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Nationals - Race 1 and 2
By:  Megan McTavish   (2011/03/14)

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Today was the first rest day of the National Championships week.  This past weekend was a busy and successful one for XCOttawa skiers.  

The week of racing kicked off on Saturday with the team sprint. A lot of our skiers raced in the CCUNC (Canadian Colleges and Universities National Championships) category, competing for Carleton.  They raced early in the morning in jam packed heats which led to some very exciting racing.  


CCUNC men's exchange zone

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CCUNC men's race
Matthias teamed up with Steffan Loyd (Nakkertok) to finish 2nd in the men’s category.  They were beaten only by a team of ex-Olympians who are now starting their schooling at the University of Calgary – Gord Jewett and Sean Crooks. 


Matthias and Steffan on the "podium".

Ingrid teamed up with Adele Lay (Nakkertok) to win the women's race!  They finished ahead of Augustana University and Lakehead University who were 2nd and 3rd.  Great race girls!!


Ingrid and Adele on top!

After waiting around for about 4 hours, XCOttawa's two official women's teams finally got to race.  The teams were Megan and Katie on team A and Anna and Vesta on team B.  Both teams raced in the same heat and everyone skied hard, some enjoying the team sprint format for the first time (team sprints really hurt!!).  Unfortunately both teams missed out on the finals, but some good racing was done and it was a great warm up for the next day.


Women's team sprint heat 2 - photo credit Pam Doyle

Sunday was the first individual race of the week and it was a 5km skate for the women and 10km skate for the men.  The course was basically - climb a mountain, come back down, repeat.  Very hard.  Some notable results were:  Megan - 24th overall, Vesta - 32nd overall, Ingrid - 23rd Junior woman and 9th CCUNC, Karl - 28th overall, Matthias - 29th overall and 3rd CCUNC and Kyle - 8th CCUNC.


Matthias third in the CCUNC 10km skate

Some other Ottawa finishes that jumped out at me were Zeke Williams 1st in the junior boys with Simon Lapointe in 2nd and Dominique Moncion-Groulx in 4th and Emilie and Katherine Stewart-Jones were 2nd and 3rd in Juvenile Girls.  Great job everyone!

Two days of classic racing starts tomorrow - first the intermediate distance event and then the sprint.  Someone else will update you on that action on Thursday.

 
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