RUMFORD -- The Maranacook Community School girls ski team showed tremendous improvement from last season, taking the overall lead after the first day of the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championships at Black Mountain.

Paced by Amy Gifford's first-place finish in the giant slalom and Emma Prysunka's fifth-place run in the Nordic freestyle race, the Black Bears took a 70-103 lead over Leavitt in the overall competition. The KVAC meet concludes Saturday at Titcomb Mountain in Farmington, when the Alpine skiers turn to the slalom and the Nordic competitors ski a classical race.

"It is comforting to have a lead like that," said Prysunka, the defending KVAC Skimeister who was in the top 10 in both events. "We really skied well as a team in both events."

Prysunka leads the Skimeister competition after the first day with a commanding 14-52 lead over Camden Hills' Hannah Vigue.The Black Bears outdistanced defending champion Mt. Blue 23-49 in the Alpine event. Gifford hammered the course, producing the top time in both runs for a time of 1 minute, 6.10 seconds. Last season, Maranacook finished third overall in the KVAC competition.

"I tried to be smooth and not make mistakes," Gifford said. "It was a course where maintaining your speed throughout the race was important."

Veterans Monica Purington and Prysunka finished fourth and ninth, respectively, for the Black Bears, while freshman Kayla Brown earned a 14th. Prysunka was also fifth in the Nordic freestyle 5-kilometer race. Mt. Blue's Kyle Cyr finished third in the giant slalom with a two-run time of 1:07.62, Skowhegan's Christine Bussiere was seventh in 1:08.68 and Maine Central Institute's Rebekah Kallgren was eighth at 1:09.45.

In the girls Nordic race, Mt. Blue's Rebecca Schoen blitzed the competition, finishing the course in 16:02.9, nearly 40 seconds ahead of Edward Little's Laura Gardner. The Cougars Meredith Allen was third.

"I was pretty pumped, I felt really good at the beginning," Schoen said. "The course really went by fast, I have been trying to break it down into smaller sections and today, it really helped."

Also, garnering a top 10 Nordic finish was independent skier Lindsay Mathes of Messalonskee, who finished eighth in 17:48.2.

BOYS

Leavitt took a small lead in the boys competition, edging defending champion Mt. Blue 68-80 after the first day. Maranacook stands in third with 92 points.

The Cougars bunched three skiers into the seven, eight and nine spots, but it was Maranacook's Sean Vallant who turned in two solid runs to finish first in the giant slalom race but had to overcome a brilliant first run by MCI's Bart Kallgren.

Kallgren flew through the gates to register a first-run time of 31.19, the fastest of the day, to place first after one run with Vallant trailing by .34 seconds. Vallant toured the course in 31.32 seconds on his second run to edge Kallgren by .28 seconds.

"I tried to put down a solid, conservative first run," Vallant said. "The snow was really good and it was a wide open course, so I totally went for it in the second run."

Mt. Blue won the giant slalom event 37-43 over Leavitt with Peter Smith, Pete Farnum and Alex Witt taking the seventh, eighth and ninth positions. Maranacook's Casey Coyne turned in a solid effort finishing fifth.

Leavitt crushed the competition in the 5K boys freestyle event with Justin Fereshetian (13:21.1) and Lauren Turner (13:27.4) finishing one-two. Mt. Blue's Welly Ramsey was third in 13:35.1.

As a team Maranacook placed second in the Nordic race taking the eighth through 11th spot in the race. Craig Maffei finished eighth followed by Kyle Marvinney, Nick Huntington and Casey Spencer.

In a close battle for the boys Skimeister title, Spencer owns first place with 31 points followed by Mt. Blue's Peter Smith 43 points, and the Cougars Alex Prentiss in third with 46 points. Prentiss spun out at the bottom of his first run in the giant slalom but managed to salvage the day with a strong second run and a 17th place in the GS competition.