In their first event of the year, the Nordic ski team had several top-ten performances in both individual and team races at a competition hosted by the Highland Nordic Cross-Country and Skiing club in Collingwood last weekend.
“For the first race of the season, it was nice to see some good performances from our rookies on the team,” head coach Ian Myles said. “It was great to see some young blood coming through the program.”
Rookie Julie McVicar led Queen’s women with a third place finish in the five kilometre race, only six seconds behind the winner from the University of Toronto. Colleen Curtis finished eighth overall and was the only other Gael in the top ten.
Queen’s also entered two teams in the women’s 6kilometre sprint relay event. In this event, one team member completes a one-kilometre loop before tagging the second. This is repeated until each member has completed three laps for a total of six kilometres.
The duo of McVicar and Curtis placed second overall in a field of 19 teams. They narrowly beat third-place Guelph by a margin of 1.6 seconds.
The tandem of Julie Engelhardt and Katie Geale took 10th place for the Gaels.
The men’s side wasn’t as successful.
Jack Van Dorp finished in sixth place overall in the ten-kilometre individual race. Gaels Ian Scriver, Oren Levine and Ian Myles all finished in the top 30.
In the six-kilometre sprint relay, the men found more success. The team of Van Dorp and Scriver finished eighth overall, while rookie Brian Utigard paired with Misha Buob finished just behind them in ninth position. Buob is not a Queen’s student, but was paired with Utigard to be able to compete.
“I think a lot of people were happy with their performances overall,” Myles said.
He added that the team is starting to prepare for their event next weekend with high hopes.
“We definitely have some work to do,” he said. “Overall though, I think we’re off to a great start.”
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