12 February 2007
OUA Championships
Back in Ottawa, this time for the OUA Championships, the Waterloo Nordic Ski Team was prepared for the massive hills and technical descents of the Nakkertok Nordic ski facility. With a team of 5 women and 7 men, Waterloo was eager to face the stiff competition at the University Championships. Unfortunately, the majority of the women’s team came down with a serious cold in the week leading up to the championships.

For this reason, Kelly Skinner elected to stay home, and Nellie Dow was unable to race on Saturday. The men’s team managed to avoid the contagious virus, and therefore, stayed healthy for the championships.

Saturday dawned chilly, with a light dusting of snow on the race course. The men raced first, warming up the trails for the women’s race in the afternoon. Harry Seaton was the first Waterloo man to finish the 10 km course, with a fourth place finish, in a time of 32:40. On the women’s side, Tiffany Duncan was the first Waterloo woman to finish the 5 km race in a time of 22:49.

The individual start races were followed by the ever-competitive OUA team relays, which saw Lakehead University continue its dominance over the Nordic skiing field, winning both men’s 3 x 4km and women’s 3 x 2km relays. Waterloo fielded competitive teams in both categories. The men’s team, consisting of Harry Seaton, Colin Rhodes, and rookie Kieran Jones, came in 4th place in a combined time of 43:19, only 3:40 down from the winning Lakehead team. With Nellie and Kelly sick and Tiffany nursing an injury from the morning race, Surabhi Venkatesh, Toni Carlisle and rookie Amelie Gravel made up the women’s relay team, finishing strong despite some rough exchanges in the transition zone.

Sunday featured mass starts for both men and women. The women’s start was tricky, with a few falls as skiers fought to get to the front of the pack. The women skied two loops around the 5km course with Nellie Dow as the first Waterloo woman, finishing in 15th in a time of 43:21 despite still being not entirely recovered. The men started soon after, with Harry Seaton again leading out for Waterloo, finishing in 3rd place in a time of 49:57. Seaton also finished with a 4th place overall, gaining a spot as an OUA All-Star for the second year in a row. The men’s team also finished 4th overall in the OUA standings, and most were happy with a strong weekend of racing.

Past News - 2007

3 February 2007
OUA Qualifier #2/Eastern Canadian Championships
This past weekend the Waterloo Nordic Ski Team travelled to the Ottawa-Gatineau region of Eastern Ontario for the Ontario University qualifying races. In addition to being an OU race, it was also the Eastern Canadian Cross-Country Ski Championships. With around 650 participants in total, it was a very large race. Held at Mont-Blue at the foot of the Gatineau Hills, site of the infamous Keskinada World Loppet, expectations were high for both the quality of the course and the amount of snow. As it turned out, Ottawa has less snow than Waterloo, and therefore the course was run mostly along the Gatineau Parkway, the 401 of cross-country skiing. While being very wide and having some long, sloping uphills, the course also featured a large amount of very flat terrain.

The team took this in stride however, and showed up at the start Saturday morning ready to classic ski their respective distances. All members of the team showed great skill in navigating the not-so-technical course. On the mens side, Harry Seaton was on top form as usual, finishing 3rd place in a very strong field, skiing the 10 km course in a time of 29:22. On the womens side, Nellie Dow scored a very impressive 6th place, in a time of 26:34. Other members of the team had varying degrees of success during the day as well.

Sunday contained a mass start skate race, and opposed to the individual start race of the day before, promised to be chaotic with the large number of participants in each category. Mass starts almost always contain a large amount of broken equipment and falling. Luckily, most of the Waterloo ski team emerged from their mass starts unscathed, and ended the day with succesful results. The Open category skied a longer distance than the OUA category, and Seaton opted for the longer distance, finishing yet again in a strong 3rd place. Nellie Dow also opted for the longer distance, finishing in 10th place. In the Unversity categories, Kelly Skinner was the first women from Waterloo, finishing 21st in a time of 36:52. On the men’s side Neil de Laplante and Colin Rhodes skiied a tight battle the entire race, which culminated in a sprint, resulting in de Laplante with 15th and Rhodes 16th place, just inches apart. All around the ski team had a successful weekend, and is now in preparation for next weeks major event, the OUA Championships, held again in the Ottawa region.

