MARS HILL — After braving the elements, a lengthy hotel visit, and a condensed State Ski Meet format that saw two days of Alpine skiing stuffed into a single day, Camden Hills skiers experienced a lot of success at Big Rock ski resort up in Mars Hill.

The Camden Hills girls lived up to their billing and pushed defending champion Cape Elizabeth right to the final event but fell just short of winning the Alpine State Championship.

After a single run Giant Slalom event left the Windjammers 17 points behind the Capers, the Windjammer Ladies flew down the Slalom course and finished the Slalom just one point behind an excellent Cape team. Combined scores for the two events saw the 'Jammer women finish a scant 18 points behind the Capers and 8 points ahead of a very strong Yarmouth team to claim second place for female Class B schools in the state of Maine.

I think our girls had some very strong performances and placed in context of the many challenges they had to overcome this season, finishing as Class "B" runner-ups is a truly remarkable accomplishment, they represented their school and community well and I'm very happy for them.

Scoring for the Camden Hills girls in Giant Slalom were Ella Simon in sixth, Renaissance Lyman in ninth, Audrey Heriz-Smith in 11th, and Abby Chamberlin in 18th.

Scoring for the girls in the Slalom were Ella Simon in 4th, Lydia Morin in 6th, Audrey Heriz-Smith in 10th, and Renaissance Lyman in 14th.

The Camden Hills boys also skied well in the culminating event of the season.

The ‘Jammer boys raced out to a fourth place finish in the Giant Slalom but had some challenges in the slalom where they finished sixth.

Combined scores for those two events left the men's team in sixth place.

Scoring for the Windjammer boys in giant slalom were Thatcher Chamberlin in 11th, David Flint in 18th, Sawyer King in 19th and Aiden Roberts in 20th.

In the slalom, male scorers were David Flint in 13th, Adam Throne in 14th, Thatcher Chamberlin in 19th and Sawyer King in 37th.

The boys gave it their all today and I'm very proud of them. Thatcher Chamberlin turned in the run of his career narrowly missing top 10 and our other three scorers finished in a tight pack in the giant slalom which put us in a good position heading into the slalom. The slalom course was extremely challenging with almost 50 percent of the field hiking or falling and we fell victim to the course as did many other schools, but we skied as a team and at the end of the day that's what's most important. Had we had a bit of luck I think the boys could have really shocked some folks and pulled out third — but that's ski racing, it can be a very humbling sport.

In addition to the team accolades, skiers finishing in the top 10 in any alpine event at the state meet are eligible to race in the state selection "shoot-out" race held annually at Black Mountain. This race is comprised of any skier who finished in the top 10 at the A, B or C alpine meets. This top talent competes in slalom and giant slalom with the top 10 skiers from the event then going to represent Maine in the Eastern High School Championships in New Hampshire.

The Camden Hills and Watershed co-operative team qualified more skiers for this event than in recent history. Representing the two schools at the shootout races will be Ella Simon (4th slalom, 6th giant slalom), Lydia Morin (6th in slalom), Renaissance Lyman (9th in giant slalom), Audrey Heriz-Smith (10th in slalom), Jillian Galloway of Watershed (5th slalom, 6th giant slalom) and Peter Galloway of Watershed (6th slalom).

Ryan Hurley is the head coach of the Camden Hills alpine ski team. 

Reach the sports department at: sports@penbaypilot.com.