Racing with Carleton this year has definitely been a blast! Not only does the Carleton Nordic Team have a lot of depth and talent to it but the team genuinely consists of very supportive, highly charismatic, and sportsmanlike individuals. This year at OUA’s the team proved just that.
The races began under the lights on Friday night at the Laurentian Ski Hill in North Bay. This was the night of the team sprints. Each team consisted of two skiers, each skiing 3 legs of the race. Despite the icy, cold weather all 8 teams (4 women's teams & 4 men’s teams) advanced from the semis to the finals. After an exciting finish in the women’s race, resulting in Kendra Murray & Kyla Vanderzwet finishing 1st, the men did not disappoint and carried on the same energy brought by the ladies. The women's results were: Kendra Murray & Kyla Vanderzwet in 1st, Liza Rozina & Holly Jones in 5th, Logan Hong & Sarah Murray in 6th, and Adrienne Hynes & Isabelle MacLean finishing in 8th The mens results were: Steffan Lloyd & Colin Abbott in 1st, Patrick Van Walraven & Carrington Pomeroy in 4th, Nelson Allan & Avery Vreugdhenhil-Beauclerc in 6th, and Chris Weller & Graham Perry in 7th.
Saturday the 14th was the 6.6km classic race held at the Nippissing University Trails. With temperatures that were more manageable, Carleton had another strong day of racing. On the men’s side: Colin finished 1st, Steffan-2nd, Carrington-5th, Patrick-10th, Nelson-11th, Chris-14th, Graham-17th, and Avery-19th. On the women’s side: Kendra finished 1st, Adrienne-4th, Kyla-7th, Holly-13th, Sarah-17th, Liza-18th, Logan-19th, and Isabelle 20th.
On Sunday morning the team woke up to a temperature of -31 (brrrrrrr). The race officials initially delayed making the call as to whether or not they should cancel the race but finally decided the 10km skate race could not proceed since the temperature didn’t rise above -20. Carleton’s Mens team was presented with the OUA championship banner and trophy. The Women's team narrowly missed out on the banner and trophy to Lakehead by 6 points. OUA All-stars from Carleton were: Colin, Steffan, Carrington, and Patrick (for the men), and Kendra, Adrienne, and Kyla (for the women).
Following the awards ceremony and because only “bold ski in the cold”, the Carleton Team wrapped up the weekend by going on a group ski before heading back to Ottawa.
Thanks to teammates Emily Jones and Symon Stowe for making the trip to support and cheer us on as well as to our wax/ coaching support: Nic Clifford, Kieran Jones, Matt Brown, & John Rennie.
"Vauhti Waxes. . . the conditions are always right!"