Staff
Into the teeth of a biting wind, the Muskie Nordic ski team bit back.
Eight of the black-and-gold contingent collected top-10 finishes at the NorWOSSA finals yesterday in Kenora, with the whole team set to move on to the NWOSSAA championships Feb. 14 in Atikokan.
Tori Toriseva and Angie Redford finished fourth (11:33) and fifth (12:26) out of a field of nine, respectively, in the junior girls’ 4K freestyle event.
If both can maintain those positions in Atikokan, they stand a very good chance of advancing to the OFSAA championships Feb. 28-March 1 in Timmins.
That’s because the top six students in each category at NWOSSAA who meet the required time standard move on to OFSAA.
Also, if a school has a relay team qualifying for OFSAA, the individual skiers are withdrawn from the top six, allowing the next students down the list to qualify.
That bodes well for Muskies Sara Selman and Caleb Dueck despite their finishes yesterday.
Selman was ninth out of 11 in the senior girls’ 4K freestyle (15:57), with teammate Tayla Trimble in 10th (21:25).
But with five Dryden Eagles’ skiers finishing ahead of her who likely will gain the relay team a spot for OFSAA, Selman should have a good shot at making it to the all-Ontarios if she can post a good enough time in Atikokan.
The same scenario confronts Dueck, who unfortunately got some misinformation from his coaches and skied an extra lap in his senior boys’ 5K race.
He finished at the back of the field in 14th in 28:15 but his adjusted time for the proper distance was 22:20, which puts him in range of the OFSAA qualifying time should he finish high enough in Atikokan.
In the junior girls’ 2K freestyle event, Emma Toriseva was the top-finishing Muskie in fifth (5:37) out of 17 entrants.
Jaida Norris took sixth place (5:41), followed by Kianna Antonick in seventh (5:52), Haleigh DeGagne in ninth (7:09), Aara Kabatay in 13th (8:51), Kenzie Begin in 14th (9:11), Hannah Anderson in 15th (9:50), and Mia-Lee Wilson in 16th (9:58).
Muskie Rhyan McLean did not start the race.
