OUA Qualifier #1

What: Ontario University Athletics Qualifier #1/Ontario Cup #1
Where: North Bay Nordic Center, North Bay, Ontario
When: Jan. 17-18, 2008
Who: The pre-selected University of Waterloo Nordic Team
Why: It seemed like a really good idea to get on the bus at the PAC when it arrived at 8:45. Oh, and to do two races, an Individual Start Classic on Saturday and an Individual Start Skate on Sunday.
How: Well, the transit to North Bay was done by bus, but all the skiing was done on cross-country skis. Funny, seeing as that's what kind of race weekend it was.

In the week leading up the the races, North Bay, like the rest of Ontario, had been gripped with viciously cold temperatures. Reports of it reaching as cold as -34 without the wind chill were reported by local resident/UW ski team member Cam Moore, currently doing coop in beautiful, scenic and cold-as-hell North Bay. Regardless, the team exited the bus on Friday quickly, either fresh with excitement for the first real race of the season, or simply glad to be off a confined bus half-filled with Guelph skiers whose favourite movies don't extend much beyond Transformers, anything with Paris Hilton, or Joe Dirt.
After a hurried loop of the 8km course for the men, and a frantic 5km for the women, it was back on the bus to avoid the -25 weather and excessive, rampant porta-pottie placement. An evening of eating, team meetings and drinking water followed for the athletes, while the triple-threat coaching staff of Justin Faulkner, Glen McIntyre, and athlete/coach or coach/athlete Colin Rhodes tackled the perfectly prepared race skis for the next mornings race.
The next morning, the cold temperatures pushed back the start for the mens 16 km and the womens 10km races. After dithering about, the men managed to get their cheese together and motor off into the cold. The field was large and talented, as 66 men from 8 universities showed up. The perennial skiing powerhouses Lakehead and Carleton Universities posted a combined 6 men in the top 10. The UW men also brought their A-game, with 3rd year pro Kieran Jones leading the charge in 19th place, his best showing on the OUA circuit since he was a rookie. In 20th, right behind Jones, was the unstoppable, ever-surprising, slightly insane rookie Andrew "Slow" Jeffrey who in his first year skiing competitively at any level has shocked the competition. Cam Moore finished in 32nd, and, when interviewed post race said "I was spurred on by my new hometown crowd, had some fantastically grippy wax, and had a great sleep last night". Moore was closely followed by Yudai Nakagawa, who finished in 34th and again walked away with the OUAA category. Rookie Nolan "Results" Beanlands, new to classic skiing and tired from exhaustively researching the competition finished in 42nd while skating specialist Derek Hartman crossed the line in 50th. Unfortunatly team leader/captain/trianer/hardman Mike Neilly was injured, and could not compete. With the men done, it was the time for the baby-producing side of the team to get down to business.
The women's field produced a similar depth to the mens, with 49 women getting at least as far as the start line of the 10km. Carleton dominated on the womens side as well, putting 4 women in the top 10. Even before the results rolled in, it was a great day for the UW women's team, as a whopping 5 women made the trip to North Bay to race. UW's Nellie Dow, who has time and again proved her value to the team with top results continued her great classic skiing performances, posting a solid 6th place. Kelly Skinner, continuing her comeback on the OUA circuit, posted a strong 24th, while rookie Jessive Stevenson was 32nd. Martha Sutton, who was last years Female Rookie of the Year, has been struggling with injury all fall but still skied to 35th, just ahead of Svenja Morgan, who was 36th. After a cold, tough, first days racing, the team fueled up, in Moore's case with cheap hotdogs, in Morgan's, soy nut butter and headed back to the hotel in the vain attempt to catch the end of the World Cup races happening in on the Olympic trails in Whistler.
Results Day 1
Men
1. Colin Abbot, Carleton U 49:39.7
2. Scott Sullivan, Lakehead 50:22.6
3. Chris Hamilton, Lakehead 51:25.2
UW Results
19. Kieran Jones 57:38.9
20. Andrew Jeffrey 57:42.8
32. Cam Moore 59:50.0
34. Yudai Nakagawa 1:00:18.0
42. Nolan Beanlands 1:03:00.6
50. Derek Hartman 1:05:43.8
Women
1. Alana Thomas 35:24.4
2. Mary Thompson 36:04.1
3. Zoe Braul 36:27.0
UW Reults
6. Nellie Dow 37:47.1
24. Kelly Skinner 43:25.6
32. Jessica Stevenson 45:09.5
35. Martha Sutton 46:43.6
36. Svenja Morgan 46:47.0


