Skiing Conditions in Waterloo – Sexier Than You Might Imagine

Last week most of Ontario benefitted from a massive winter storm, which – depending on where you live – provided rain, freezing rain, snow, or bucketloads of snow (there was a rumour circulating regarding a 50 cm dump in the North Bay area). However awesome the entire province getting snow is, what really matters is whether we can ski!

The UW Nordic News (UWNN) is more than happy to report that the UW Nordic Ski Team was able to enjoy rock skiing conditions at least 4 days last week, if you were brave, 5, if you failed all your classes, 6-10. “Skiing in Waterloo?? But where???”, UWNN hears you exclaim. Well, for starters see the previous post, which gained national and international fame via the CCC website. Clearly some skiing is possible in the Waterloo area, even if it requires a little effort.

This past weekend, a wide variety of locales were sample by the crew here at UWNN, and we’re going to give you an update on each one.

 

North Campus

The Skinny: A piece of land behind some industrial buildings by the Columbia IceFields facility, it is UW Nordic’s prime fall training ground. Some small hills, some soccer fields, and the occasional sketchbag walking the path from residence buildings/campus over to Beringer Rd are pretty much all North Campus has to offer in the fall. In the winter, there is no change, except the sketchbags are colder and more miserable. The location is close to campus, most 1st year residences and quite a lot of residential housing, so is easily accessible without a car to most students.

Trail Conditions: Some old old guy was out skiing back and forth across one of the soccer fields, so I guess there is a little bit of a trail. Other than that, it’s whatever you make it.

Trail KM without loops: Maybe 2, if you’re creative.

Skating: Only if there is a crust. Currently there is not.

Classic: Not track set, but if you’re just going out for a hack, it’ll do the job.

Rock Skis: Highly recommended.

Rating: 1.5 Jaervahinin’s out of 3

 

The UWNN’s sickest pair of Jarvinen’s ever.

 

Westmount Golf Course

The Skinny: A small golf course set in town with plenty of fun rolling bits, some T-boxes, and if you get there early enough in the season, greens not fenced off. Used by overage alcohol fuelled sliders, you’re often able to find beer cans and broken sleds in the early season.

Trail Conditions: Beautiful powder. Sunny. Deep snow baskets required, as well as weight shift (at least it was this Saturday).

Trail KM without loops: At least 4, but if you investigate the holes in the middle instead of just circling the outside, easily more.

Skating: Do-able, but is going to be a lot of work.

Classic: If you’re lucky, someone will have arrived before you and skied the entire 18 holes doing a nice job. If not, then you’re stuck grooming your own trail, which will probably suck and end with a lot of fresh snow in your boots.

Rock Skis: Probably, those paved cart paths with the goofy rock retaining walls tend to jump out of nowhere, especially on the down hills.

Rating: A pair of tights, some warm up pants and 3 sweaty smelly Craft’s out of 6

 

The recommended type of baskets for West G&CC.

 

 

Bechtel Park

The Skinny: A large park, with several soccer fields both in and out door. The Bridge St. and University Av. location overlooks Highway 85, borders a cemetery, and has a massive parking lot which is ideal for the up-and-coming rally driver. A place of pain and suffering during UW Nordic fall intervals, and the best ski location per travel time in the Waterloo region.

Trail Conditions: Snowmobile rolled, somewhat grassy and icy. On the one large uphill, gravel pokes through the snow. Roughly 5 cm of rolled cover on all trails.

Trail KM without loops: At this point 5, depending on your definition of ‘loop’.

Skating: Absolutely.

Classic: No tracks set yet, but could be good.

Rock Skis: In places, but if you stick to the fields and the right areas, race skis are a go. On the back hill, and if you suck at technical, tight corners in the woods, rock skis.

Rating: A John Kristian Dahl, Erik Brandsdal, Ola Vigen Hattestad, and Petter Northug Jr. out of the Norwegian Sprint Team.

 

Northug (Bib 20) and Hattestad (Red Leaders Bib) kicking ass in a World Cup Free Sprint.

 

 

What is interesting about this picture?

UW Season Opener!

While the entire province struggles with warm temperatures, rain, and the frustration of a later-than-usual snowfall, the UW Nordic Ski team has had their first on snow session of the year! A little bit of shovelling, some recycling bins, an arena and several enthusiastic people later, the first annual UW Nordic Ski figure-8 was constructed. It looked something like this:

Derek, Colin and Alison getting their snow legs back.

