Nipissing Nordic Skiers tough it out at the races

The Nipissing Lakers Nordic Ski team trained through this past weekend’s second Ontario Cup races of the season, putting together respectable results in both the middle distance classic and skate races in Sudbury.Varsity teams from Laurentian, Toronto, Waterloo and Guelph threw down in demanding conditions, with soft tracks for Saturday’s classic race, and cold temperatures on Sunday’s skate course making the races seem a little longer than normal and toughening the athletes to the realities of ski racing.
Nipissing’s best results came from first-year skier Matt Chalmers, who posted a time of 38.29.6 in the 11km classic race, and 47.11.7 in the 15km skate event, securing sixth place both days in the junior men category and 14th overall. His teammate, Kevin Durkee struggled with sickness in the classic race but persevered to race the second day, coming back with a 16th place finish overall in the mass start skate race, 52 seconds back of his teammate. Durkee was pushed off course early on by the traffic of the mass start, and spent the rest of the race trying to catch Chalmers through the rolling terrain at the Walden Ski Center, hanging on by staying in visual contact through much of the race.
On the women’s side, Nipissing’s best result in Saturday’s race came from veteran racer and classic technique specialist Brianna Yard, who finished seventh among the senior women and 25th overall in the 5.5km race. Sunday’s race demonstrated the proficiency of her teammate Lynsey Bialkowski in the skate technique, with an eighth place finish in the senior women category and 12th overall in the 10km event, covering the course in 39.08.5. Nipissing Nordic recruit, Jess Demers, reached the podium Saturday with a bronze medal finish, dropping off the pace Sunday as the weekend of tough racing drew on the strength of the athletes.
This O-Cup was the final selection for Nipissing Nordic’s 2013 travel squad, now set with Matt Chalmers, Kevin Durkee, Kamran Mirshahi, and Andrew Kerr representing alongside Brianna Yard and Lynsey Bialkowski. The travel squad will head to Collingwood, Ontario, for the NorAm Continental Cup races next weekend as part of their preparations for the OUA Championships in Thunder Bay, while the development squad takes part in a Duathalon event hosted at North Bay Nordic this coming Saturday. That event is open for all to participate,see details on registration here.
Full race results can be found here.