Whitehorse cross country skier Dahria Beatty ended her season on the weekend in Presque Isle, Maine.

After racing in Quebec City the previous week, Beatty told the Star that racing in Maine would be a good opportunity to do high-level skiing with the Americans who had been having strong seasons.

The first event Beatty took part in was the 1.4-kilometre sprints. Beatty said sprint racing is what she considered to be her strongest event.

She qualified for the final after placing fifth in the qualifying heats. She finished the sprints in fourth place. Beatty said it was her goal to make the final.

"I wanted to make the final, the top six made it," said Beatty. "Every single woman (racing) had been in the top 20 in the world at some point this season. It was a competitive field. I gave it my all."

Beatty said the sprint race course was different from any of the other courses she competed on this season.

"It was a different format," said Beatty. "It started with a downhill so you picked up speed early. You wound your way down and then had a climb back up."

During her season, Beatty said, she had only done three full sprint races on the World Cup circuit.

Each sprint race takes about three minutes, said Beatty, and if you make it to the finals, you do four rounds of it. She said that you have to be pushing if you want to make it through.

Beatty said she did the race in Maine to keep improving for next year.

"It is important to do these full races to keep up endurance," said Beatty. "These races were perfect for that. It is a higher level of racing than you can get in Canada consistently. The Americans are strong."

Beatty's next race was a 10-kilometre mass start classic, where she reached the podium finishing third in a time of 29:31.8.

"In the 10-km I really surprised myself," said Beatty. "I felt strong."

Beatty said the mass start race was really fun.

"The mass start has a really good pack in the first five kilometres," said Beatty. "I stayed with the lead group. The front girl passed us all, but I was able to stay with the next chasing group. I was making sure I was racing strategic and working on race tactics.

"I love the mass start. It is more exciting and you have people to motivate you because it is direct head-to-head competition. It is trying to know when people are attacking and picking your spots in areas you know you are strong."

The winner of the race was American Sadie Bjornsen, in a time of 29:00.5.

Beatty said she was looking to get her distance racing back up to a level she is happy with and that finishing third in Maine she was able to finish the season on a high with real productive racing.

With her season now over, she is going to take a couple of weeks off with no structured training to let her body rest.