And thats all from day one of racing! Check back tomorrow for Day 2, and stay tuned for both the Photo of the Week and a brand-new, never-before seen feature! (Hint: It may have been talked about already, but seriously, this time its really coming.)

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OUA Race Team

The race team for OUA #1 in North Bay has been announced.
Earlier this week, in a press release with local media representatives, university officials and local athletes in attendance, head Coach Justin Faulkner presented this years Waterloo Varsity Nordic Ski Team.

Women's team:
Nellie F. Dow
Kelly Skinner
Martha Sutton
Svenja Morgan
Jessica Stevenson

Men's team:
Mike Neilly
Kieran T. Jones
Derek Hartman
Yudai Z. Nakagawa
Cameron W. Moore
Andrew P. Jeffrey
Nolan R.C. Beanlands

Immediatly following the naming of the team, Faulkner spoke on the selections and answered a few questions.
"Our team this year is deep, dedicated and experienced" Faulkner said. "With a few notable exceptions, such as rookie Andrew Jeffrey, our team is mostly returning athletes who have experience on the local, provincial, nation, international and galactic scale." On this years crop of rookies, Faulkner said "exceptionally strong and fast, after a few races I have no doubt they will have the whole thing figured out."

The North Bay OUA Qualifier goes this weekend (Jan. 17-18) Expect a full report on the first day of racing later tonight.

Winter Camp Report Part #2

Part 2 - Sorry for the delay, the author did not attend much of monday, and needed to conduct in depth interviews, review tape, and in general procrastinate.

Ahhh, the gift exchange. A Waterloo tradition which usually means finding the best crap in your house and re-gifting like a champ. Depending on the person, who either receive quality, thoughtful gifts, or equally quality, thoughtful, environmentally sustainable but un-economically stimulating super-presents. A bit of an epic this time around, as Justin and Kelly had some serious wedding-present re-gifting to do. Highlights were Surabhi generously donating a laundry hamper, received by Team Faulkner, Nellie gifting some solid food as well as cupboard leftovers, and Mike Neilly receiving a well-loved, piece-of-Barn history frying pan. After everyone had revelled in their new toys, and Colin and Derek had continued to wrestle with the hot tub which was determined to stay dry, the team wrapped it up and headed to bed.
Monday welcomed in the third variety of weather for the weekend. With high winds and plenty of rain, as well as near double digit temperatures, the trail conditions had deteriorated to a disgusting mess. However, Waterloo being the keeners they are, it didn’t prevent the Activity of the Day. A skating race with the style of an inverse pursuit was on the schedule, and the athletes grudgingly headed to Larry’s Glacier for the race. Most spent the way up questioning just what the heck they were doing, mainly due to the conditions being absolute trash. The trails were soft and littered with branches. As well, there was a nice surprise on the trails as it was necessary to ski across a monstrous lake (at least 20 ft deep) which had formed on the trails. Finally arriving at Larry’s Glacier, the collective combined brainpower decided that the conditions were less than ideal for a race and it was cancelled, resulting in thunderous applause from the gathered team. The time trial was replaced with skiing one lap of the course and heading back to the Woolner house. This signalled the end of the camp for a number of athletes as those with the larger brains headed on back to Waterloo.
However, in the continuing trend of the camp, the weather had other plans. Instead of staying warm, the temperature dipped rapidly to below freezing. This resulted in the top layer of the snow becoming very icy. With continued high winds, the conditions were perfect for some tarp skiing on the crust. Despite the fantastic idea, there was no tarp available, making the past two sentences entirely redundant. Instead, some nice crust skiing was accomplished, with biblically fast conditions.
Back at the house, the hot tub was finally filled up and operational. Unfortunately it takes longer to heat up than it takes an Arts student to do basic math, so it would be at least another day before all of the hard work getting it to operational would finally pay off, and the team could successfully have a hot tub.