The comprehensive loop included an uphill, a downhill, and a technical hairpin corner, all designed to challenge the skills developed during the fall on rollerskiis.

Andrew Jeffrey demonstrating proper hairpin-turning technique.

Due to the rather warm temperatures and the large turnout, aggressive repairs had to be conducted to keep snow on the course, but despite these adverse conditions, dozens of laps were skiied, and the loop existed for almost 24 hours.

Most of the team observing Colin working hard.

Rookies Ryan McNamara and Tim Rhodes navigate grass and snow.

Pretty much everyone had an awesome time, and everyone who failed to show up, really wished they had. A highly recommended team-building, muscle-building and skill-building activity. Stay tuned for more news, as the snow flies, so will we.

Today’s Waterloo Snow Report: There isn’t any.

Attendance Challenge!

You may (if you are on the team) or may not (if you are anyone else in the world) have been aware that for the month of November, the University of Waterloo Nordic Ski Team has been running an attendance challenge. This means that the team is divided into two sections who then compete to generate the most attendance points at practise for the month. The losing team makes the winning team a fantastic, healthy and above all health-code approved dinner.

While in the past the natural division has been men vs. women, the pure lack of women on the ski team coupled with the sheer determination of the men has resulted in the creation of two new teams.

The Babies – Team members in either their first or second year at UW. Probably does not reflect mental capacity, ability to grow facial hair or napping frequency.

The Elderly – Team members in third year or higher. A reflection of the wealth and experience gathered by being a little bit older and a whole lot wiser.

Today (November 15) represents the mid-point of the competition, so we thought we would update you as to the score. Let you know who is in line for free eats, and who is looking at a pile of dirty dishes.

Team	Total
The Elderly	44
The Babies	39

Go teams! (The author is unbiased!)

UW Duathlon Mass Start Time Trial

Recently the University of Waterloo held its semi-annual fall run-rollerski duathlon. Staged on a beautiful Saturday morning, the duathlon was designed to test the athletes running, rollerskiing and putting-on-boots-under-pressure abilities. The order of events was a 6 km out-and-back run over a quite hilly course followed by a hectic transition to rollerskis for a further 6km.

Results have been made official at this time, and are as follows:

Name	Run	Transition	Ski	Total
Nolan Beanlands	23:58	1:22	20:59	46:05
Andrew Jeffrey	24:11	1:41	21:15	47:07
Tim Rhodes	24:31	0:35	22:44	48:13
Colin Rhodes	25:39	0:52	25:00	51:31
Ryan McNamara	26:31	1:44	24:17	52:32
Heather Foley	34:13	0:57	22:40	57:50
Alison Stephenson	31:48	1:42	25:10	58:40
Derek Hartman	25:52	-	-	-

 

As per usual with anything involving rollerskiis, there is a disclaimer about ski speed. Various speeds exist, so results contain a measure of inaccuracy.

Injury Update:

Martha Sutton – Week to week with a lower body injury

Kieran Jones – Day to day with a core strain

What Can I Do?

It has come to the attention of the UW Nordic News crew that the fall is prime time for things to go wrong in your training season. Be it injuries, swine flu, or studying for midterms, your butt  has been missing from practise. “But UW Nordic News Team” you whine, “I’ve been swamped – my smelly professor just assigned me 300 pages of molecular orthodoxy, and that’s just for my Medieval History class”. This argument IS a good one. Everyone knows orthodoxy is tricky at the best of times, and mid 15th Century is no exception. However, this does not qualify as a legitimate reason to miss practise, and we here at the UW Nordic News have compiled a list of ways to avoid the busy, soul-and-body-sucking experience that is fall at the University of Waterloo.

1. Drop Medieval History 203. Easiest way to avoid work – get rid of the things eating up your time. Although we do realize it may be after the drop date and you will incur a financial penalty, do it anyway. For the greater good.

2. Don’t share water bottles. Beckie Scott once said “if someone was dying of thirst next to the trail and they asked me for a sip from my Orseldorf, I would say no”. While this may seem extreme, her point is valid. Especially during swine flu season, bring your own water bottle, and make sure you’re the only one who goes mouth-to-mouth with it. Remember Beckie Scott when Beans asks your for a sip, and stay strong. You don’t want what he has.