Past News - 2007

21 January 2007
OUA Qualifier #1

This past weekend the Waterloo Nordic Ski Team travelled to the first official OUA qualifier race of the season. Due to the significant lack of snow this winter, the location was moved from Sudbury to Duntroon, Ontario. The race was a one day competition, with a classic race in the morning followed by a skate team sprint in the afternoon. Waking up Saturday morning, conditions were radically different from any previously seen this winter. With a snow squall warning in effect for the region, and 20 cm of snow on the ground from the night before, not counting the snowstorm of the previous day. Needless to say, the majority of the team was satisfied with amount of snow which fell, and felt that there was enough snow to ski.

Both men’s and women’s classic races began, took place, and finished in the pouring snow, making for slow conditions due to the large amounts of new fallen snow as well as the limited visibility. Despite the adverse conditions and lack of early season skiing for the team, they turned in some devastatingly good performances. Harry Seaton, an OUA All-Star last season, showed the rest of the field how is he on track for an even better performance than last year, as he finished the 10km course in first, winning in a time of 38:36. On the women’s side, Nellie Dow skied to a strong 5th place, finishing the 5 km course in a time of 22:43. Both racers faced fields which numbered in the 40’s. The large number of rookies on the UW team also had strong individual races, impressing all with what was the first race of the season for the majority.

Due to the copious amounts of new snow, the start for the sprint races was pushed back an hour so the course could be groomed. After the delay, the UW Nordic Team proved that their success in the morning was not simply a fluke, putting on a sprinting clinic in the 1 km, 6 lap race. The duo of Harry Seaton and Colin Rhodes skied to strong 2nd place, and the other five Waterloo teams had good races as well. On the whole the weekend was a success, and the team now turns to the fresh snow to get prepared for the upcoming OUA races in Ottawa.

Summary of individual results:

Women's 5k Classic
Nellie Dow, 5th
Toni Carlisle, 19th
Tiffany Duncan, 21st
Surabhi Venkatesh, 33rd
April Ross, 38th

Men's 10k Classic
Harry Seaton, 4th
Colin Rhodes, 9th
Stefan Ramonat, 19th
Neil de LaPlante, 23rd
Michael Logue, 38th
Derek Hartman, 39th
Ben Reid, 40th

Past news - 2004 through 2006

31 March 2006
Andrea Dupont is named UW Female Athlete of the Year!
Other award recipients on the team include Most Valuable Skiers: Andrea Dupont and Bryon Hughson, Ski Team Rookies of the Year: Nellie Dow and Harry Seaton, Most Improved Skiers: Trudy Gardner and Mike Neilly.

13 February 2005
Andrea Dupont wins OUA Championships
Andrea Dupont placed first in both Saturday's 5km skate race and Sunday's 10km classic race. Bryon Hughson and Andrew Rees were also named OUA All-Stars for finishing in the top ten in the combined results of the weekend.
Andrea was named UW athlete of the week.
Click the links on the side for photos and videos from the races.

30 January 2005
Team does well at OUA Qualifier #2
Andrea Dupont and Bryon Hughson each finished second in Saturday's classic race. On Sunday, Andrea won the women's 10km skate race. Bryon Hughson finished 5th in the men's 15km skate. Andrew Rees finished in the top 20 on both days.

16 January 2005
Andrea Dupont and Bryon Hughson win OUA Qualifier #1
Andrea Dupont placed first in both Saturday's 5km classic race and Sunday's 10km skate race. Bryon Hughson was first in Saturday's 10km classic and held on to win the 15km skate leg of Sunday's pursuit race.
Andrea and Bryon were both named UW athletes of the week.
Andrea was named the OUA Athlete of the week.

28 March 2004
Nationals (CCUNC) Imprint Article
Check out the folllowing article from the University of Waterloo Student Newspaper (Imprint).

08 February 2004
OUA Results
At the 2004 OUA Championships, Feb 7 and 8, 2004 at Laurentian University, Sudbury,the UW ski team came away with 2 relay silver medals and four OUA all-stars.

Welcome

Welcome the the University of Waterloo Nordic Ski Team blog. Check here for updates on the team's racing exploits.