Thanks to D-Rok, who proved an invaluable asset to this entry. You win a living spot in the Barn for the Winter 2009! Congratulations!
All others, apply within for your chance to win.

Photo of the Week #3

Although a slightly dated photo, Justin still has a child.
Justin and Natalie (freshly birthed, and by fresh I mean months, not seconds).
Justin calls it extra training for him. I call it encouraging laziness in his child.





Thanks to Nellie Dow for the photo.
Taken at the fall camp on the Bruce Trail.

Winter Camp Report Part #1

Mid-December. Snow. Skiing. Duntroon Highlands. The University of Waterloo Nordic Ski Team. As always, this can mean only one thing. The UW Winter Camp. For the first time in recent memory, the team was forced out of their usual farmhouse into the mysterious, rustic , slightly less spacious, dishwasher-less, aging, yet charismatic Woolner Place. The other unusual change was the Saturday morning start date instead of the common Friday evening. While most of the team understood that this meant there was nowhere to stay at Highlands for Friday night, cagey alumnus Jamie Tremaine managed to show up Friday night anyways. After attempting to scare the crap out of the regular Farmhouses’ real occupants and realizing that they were in fact a group of CANSI instructors rather than UW athletes, Tremaine used his brilliant negotiating skills to secure himself a bed.

Arriving Saturday morning at the correct time coach Colin Rhodes, Kieran Jones, Derek Hartman and alumni Greg Brigley took advantage of the fantastic -15 and sunny temperature to get moving. Rhodes, Jones and Hartman opted for the freshly groomed, perfect corduroy of the outer red loop and eventually managed to get 2 hours of skiing in before heading back down to the Woolner Place for lunch. Meeting up with the food crew, Nellie Dow and April Ross and the grad student crew, Mike Neilly, the entire team dummied a few dozen wraps and then headed out for a skate technique/downhill/balance/star turn/esoteric heart rate VO2 Max resistance test. Although the chosen location, the stadium, was being blasted by freezing winds, the entire team suffered heroically and got down to the serious business of coach Rhodes’ technique clinic. After being blitzed with technique tips, the team decided to wrap things up for the day and head down for dinner.

Sunday dawned warm, and lightly snowing, which normally is welcome, except when warm means above zero and the activity planned for the morning is a classic time trial. An hour and a half later, with 15 different grip waxes, dozens of testing trips, a lot of corking and the acceptance that Carrot was not a viable waxing option, the UW team finally made their way up to Larry’s Glacier to start the time trial. New arrivals for the morning included Surabhi Venkatesh, rookie Svenja Morgan and wax tech supreme Glen.

With Glen and his clip board at the Glacier, former athlete Colin Rhodes was freed up to ski. Rhodes pounded out quick laps, skiing away with the 3 loop 9-km, as his grip existed. After a hard fought battle for the final 2 laps, Kieran Jones used his superior lane selection to edge out Mike Neilly. In what seems to be a trend in UW time trials of late, Jones again held onto his finishing place through the ability to successful cut off his opponents rather than his speed. [Ed. Note: Kieran Jones would like to challenge all comers in a 100m sprint, either classic or skate] On the women’s side, Nellie Dow again solidified her top status on the team with a win. Unfortunately full results are not available at this time, and will follow shortly.

As most were quite bagged following the time trial, the afternoon’s program involved lots of napping, and a little bit of skating in the unusually warm weather. After a loop or two to take advantage of the snow before the forecasted rain and warm weather hit overnight, most headed back home to the Woolner Place for dinner, a bit of studying and the infamous gift exchange.

Photo of the Week #2

Andrew 'JR' Jeffery nursing his frozen fingers after the first time trial of the season. Gloves are pretty handy sometimes...









Photo Credit: Surabhi Venkatesh, on Yudai's camera
Submit your own photo's via email to kieranj@magma.ca.