OUA Qualifier #2 - Sudbury

Surrounded by trees, lakes, large sections of Canadian shield and a ozone-layer deteriorating number of smelting smoke stacks, Sudbury, Ontario and more specifically Laurentian University is well known for its ability to hold provincial level races and high level university skiers. Last year Laurentian University held OUA Championships, and hot on the heels of the success of the event, stepped up to host another university race. OUA Qualifier #2, scheduled for the always snowy always cold weekend of February 7 and 8. Unfortunately, Mother Nature failed to get the message, and instead scheduled the complete range of weather activities, from -10 on the pre-ski, to +5 and raining on the Saturday and then flurries overnight and back down to -15 overnight, creating a layer of ice covering everything for the race on Sunday morning. Regardless of natures cruel and ridiculous intentions, UW ski team went to Sudbury to race, not to see the Nickel or to go Science North, so that’s precisely what they did.

After an uneventful Friday evening, the team awoke Saturday morning to a warm, sloppy, Guelph-induced, unnecessarily early bus departure for the race site. Emerging from the bus onto the Laurentian ski trails, there was a distinct mist in the air, along with the typical ever-present penguin murdering smog. Although The Weather Network deemed it a ‘Low Smog’ day, even the most casual observer would have noticed otherwise.

The race course, despite being covered with a light mist, was still in great shape. Armed with klistered up skis, the OUA Men went first, skiing a 3-loop, individual start 15km. Most found out that despite Justin, Glen and Colin’s hard work that it was not a day for great grip and impressive striding. After a tough first lap which had many complaining of clumps of snow in the grip zone after the soft hills, the men decided to double pole and herringbone. Several sore backs and tired lat’s later, the 6-man UW men’s team crossed the line, though not all at the same time. Leading the way with yet another OUA Personal Best was Kieran Jones in 10^th, closely followed by rookie-phenom Andrew Jeffrey who continued his unbelievable breakout season with a 13^th. Cam Moore continued his tuning up, finishing in 14^th and Yudai Nakagawa, only slightly tired due to his bouldering commitments crossed the line in 16^th. Mike Neilly, fresh off the IR and itching to get the rust out of his legs at 23^rd, and rookie Nolan Beanlands continued to improve his classic skiing, finishing in 24^th. Unfortunately, the men’s team again missed Derek Hartman’s presence, as he remained in Waterloo on the IR. Even with Hartman’s absence the men’s field, while a little smaller than the first OUA race, was still deep, containing 43 competitors.

With the dudes out of the way, the 24 OUA women began their individual start 10km with about as much success in the grip department as the men. Ed. Note – This is in no way an indictment of the waxing technicians, it was just a herringbone/double poling type of day. The best of the Warriors herringbone/double-poling women was again Nellie Dow, showing great pre-OUA Championships form by turning in a 5^th place. She was followed by Kelly “Mom” Skinner who finished a fantastic 13^th place, who has been paralleling other great Canadian skiing women such as Sara Renner and Milaine Theriault by making a comeback post-pregnancy. While not recovering from a recent pregnancy, rookie Jess Steveson again posted a great result, ending in 16^th. Stevenson was hampered by overzealous starting officials, who assessed her with a 30 second penalty for leaving the line before the official had said “go”. Ed. Note – On Sunday, a Laurentian skier was observed doing the same, but he was not held for the same 30 second penalty. Our displeasure in lack of consistency needs to be noted. When asked about the miscue, Stevenson said “I went between ‘one’ and ‘go’, which hardly merits a 30 second penalty. At the same time it really fired me up and made me turn in a really hot first lap. I’m suffering from mixed emotions, on one hand I want to slap the guy silly, but on the other, I want to give him a big hug.” The rest of the Waterloo women were DNS’s as Svenja Morgan remained in Waterloo due to illness, and Martha Sutton, while present and cheering, was still suffering from an unspecified lower body injury, and remains Day-to-Day.

With the messy, wet but more-or-less successful skiing experience over with, the team hit the wax benches, klister scrapers and solvent to clean up the skis and then headed back to the hotel for some snoozes, a trip to the Finnish bakery for some jelly pigs, and watching John Kucera win gold at Alpine World Championships. Following a team dinner led by wine-connoisseur Mike Neilly and a redundant-question filled team meeting, most retired to bed with the sounds of terrible wedding music pounding in their heads.

With the temperature diving below 0 overnight, the puddles and mist had tuned into ice. With about as much skill as the current Ottawa Senators, the team managed to cross skating-rink like parking lot to the bus in the morning. Arriving at the newly renamed Laurentian Ice Fields, keen observers on the Guelph team were overheard to have said “wow, it’s going to be fast today”. The MacDonald’s-for-lunch-and-dinner-on-every-bus-trip-we-take-together team observed correctly – Sunday’s conditions were lightning fast. The women’s 5km individual start began first, and it was clear from how quickly the 24 women skated the course that it was going be in an early afternoon finish to the OUA weekend. Nellie Dow had a tough day involving at least one bail and had to settle for 8^th, while Kelly Skinner improved on Saturday’s skate result, finishing in 11^th. Jess Stevenson continued her strong weekend of racing, finishing in 17^th and avoiding the false start penalty. Martha Sutton again decided to sit out the race, and her status remains Day-to-Day.

In the men’s 10km, most of the Waterloo men were getting ready to throw down great skate races on the heels of Saturday’s tricky classic race. The skate specialists stepped up and used the fast conditions to lay down their best results of the OUA season. Leading the charge was Cam Moore, who was overjoyed at the return to Laurentian, as it was the site of his OUA All-Star performance last season. Moore finished 7^th, and was followed closely by ROY standout Andrew Jeffrey in 9^th. Classic and sprint specialist Kieran Jones slipped to 18^th after a hot first lap, and Mike Neilly continued his road to recovery, crossing the line in 20^th. Nolan Beanlands, despite his nonstop results calculations during the race, put in his best OUA result of the season, finishing in 26^th, closely followed by bouldering expert Yudai Nakagawa in 28^th.

Boarding the bus for home, most reported having a great 2 days of racing, despite the variety of weather. Next in the OUA season is OUA Championships, held in Haliburton, Ontario, home of the province-famous Sir Sanford Fleming College of Glass Blowing and Performing Arts, and hosted by none other than your University of Waterloo. The UW team is ramping up nicely, and most believe that UW will be ready when the time comes. As Nolan Beanlands put it “next Saturday UW will be ready – rested from Family Day, reading week, and getting ripped on the beach, we’ll be ready to grip it and rip it. Stay tuned, baby”.

For full results please see: http://www.laurentiannordic.com/