Nipissing Nordic Steps Up at OUA Championships

Nipissing’s Varsity cross-country Nordic ski team made a move forward at this year’s OUA Championships, improving on previous years’ performances in the individual races and stepping ahead of teams from Waterloo, Guelph, U of T and Laurentian in the men’s relay race. In what would be their second race of the day after the Saturday morning’s 10km classic technique event, the men’s team of Kevin Durkee, Kamran Mirshahi, and anchor Andrew Kerr raced a solid relay, keeping the team competitive through all three exchanges. In the third leg, team captain Andrew Kerr pulled the team in close to Laurentian’s A-team, working hard to reel in the Laurentian anchor, but running out of course to finish in 8th place overall. The race was won by a super strong Lakehead team, represented by National Development Centre athletes Leif Lennie and Harry Seaton, along with former North Bay athlete Greg Kilroy, who collectively beat out the Carleton A and B teams to round out the top three positions.
Nipissing’s best individual result came from Lynsey Bialkowski, who put in an especially determined run in Sunday’ morning’s 10km mass start skate race, placing 25th in a strong field of women racers, including National Development Centre athletes Andrea Lee and Alannah MacLean, the top two finishers. In Saturday’s individual start classic race Nipissing’s best result on the women’s side came from Brianna Yard, who finished 37th, 10 seconds ahead of her teammate.
Members of the varsity squad will represent Nipissing this coming weekend at the long distance races at North Bay’s BlueSky Loppet, while Bialkowski will travel to Duntroon to compete at the last Ontario Cup of the season, then onto the Canadian National Championships in Quebec City.
For full OUA race results visit:www.zone4.ca
For more OUA race photos visit:
http://www.flickr.com//photos/gordkerr1/sets/72157629462243825/show/
 
(photo credit: Gord Kerr)