3. Don’t shake hands. I’m not sure why you would be shaking hands at ski practise, but if you thought about it, DO NOT! While Andrew Jeffries may be innocently offering his mitt for a friendly shake, a closer look reveals you spending a week in bed with your face exploding, and a little one-on-one time with the porcelain god. Ghandi once said “You can’t shake hands with a fist”, and clearly what he meant was you should bump fists instead of shaking.

4. Stretch. Okay, you got me, it has nothing to do with the H1N1 or whatever it’s called nowadays. But it’s freakin’ important. As certain team members have discovered, chronic muscle tightness has led to believing Andrew Jeffrey when he tells you you have a sports hernia, and that he needs to operate urgently with his Swiss Army Knife on North Campus. So stretch when you’re watching TV. When you’re standing in hallways at school. When you’re waiting for your turn to bowl. When your roomate is washing your dishes. When you’re chatting up that cute boy from Thermodynamics you’ve had your eye on. (Here’s when you’re pointing out that I should have said boy or girl. Get real. This is Waterloo, odds are pretty high its a boy, especially if it’s Thermodynamics. Call your local Women in Engineering hotline if you must, but facts are facts.) Trust me, it will make your life better if you do just a little.

5. Sleep. Seems painfully obvious that sleeping is key. However, when you are beset by midterms and the H1N1 you contracted from letting Beans’ sample your water bottle, it may seem like you just have to push through. Fight that temptation – no one ever had a better day by staying awake. Wikipedia states that as an adult you need 7-8 hours a night, and as toddler from 3-5 years you need 11-13, so whatever bracket you feel your mental capacity fits it, try fulfill those needs. As for replacements, while coffee is quite possibly the greatest invention made by mankind next to the Pontiac Aztec, drinking too much of it results in bad things. Lot’s of bad things. Things so bad we can’t tell you about them.

6. Go easy at practise if you’re injured. If something is not working properly in your body, doing consecutive all-out sprints is unlikely to make it better. If that were the case, you would see a lot more track meets happening at hospitals. So instead of acting like your brain has been replaced with a big fat steak and pushing through the workout, do some low impact stuff. Stand around, yell at your team mates, offer positive encouragement, mock their ability at front bridges, make comments such as “man, it’s cold and wet out here, I’m sure glad I’m not lying on my face on a pile of leaves”.

So, while reading this probably used up a fair amount of your precious time, don’t fret, because you gained some helpful tips. Maybe you will even use them. If you do, do not forget where you got them. As usual, we here at the UW Nordic News are always prepared for the worst, and are offering free flu shots. Apply within to jump the line just like the Calgary Flames – only this time we won’t tell anyone. Two-tier health care – it’s better for everyone, so long as ‘everyone’ means rich people.

Mountain Mania Results!

With the results finally being labeled official and public disclosure forms signed by all participants, times are now available!

Name	Technique	Time	Equipment
Tim H (Tim 1)	Cycling	0:16:27	Not a Ducati
Nolan	Skate	0:21:57	Elpex F1 Sprint
Kieran	Skate	0:22:28	Elpex F1
Justin (Coach)	Classic	0:22:42	Eaglesport Classic
Tim H (Tim 1)	Classic	0:24:52	N/A
Heather	Skate	0:25:59	Salt ‘Speed Edition’ Skis
Derek	Double Pole	0:43:15	N/A
April	Ski Hike	0:49:09	Telescoping Poles with Compass

If you have questions regarding the legitimacy of your time, your equipment or the spelling of your name, please keep them to yourself, as we are not running a democracy.

We're Back! The UW Fall Camp! Extreme-Awesome Edition! Now with more Bacteria's!

With the temperature dropping, and a lack of action on the UW blog, a new post can only mean one thing. The UW annual fall camp has returned for yet another season, another session, another unreal marathon of excessive training, inordinate food consumption and always mandatory and often graphic team bonding.

Located at the picturesque location of Highlands Nordic Ski Club, just outside the bustling metropolis of Singhampton, Ontario, the camp capitalized on fantastic fall weather. Due to the existence of trees, fall had arrived at Highlands (unlike Waterloo – the concrete jungle continued to defy the wishes of Mother Nature) and rendered the Escarpment a riot of yellows, oranges, browns, greens and reds. The mornings were sharp with frost, but both Saturday and Sunday featured wall to wall sun and the afternoons were sweaty.

