OUA Nordic Skiing Championships 2019 Hosted by Nipissing University
by Paul Place
uOttawa Nordiq has just returned from a very successful weekend of racing at the 2019 OUA Nordic Ski Championships in North Bay, Ontario. The event was hosted at by the Nipissing Lakers Nordic ski team on their new trails behind their campus. This was the first time that uOttawa has sent a team to the OUA’s in over 20 years. We had 6 athletes men on our men’s team (Zeke, Ben, Evan, Zvoni, Paul and Fred) and we had 5 athletes on our women’s team (Katherine, Shayna, Emily, Anna and Nathalie). You can see our OUA’s team here.
After a 4-hour drive, our team arrived in North Bay and headed straight to the race site to go for a shake out ski and have a look at the race course. The trails behind Nipissing University were very fun and had some short punchy climbs, twisty corners, fast downhills and one big monster hill.
This OUAs marked an important change and demonstrated progress for gender equality in nordic ski racing - the women raced the same distances as the men!
DAY 1 - Classic 12 km Mass Start
Racing kicked off with a 12km classic mass start for both the men and the women. In the mass start, all skiers in the field start at once, which can be a bit chaotic. Everyone skied 4 laps of the 3km course. Conditions on the race course were great and the tracks held up well despite the amounts of fresh snow that had fallen during the previous days.
The uOttawa Nordiq kicked off the championships with some solid results and good racing from the whole team. Katherine Denis was our top skier in the women’s OUA field finishing 11th place and Ben Milley our top finisher in the men's OUA field with a 5th place. Results from the classic race.
DAY 2 - 7.5 km Indidividual Start
Racers were treated to bluebird skies but slightly colder weather. The racers skied two laps of the 3.75k course which included a significant climb.
uOttawa had another great day with some solid results. Kat Denis scored a 10th place in the women’s field, Ben Milley finshed 6th, and Zeke Williams was just outside the top 10 in 12th place. Results from the skate race.
Evan Kealey. Marc Dewan Photo
Nathalie Rowlinson. Photo by Hudson McCubbin
Paul Place. Photo by Hudson McCubbin
Fred Serratore. Photo by Hudson McCubbin
Emily Heroux. Photo by Hudson McCubbin.
Anna Pazdzior. Photo by Hudson McCubbin
Finished racing, Zeke heads out to to cheer on teammates! Photo by Hudson McCubbin
OUA Nordic Skiing Banquet
Sunday evening was the OUA’s Nordic Skiing awards banquet. This was a chance to dress up and take some classy team photos of us not in ski gear.
Ben Milley was recognized as an “All Star” for his two top 10 performances in both individual competitions.
DAY 3 - Relays
The third and final day of racing was possibly the most exciting because it was the team relay competition where teams of 3 skiers each ski one lap of 3.75km.
We fielded two OUA men’s relay teams Zeke, Fred and Ben were uOttawa A, Evan, Paul and Zvoni were uOttawa B. We fielded one OUA women’s relay team Kat, Emily and Shayna. We also fielded a women’s exhibition team with Nathalie, Anna and Bronwyn Williams, a Nakkertok Nordic athlete. In the women’s relay,
uOttawa A had a great race finishing 5th. uOttawa B had a great first two legs but unfortunately, Nathalie had sustained an injury the day before decided to sit out the final leg and as a result, the team did not finish. In the men’s relay, uOttawa A was in the mix during the entire race. Ben Milley skied fastest final lap of any skier and brought the team into a 4th place. uOttawa’s second men’s team also skied a great race finishing in 12th place. Results from the team relays.
Marc Dewan Photo
THANKS!
This awesome race weekend would not have been possible without our hard working support team of coaches: Sheila Kealey, John Lewis and Meg Sinclair. They coordinated much of the logistics for the travel and accommodations for the weekend. They also also put in several hours of work prepping, testing and waxing skis.
They were the first ones at the race site and the last ones to leave. We had amazing skis all weekend. THANKS COACHES!!!
Coaches Meg and John prepping some fast skis (Coach Sheila behind the camera)!
Coach Sheila supporting Emily, Shayna and Kat before Saturday’s classic races
With all points tallied up, uOttawa ended up as the 4th place finishing university on the men’s category and the 5th place team in the women’s category out of 10 participating universities.
This is a fantastic result for our first OUA’s showing in decades and considering most of the teams ahead of us are repeat OUA Nordic winners and well funded varsity teams.
We would like to send a big thanks to Nipissing for hosting an amazing event! We were all impressed with being able to ski right on campus and we hope to be back soon.
Coming Up . . . World University Games for Katherin and Canadian National Nordic Ski Championships in March
Katherine Denis is off to Krasnoyarsk, Russia, to represent Canada at the FISU World University Games.
Most of the team is now training and gearing up for the National Ski Championships in Ottawa in mid-March where we will have the opportunity to race against nordic skiers from accross the country, including many Canadian National Team athletes.
This event is also the Canadian Colleges and Universities Championships, so we will have the opportunity to compete against Canadian the fastest university skiers in the nation.
More Pictures!
Thanks to River McCubbin and Mark Dewan who captured the OUA nordic ski action with some some terrific photos!
We have posted some of their pictures above, and you can view the photos at the links below.