HHS Nordic qualifies 24 athletes for provincial championships

For a second year in a row, the Huntsville High School Nordic Ski team will be sending 24 exceptional athletes to the Ontario provincial championships after a strong showing at the Georgian Bay regional meet last Thursday. The broad success of the Nordic team comes despite the fact that several key contributors from last year’s senior squad moved on to post-secondary, leaving a number of vacancies that were enthusiastically filled by younger athletes this season.

“This is a good number, and to be perfectly honest this was not expected,” said Nordic coach John Cowan after the GBSSA Championships. “The students brought their A-game and came with all pistons firing. This year Madeline Horton was instrumental in keeping the junior girls team focused, while Erik Bertelsen, Colin Welsh and Owen Johnstone led a group of 17 junior boys with their efforts and leadership. Ainsley Herr and Marina Tusz pushed the senior girls team, and Leif Bertelsen consistently led the senior boys quietly by example, while challenging the best in the province.”

The racers will be heading to Timmins later this week to compete in the provincial finals, which are scheduled to be held from February 26 to March 1. The full results from the GBSSA event at Duntroon were as follows:

In the para-Nordic category, Mark Cheek won gold.

Junior girls saw Fiona Shearing finishing fifth overall, while her teammate Madeline Horton had a strong race and also qualified for OFSAA.

The junior boys were led by Owen Johnstone in fourth, followed by Riley De Gans in sixth as both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams from Huntsville qualified for OFSAA by taking second and third place respectively in the relays.

The senior boys saw incredible results from Leif Bertelsen finishing fourth overall, followed by Carson Pearse in sixth in the distance events, as the relay team also secured a berth to the provincial championships.

Senior girls had Natasia Varieur on the podium for silver while her team finished second overall. Natasia also had an incredible biathlon competition last week ‎in Jericho, Vermont. Skiing for Highlands Trailblazer Biathlon program, Natasia took gold and bronze medals in her age category. This week, she will be attending Nationals in Val Cartier, Quebec prior to competing at OFSAA in Timmins. Natasha won bronze in the junior girls individual distance category at OFSAA last year.

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