While the turnout was hampered slightly by illness, educational commitments and the hiccups, there was still plenty of sweating to be done. The suffering started on Friday night with the arrival of Andrew ‘the Pain’ Jeffrey and his grab bag of strength toys and the institution of a circuit which somehow managed to feature massive hamstring destruction despite being advertised as ‘full body’.

After a less-than-full sleep, Saturday morning dawned with hot oatmeal, chilly athletes, and two unnecessarily aggressive cats. After a brief skirmish with the cats over breakfast, round one went to the athletes, who then hustled out the door for a rollerski session. The rollerski was interspersed with intensive all-consuming technique, featuring none other than Glen ‘Naps’ Mcintyre and Head Coach Justin Faulkner. Armed with a semi-functional digital camera and serious amounts of fleece, the two set out to change the world, but ended up settling for Nolan Beanlands’ skate technique.

With technique wrapped up and stomachs growling, the gang headed back to the Woolner House of Camo for lunch. Forty-five minutes and 30+ tuna melts for 7 people later, lunch transitioned smoothly into napping for some, working for others, and petting cats for others. Snoring, meowing and scratching of pencils filled the house for the better part of an hour, until ankles were shaken for the afternoons ski hike around the Red Loop at Highlands. An entirely uneventful ski hike later, the entire team convened out front of the lodge for team building and unbelievably fun activities such as (removed – had to be there) and (sorry, you should have come). Afterwards Coach Faulkner passed out million-yen bills to all camp attendees.

Despite protests of “sore muscles” and “horrible injuries”, cooler heads prevailed and the traditional excessively-intense soccer game ensued. The small sides contributed to fast and furious odd man rushes, and resulted in the discovery that certain team members were far better at hitting posts than open nets. A hat trick for resident soccer pro Derek Hartman and several strained groins later, the team packed it in and headed home for dinner.

Another feeding frenzy ensued, involving salad and an obscene amount of pasta sauce. Also a few other things, for those concerned about dietary variety. Sign up for Sunday mornings’ Pure Pownage - Mountain Mania ’09 was undertaken, and bed time was expedited as everyone realized the following morning was going to involve some suffering.

For those unaware, Mountain Mania is the yearly event in which a Waterloo Nordic member must choose one variety of technique and then complete the 5km course. Running from the town of Duntroon to the quarry at the top of the escarpment, the course contains upwards of 6 major climbs, 1 small downhill, a large elevation gain and several angry people in trucks. Popular choices for technique include: rollerski-skate (not impossible), rollerski-classic (quite doable), double-pole (slightly hellish), run (miserable), rollerski-skate-legs only (unbearable).

A slightly slow morning saw more oatmeal, and round 2 with the aggressive cats, not to mention the toasted bagels topped with a thick layer of pain. Frost on the rooftops and grass was a hot topic, as the collected group discussed clothing, strategies, and whether this activity was in fact optional or not. As the cars were being loaded, enthusiasm was building, and Africa by Toto was being hummed.

At 9 AM on the dot, the first time-trialist left the telephone-pole start line, and roughly 9 minutes later the last starter began. As the climb steepened, temperatures rose, muscles hurt, and testosterone raged (at least among some). Most felt that the experience was definitely an experience, whether good or bad. At the time of publication, results remain classified, but they will be made available to the public later this week.

The small number of participants (6) meant that by 10.00 AM everyone had completed the course, and was itching to move onto the next activity. After a short blast back to the farmhouse to inhale a few tuna melts, granola bars and cookies with peanut butter, the athletes were re-geared for another fall camp classic: the ski hike on the Bruce Trail with side trip into the caves.

Always a beautiful stroll along the bluffs overlooking Collingwood and Georgian Bay, this year was no different. With leaves, burrs and rocks it was a pretty stereotypical Canadian fall ski hike. After spending a solid chunk of time playing with boulders and climbing rocks, it was decided that one group would put their hustle hats on and get back to the Camo Shack early in order to prepare lunch and expedite the departure process. While on the surface a fantastic idea, pounding feet, covered ground and slippery rocks make for treacherous up-tempo activity. Several kilometers and a sprained ankle later, Team Tuna melt piled into the van and headed back to the Woolner Place and began cranking out lunch.

