Joey Payeur
The Muskie Nordic ski team is learning quickly how being quick learners pays dividends.
At the NorWOSSA championships in Kenora last Wednesday, the black-and-gold contingent smashed their own expectations with eight top-10 finishes and a flurry of personal best times.
Fort High then continued that momentum into the NWOSSAA finals Monday in Atikokan, qualifying two racers for the OFSAA championships Feb. 28-March 1 in Timmins.
All this from a school that didn’t even field a team last year due to co-coach Rebecca Himanen’s absence because of maternity leave.
“It is great to see the confidence building,” said Himanen. “Every practice something gets better.
“One of the skills targeted [in a recent] practice by one of our coaches was to be more aggressive on hills–both ascending and descending–and that sure paid off just after one practice,” she noted.
“We didn’t know it at the time but that would sum up our entire race [in Kenora].”
The top six students in each division at NWOSSAA advanced to OFSAA as long as their time met the qualifying standard based on how competitors in other regions fared.
Should a school have a relay team that qualifies for OFSAA, those individual skiers are withdrawn from the top six, allowing the next ones down the list to advance.
For Muskies Tori Toriseva and Angie Redford, they did not need the extra openings considering they finished fourth (18:11) and fifth (20:30), respectively, over the 3.7-km course in Atikokan after turning in strong fourth- and fifth-place finishes in the junior girls’ 4K freestyle division at NorWOSSA.
Toriseva crossed the finish line in Kenora in 11:33 while Redford was next at 12:26.
“This was the longest race in our season and everyone rose to the challenge,” Himanen said of the Kenora race.
“It was a great day in the snow.”
On the other hand, Sara Selman and Caleb Dueck will need the time results to fall the right way, although their attendance at OFSAA certainly is within the realm of possibility.
Selman was ninth in Kenora in the senior girls’ 4K (15:57), with teammate Tayla Trimble in 10th (21:25), but had no less than five Dryden Eagles finish in front of her.
That group did the same to qualify in the relay division in Atikokan and likely are to attend OFSAA as a team.
That means Selman’s eighth-place finish out of 10 starters Monday in Atikokan in 32:06 over the 4.5-km course put her as the third-highest non-team affiliated finisher.
As of press time, she was waiting to see if that mark would be fast enough to earn her a ticket to Timmins.
“I have been trying to find where I put the results from two years ago, but I’m pretty sure Sara was in the 35- to 45-minute range on almost the identical course,” Himanen recalled after the Kenora race.
“Granted, conditions were much faster and last time Kenora was one of our first races, but there is absolutely no doubt she has made significant improvements this year.”
At first glance after Kenora, Dueck’s prospects for similar fortune seemed bleak considering he finished last in the 14-skier senior boys’ 8K freestyle division in 28:15.
But on closer observation, that placement and time don’t tell the whole story.
“Caleb actually skied an extra lap–coach’s fault,” admitted Himanen.
“We missed him his first round and told him at the end, ‘Only one more to go!’ and he looked at us puzzled but assumed we had to be right,” she noted.
“Fortunately, we figured it out right away and recorded the time he should have had, which was 22.20, maybe a few seconds earlier.
“He is steadily moving up the pack of senior boys,” Himanen lauded.
“He keeps surprising us every time he gets on skis, though.”
Dueck then came through for 10th spot in Atikokan in 39:57 on the 7.6-km course.
The event was won by Billy Paterson of the Red Lake Rams (26:55) while four Dryden Eagles and four Atikokan Voyageurs filled the next eight spots.
Whichever of those schools is deemed the qualifying relay team school, the departure of four of those entrants from individual consideration would be enough to lift Dueck into the required sixth position to be considered for OFSAA.
But, like Selman, only if his time makes the grade compared to those in other regions.
The highest percentage of Muskies competing in both Kenora and Atikokan were in the Grade 7/8 girls’ division.
Four of the eight Muskies who started the 2K event in Kenora reached the top 10 out of the 17 entrants.
Emma Toriseva led the way by taking fifth place (5:37) while Jaida Norris was sixth (5:41).
Kianna Antonick powered to seventh place (5:51.6 compared to 5:51.9 for Aislyn Breiter of St. Thomas Aquinas in eighth), with Haleigh DeGagne landing in ninth (7:09).
“The difference . . . was that the track [in Kenora] was really fast,” noted Himanen.
“They had a long gradual uphill climb and then a long downhill, all on icy conditions.
“We had students finishing a 2K loop in four-five minutes,” she added.
“Our first Grade 7-8 skiers were back before some of our other 7-8s were even sent out.”
Aara Kabatay was 13th (8:51) while Kenzie Begin took 14th (9:11), Hannah Anderson placed 15th (9:50), and Mia-Lee Wilson pulled down 16th (9:58).
The returns were even better in Atikokan, as nine Muskies were among the 14 starters in the 3.7-km race.
Norris was tops among the locals, garnering third place in 18:53 behind champion Shayna Hensrud of the Kenora Broncos (14:25) and runner-up Darbie Mattson of Atikokan (16:35).
Antonick gritted her way through an injury to record her best time of the season to finish sixth (20:23), with Emma Toriseva taking seventh (20:30), DeGagne ninth (21:20), and Aara Kabatay 10th (25:21).
“That was probably the big surprise of the day,” Himanen said about Antonick’s performance.
“She not only made significant time gains this race, but was also struggling through her injury while racing.”
Rounding out the Muskie results in Atikokan were Rhyan McLean in 11th (28:09), Begin in 12th (31:07), Anderson in 13th (33:18), and Wilson in 14th (44:55).
Himanen believes the sky’s the limit for her skiers.
“When we see the technique our skiers are starting to use already, we are really excited for the next few years,” she remarked.
“We have a batch of Grade 7s who weren’t at the top of the standings, but they were competing against Grade 8s and they already look like they are experienced skiers,” she noted.
“By the time those 7s get to Grade 9 and 10, there is no telling where they can be in the standings.
“There is no doubt that having Grade 7s and 8s on our team will make all the difference to our results overall in the coming years,” Himanen predicted.
