Staff
It’s a day to celebrate for some; a day to play an anxious waiting game for others.
The Muskie Nordic ski team will have at least two representatives at the OFSAA championships Feb. 28-March 1 in Timmins after junior girls’ competitors Tori Toriseva and Angie Redford qualified at the NWOSSAA meet yesterday in Atikokan.
Needing a top-six finish and an adequate qualifying time to guarantee moving on, Toriseva was fourth out of 10 starters in a clocking of 18:11 over the 3.7-km course while Redford landed in fifth (20:30).
Hannah Read of the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints (Kenora) won the race in a time of 16:01.
But the number of Muskies heading to Timmins could double if two others are deemed to have won their personal game of “Beat the Clock.”
Sara Selman finished eighth in the senior girls’ division, completing the 4.5-km course with a mark of 32:06, while teammate Tayla Trimble was ninth (37:53).
The Dryden Eagles, led by winner Corrin Kuzemchuk (16:35), placed five in the top seven, which gives them the option of sending the group as a relay team to OFSAA.
If the Eagles go that route, Selman becomes the third-highest non-affiliated finisher in the 10-racer field.
But she has to wait and see if her time meets the necessary requirements depending on what times other non-affiliates throughout the province were posting.
Trimble’s time is not expected to make the required standard.
Muskie Caleb Dueck is in the same boat in the senior boys’ division after taking 10th spot yesterday with a time of 39:57 on the 7.6-km course.
Billy Paterson of the Red Lake Rams captured top spot (26:55), but he was followed by four Eagles and four Atikokan Voyageurs mixed through the next eight positions.
Should one of those two schools send a relay team, that would push Dueck into the necessary sixth-place spot.
But he also will have to cross his fingers that his time was good enough to make the OFSAA field.
The rest of the Muskies participating yesterday were in the Grade 7-8 girls’ division, with nine local skiers making up the majority of the 14 starters.
Jaida Norris was the best of the Fort High entries, covering the 3.7-km course in third place in 18:53.
Shayna Hensrud of the Kenora Broncos took top spot (14:25) while Darbie Mattson of Atikokan was the runner-up (16:35).
Kianna Antonick toughed it out through an injury for her best time of the season to finish sixth (20:23), followed by Emma Toriseva in seventh (20:30), Haleigh DeGagne in ninth (21:20), and Aara Kabatay in 10th (25:21).
Rounding out the Muskie results were Rhyan McLean in 11th (28:09), Kenzie Begin in 12th (31:07), Hannah Anderson in 13th (33:18), and Mia-Lee Wilson in 14th (44:55).