A furious food-filled hour followed, involving cheese, cookies, spaghetti, bagels and hot chocolate. A quick clean and sweep, pack and exit, and both vehicles were on the road back to civilization and the books. A good weekend weather and training-wise, the UW Nordic Ski team would like to remind you to wear a helmet while engaged in strenuous activity. Thank you, and good day!

Pictures will follow.

Fall!

With summer ending and fall beginning, things at the UW Nordic News are set to heat up once again.
While it is just the first week of school, preparation for the upcoming season has already begun. Members of the team have been sighted running, and in extreme cases, rollerskiing. Officially, practises have yet to begin, but currently exercise is being run out of the unofficial headquarters, otherwise known as the Barn. Please inquire further if you are interested.

Next week features the first team activity - the walk-on meeting. Come out and learn about the team, the competition schedule, and what awesome-cool things you have to look forward to this fall. All are welcome, bring your game faces and your favourite pair of poles (just kidding about that one).

Where: PAC 2021 (that's the big athletic-looking building with a gym inside it)
When: Wednesday Sept. 23, 2009
Time: 6.30 PM
Why: Why not?

And we're back!

Summer!

It's that time of year again...
The season without snow, with rollerskiing, running, bugs, sun, heat, sweat, misery, work, hammocks, beer, lakes, swimming, more sweating and finally, and most important for us here at the UW Nordic News, a general lack of UW events.
That's right, for 4 long months the UW ski team is scattered throughout Ontario and Canada frantically trying to make enough cash to survive another winter, or if you're on a screwy Co-Op stream, frantically trying to learn as many things as possible to prevent you from being removed from the ski team in the fall.
Unfortunately this means there will be little exciting news or excessive adjectives posted on here for the immediate future. As training camps are planned and executed over the course of the summer, information will be posted, but for the most part it will be sporadic.
Thanks for checking in with us on a regular basis this year, if you didn't do that, sorry, you missed out big time.
Next year things will be much the same, perhaps with more features, perhaps with consistent posting. Reader feedback is always encouraged, either reply in the 'Comments' section or send us an email.
Enjoy the heat, because in a short 5 months, it will be alllll gone.

The UW Nordic News Team

Awards!

As April is upon Southern Ontario, so is the end of the ski season (despite the snowfall of last week). With the end of the ski season comes the inevitable awards season! This is the part of the year where people are recognized for their hard work, dedication to the team or overall awesomeness. This year's awards are as follows:

MVP (or MVS):
Awarded yearly for best performance on the team, or contributions above and beyond, the MVS is fairly self explanatory. If you haven't figured it out, if you're an MVS, you're pretty much entitled to whatever you want. Rides to practise, fluoro's on your skis at races, bagels out of the rookies lunches, you name it, you got it.

Female MVS: Nellie Dow
No surprises here. Nellie Dow has been outstanding her past 2 years of OUA Competition, All-Starring twice. This year she capped off her season with a 4th place at OUA's, a personal-best. On top of that, she was the Women's Team Captain and maintained a full courseload with a high average, as is evidenced by her intimate knowledge of the 3rd floor of the Dana Porter Library, as well as being able to tell you exactly how many books are in the St. Jerome's Library.

Male MVS: Kieran T. Jones
From his point of view, also no surprise, but for the rest of the team, who realized that listening to Kieran Jones was a waste of time, it came as a shock. Jones, in his third season with the Warriors, posted several personal best finishes, including an 11th place monster-come-from-behind-pull-out-all-the-stops-un-real-storm-the-finish-line performance on the Classic Mass Start day at OUA Championships. Overall at OUA's Jones finished in 16th as UW's top male skier. Described as a "team leader" who was "dedicated to practise" and was in general an "all-around great guy" by Head Coach Faulkner, Jones, for possibly the first time ever in his life, deserved an award which he received.

Most Improved
Almost as important as the MVS category, the most improved goes out to those who pulled up their socks from the previous year. This is usually acheived through an increased dedication to training, a significant decline in academic performance, or by failing the drug tests at OUA Championships.

Male: Yudai Nakagawa
Without a doubt the strongest member of the UW ski team, last year Yudai Nakagawa relied mostly on his gigantic calves and sleep deprivation to propel him to success on the ski trails. This year, with renewed dedication to physical activity, Nakagawa quickly became the bouldering and slacklining expert on the ski team. With his focus shifting away from legs and onto the upper body, he improved greatly, moving from placing 39th and 34th in the 2008 OUA Champs to 29th and 27th at the 2009 OUA Champs, and thus is well deserving of the 'Most Improved' Title.

