in his year class at 16:50; Betts, 22nd at 17:51, D. Drapeau, 23rd, 18:01, and Gaughan-Carrasco, 26th, 22:09. Chamberlin again led the Lady Seahawks, with an 11th place, 22:22 finish. O. Paolillo was 17th in her class at 28:02 and Riley Sullivan, 21st at 30:41.

On Saturday, Jan. 28, the teams travelled to Black Mountain in Rumford for the Sassi Memorial Classic race. Chamberlin led the girls team, finishing at 24:26, followed by Goodwin, 28:02 and Paolillo, 29:19. Erhard led the boys team by finishing at 18:09, followed by Paolillo, 19:08, Betts, 22:18 and Gaughan-Carrasco, 23:25.

”I continue to be really impressed with both the teams’ performances and efforts despite the fact we are still dry land training at the end of January. Some rather impressive feats were achieved when comparing last year’s results with this year’s. Blake Erhard skied more than 3 minutes faster yesterday than he did a year ago, Bayly skied over a minute faster, while Olivia skied nearly two minutes faster,” Coach Scott wrote in an email.

With the Mountain Valley Conference championship races just a week away, the teams were scheduled to head to Waterville for a freestyle race on Wednesday, Feb. 1.

To see race photos, go to http://www.dwactionphotos.com/