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.