Female: Kelly Skinner
Without a doubt the shortest member of the UW ski team, Kelly Skinner is also the only mother on the team. Taking last year off to have her first of what will undoubtably become countless children put a damper on her training and racing for the season, but Skinner returned with a vegenance and a baby jogger this past fall. Again, not to harp on this point or anything, but following the grand tradition of birthing mothers turning in hot ski seasons, Skinner placed far better this year than her last two competitive seasons, in '07 and'05 respectively.

Rookie of the Year
Always hotly contested, as rookies generally come in with great enthusiasm, ideals and acne, this year the competition was a little different. While UW did have the requisite baby-faced, pre-drinking age, cut-the-crusts-off-my-white-bread-peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich rookie in Nolan Beanlands, the team also featured some more elderly first-timers who managed to steal the coveted award. Presented for dedication to the team, exceptional performances or bringing a much needed fresh presence, the ROY always goes to those who deserve it.

Male ROY: Andrew Jeffery
Much has been made of this young man for the entire ski season. Be it his uncanny resemblance to the University of Guelph's John Rennie, his unrelenting dedication to a massive pile of curricular and extra-curricular activities, or his willingness to come out for the varsity ski team in his third year at UW, Andrew Jeffery pretty much did everything a rookie could and then some. Somewhere in the middle of laying down consistently the best performances on the UW team throughout the OUA qualifiers and the UW time trial season while at the same time juggling intramural ice-hockey, ball-hockey, six courses and volunteering, AJ became the standout for Rookie of the Year.

Female ROY: Jessica Stevenson
Much like Andrew Jeffery, Jessica Stevenson waited until her 3rd year at UW to join the team. An shadowy, ghost-like figure for most of the fall due to coop commitments, Stevenson had the misfortune of joining the ski team at the beginning of Winter Term, thus missing out on the many team building opportunies in the fall. Luckily for us, however, Jess is neither wierd nor socially awkward, so after a few nights at Bechtel Park getting frostbite together, things were pretty much normal. A previous standout for Foothills Nordic, Jess took 3 years off racing and her willingness to get back onto the boards after such a layoff earned her the title of Rookie of the Year.


The 'Final Climb' Award
Named after the last race in the Tour de Ski which features a ski race up a downhill run, gaining approximatly 425 vertical meters in 3km, this award is doled out to those who take the most possible pain in a season. The 'Final Climb' in the Tour is done on a voluntary basis, so to achieve this award it must be the same. Getting hit by a car while rollerskiing, closing your finger in the van door or falling on the S-Turn at Highlands and having to spend 20 minutes picking trees out of your belly button because of your own idiocy does not count.

Derek Hartman and Martha Sutton
Split between the two because the panel couldn't decide who suffered more, both Hartman and Sutton struggled valiantly - and finished. Martha managed to sustain a knee injury early in the fall which kept her in a knee brace and unable to train for the majority of the season, but, determined to give the UW Women's team the best possible shot at success, came to OUA Champs anyway.
While Hartman was not injured for quite as long, a groin injury in the middle of January limited his on-snow racing and intensity sessions, throwing a wrench into his plans for the ski season. What was the best shape of his life quickly became a nightmare, as at OUA's he was restricted to large amounts double-poling. Despite this, Hartman still managed to post OUA personal best placings.

OUA Championships Classic Mass Start - Finally

Well, now that it's official that no one ever checks this blog anymore, it's time to post the most exciting, surprising, fascinating and spine-chilling news of the season.
Despite the fact the race was over a month ago, a recap, some pictures and a review of the Waterloo results remains necessary.

Sunday morning saw the women prepping for a hilly two-lap mass-start 10km. With perennial All-Star favourite and classic skiing specialist Nellie Dow sitting just out of the top 10 after Saturdays skate race, the Waterloo coaching staff and Men's Team hunkered down for what was going to be an intense race. They were not to be disappointed, although a lot of other OUA women were.
Following a hectic start with 41 women jostling for position, Dow managed to find herself in the front group with an assortment of high-powered OUA women, including Queens' Julie McVicar, a pile of Lakehead women, and Carleton's rookie sensation, Adele Lay. A little further back, Kelly Skinner, Jess Stevenson and Martha Sutton rounded out Waterloo's women's team. With 4 starters, this effectively doubled the number of women Waterloo fielded at last years' OUA Championships, and gave our women a chance to punish U of T severly on the scoresheet.



