Cape Elizabeth junior Logan Schwartz won the Class B slalom and giant slalom state titles by wide margins. Then he placed second overall in the Eastern High School Championship meet. Alec Salisbury photo

On the second giant slalom run of the Maine Shootout – the Alpine races that determine which skiers qualify for the Eastern High School Championship meet – Marshwood High sophomore Quinn Maguire completed the course at Black Mountain in 54.07 seconds.

Logan Schwartz

That time was roughly three quarters of a second behind that of Logan Schwartz of Cape Elizabeth.

What’s notable about Maguire’s performance is that it marked the only instance in any run during Maine’s season-ending meets – the Western Maine Conference championship, the Class B state championship or the Shootout – when another skier came within a second of Schwartz’s time. Slalom and giant slalom, of course, consist of two runs, or four total for each of those three high-pressure meets.

“(Schwartz) had an outstanding season,” said Cape Elizabeth’s Alpine coach, Sarah Plummer. “Some races, he was seconds ahead of other racers. It was hard for anyone to get close to him.”

The Cape Elizabeth junior won every high school race he entered in Maine this winter. He won the Class B slalom and giant slalom state titles by wide margins, then placed second overall in the Eastern High School Championship meet at Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire, taking third in slalom and fifth in giant slalom from a field exceeding 100 of the region’s top racers.

He is our choice as the 2023 Varsity Maine Boys’ Skier of the Year.

Schwartz was Maine’s top qualifier for the Eastern championships for the second year in a row, but as a sophomore, he was not nearly as dominant. He finished fourth on his own team in last year’s Class B slalom, seventh overall.

After graduation claimed two of his team’s top skiers last spring, Schwartz did everything he could to help Cape Elizabeth defend its state title.

“Throughout the offseason, I was spending a lot of time in the gym,” he said, “trying to get ready for this season so that we could try to do what we did last year.”

“He did a lot over the summer in terms of bulking up, lifting, that sort of thing,” Plummer said. “He came back really strong.”

The Capers fell short at the state meet in Fort Kent. They bounced back in giant slalom after a rough day in slalom, but it wasn’t enough to catch Caribou.

Still, as a captain, Schwartz expressed pride in his team’s effort.

“After slalom, we were pretty far out of it,” he said. “Then the rest of the boys on our team did really, really well in (giant slalom) and we managed to come up with second place, which was remarkable seeing as though we only had five boys there.”

Schwartz started skiing at Pleasant Mountain at the age of 5. An instructor saw his potential and suggested he give racing a try. He now trains at Sunday River in a weekend program run by Gould Academy.

He said he enjoys every aspect of ski racing, even the cold weather.

“I can’t really stand the heat at all,” he said. “I like going fast. I love the feeling of being in the course and hitting the gates.”

Older sister Dana, now skiing for the Hamilton College club team, was also a Class B state champion. She won slalom last winter and placed second in giant slalom.

Logan has started to explore his college options and plans to visit a few campuses over April break. He also runs track, and placed 12th at 400 meters last June in the Class B state meet.

Academically, he’s interested in engineering, so his current focus is math and science. He’s taking two advanced placement classes this year and plans four next year.

“It’s a bit of a struggle balancing that with skiing,” he said, “but I’ve made it work pretty well, without my grades dropping at all.”

How so?

“Mostly just staying up late and studying,” he said with a laugh.

He also surfs, and last summer worked as a lifeguard at Scarborough Beach. He recently joined his town’s Water Extrication Team, which is part of Cape Elizabeth’s fire department and performs rescues if someone falls off rocks into the ocean or through the ice on a local pond.

“Logan is really a tenacious athlete,” Plummer said. “He’s fun out there, but he has a quietness to him. When he’s racing or he’s preparing to race, he’s very focused.”