Huntsville High School’s Nordic ski team continued their excellent season with a great day at the GBSSA Championships at Hardwood Hills, qualifying 24 athletes to the OFSAA Provincial Championships held in Collingwood this past week. In team results, the senior boys finished first for the seventh consecutive year, while the senior girls and junior boys each claimed third, and the junior girls placed fifth. The encouraging results had head coach, John Cowan, anticipating top 10 finishes for as many as three HHS teams at the provincial level.
“The senior boys are going into this year’s provincial championships with hopefully a top three performance,” says Cowan. “Senior girls is a tough year and I am hoping to see them in the top five. The junior boys are a strong team and also have the ability to be in the top six in the province, while junior girl Natasia Varieur and junior boy Owen Johnstone could both touch the top 10 as individuals.”
In the junior girls event, Varieur finished an impressive third overall in the individual race portion, while the rest of the HHS team saw good progress with each member establishing a new personal best time on the course. The junior girls also made a valiant effort in the team relays with a late-course rally to finish as the fifth overall high school in Georgian Bay.
The junior boys individual race was led by a breakout performance from silver medallist Owen Johnstone, followed closely by Carson Pearse who finished eighth. The boys finished third overall in the region on the day.
Grade 12 student Sarah Steele, in her final year at HHS, led the senior girls team with an 11th overall placing, while the relays were equally exciting as Sarah Cowan dominated the first wave with the rest of the girls jockeying to keep the position. At the end of the day, the team finished third overall, good for the bronze medal.
The senior boys had an exceptional performance with four boys finishing in the top 11 spots overall. Nathan Johnstone led the charge coming in sixth, followed by Nathan Forestell in seventh, Alec Gibson in 10th and Leif Bertelsen 11th in the individual races. In the relay, Forestell opened a huge lead for the team, but in the final meters of the course rival school Eastview High caught the HHS squad in an intensely close finish. The senior boys won the overall team title for an incredible seventh straight time.
The GBSSA Championships are comprised of two parts with individual distance races followed by team sprint relays. The team sprint relays are comprised of four athletes from each team completing a 700 meter course. Team scores are calculated from the individual races by tallying the top four racers placing plus the team placing from relay races, and the lowest score when combined is declared the winner.
The full results of the individual races can be found on Zone4.ca. Full OFSAA results will be posted this week.
So thankful for the inspirational coaches and team members who make the newbies feel welcome and supported in their first year at high school.