Nellie Dow (center) destroying the pride of Queens (left) and Carleton (right) on her first lap.









Skiing strongly, Dow managed to come through the top of the stadium in 3rd, on her final loop just ahead of Linnea Kershaw, sister of National Team member, World Cup participant, all-around Canadian skiing hero Devon Kershaw. The two battled it out to the finish, with Dow falling just short of an OUA medal, finishing in 4th, but easily securing her spot as an OUA All-Star yet again.
Shortly thereafter, Kelly Skinner crossed the line in 23rd, the exact same placing as Saturday's skate race. Jess Stevenson rebounded from a tough day at the office on Saturday to post the 29th fastest time, narrowly edging out a U of T rival. Martha Sutton cruised to 32 place, and while it was off her pace from last year at OUA's, her ability to fight through a season-ending knee injury to give Waterloo a team is inspiring and courageous.



Kelly Skinner fighting off the agressive U of Guelph.












Martha Sutton, injured knee and all, also dueling the persistent and ever-present U of Guelph. Man, they have a lot of skiers.









With the women finished racing for the year, it was time for the Waterloo men to take to the chevron for the 15km Classic. Cam Moore looked to be Waterloo's most promising hope for a male All-Star, as his 13th place on the skate day indicated, as well as last year's success on the circuit. However Andrew Jeffrey had been improving all year, and knew when to bring his A game, and Kieran Jones had put all his chips on the classic race, exclusively double poling for weeks beforehand. Not to mention Yudai Nakagawa's raw upper body strength and Nolan Beanlands green hat. As for Derek Hartman, going into Sunday with a strained groin and a best-ever OUA placing on Saturday, his goal was simply to finish.
Due to the small stadium size, and the ridiculous loop that was planned for the start of the race, the Waterloo men opted for discretion, and stayed out of the 50 man-hectic traffic jam which began the race. Once out of the tight turns full of testosterone-charged Lakehead and Guelph skiers, Moore and Jones got on their horses, and made some moves up the field. Jeffery, a little intimidated by his first mass start spent a little time working out the kinks. Nakagawa and Beanlands, who prefer skating, were a little further back but still holding strong.

Kieran Jones followed closely by Cam Moore on the first lap, both just having worked their way out of significant traffic.












Yudai Nakagawa, Andrew Jeffery and Nolan Beanlands (in the green hat) preparing to completely overwhelm U of T's Andrew Bradbury.








After the first lap, things began to shake apart with strong Lakehead and Carleton contingents stretching out the pack. After losing Moore, Jeffery and a large chase pack, Jones bided his time until the start of the second lap, and then began his quest for a top 10 finish. Passing 5 men in the last 2km to set himself up for a sprint finish, Jones came into the last 500m loop 10 meters behind Lakehead's Matt Cuddy and Jake Porter, both strong skiers. With a little jump on the last uphill, Jones downed Porter in a heated double-poling exchange, but just ran out of real estate to catch Cuddy, and had to settle for 11th place. Moore and Jeffery, a little further back in the field were busy engaged in a tight battle between each other and several rivals for key spots. Moore managed to throw some bows and slide into 22nd, with Jeffery 3 seconds behind in 23rd.

Kieran Jones crushing Lakehead's Jake Porter in the double pole into the finish.











Nakagawa rounded out the scoring men with an impressive 27th, fighting off U of T's hotshot rookie Todd Inkila, who clearly could not handle Nakagawa's double-poling strength. Beans, after posting his OUA best result on Saturday, ran out of gas on his second lap and faded back in the field a little, finishing 36th while Derek Hartman's groin suffered a relapse, forcing him to double pole 5km into the finish, placing 38th.

Yudai Nakagawa coming into the finish strong. The man who usually is behind the camera finally gets some photo time.

















The final result showed no UW men in the Top 10 overall, disappointing to be sure, but strong results on both days indicate that the young talent on the team is maturing nicely. While this year and next can still be considered rebuilding years for the UW team, especially with the departure of Nellie Dow, the fact that the entire mens team save Mike Neilly, who was not present at OUA's, will be returning bodes well.