Mother Nature cooperated, for the most part, late last month as an influx of university athletes from across the province invaded Sudbury to take part in the OUA Nordic Ski Championships over the weekend.

“I don’t think we could have asked for better conditions than this – other than the wind,” noted second year student-athlete Laydon Bursey, a graduate of the impressive Lo-Ellen Park Knights program and now in his second year of Biology at Laurentian. “That huge snow storm that we got earlier this week allowed the trails to firm up so they were nice and fast.”

“The groomers did a great job with the tracks and trails; it was awesome.”

Challenged to train for the past two years with no real certainty about when they might get the chance to showcase their skills in a race setting, Bursey and his mates veered to a couple of positives to help them persevere.

“One thing that was really important was having all of these community races, time trials, fun events where you could challenge yourself,” said Bursey. “And this year, we had a sport performance room that we get to use twice a week. That, for me, was the biggest thing that helped me with my skiing.”

Part of a relatively young core of Voyageurs that will look to make some noise in the coming years, Bursey was not about to complain a whole lot about the times that he posted. “Personally, I’m really happy with my results,” he said.

“I think I raced really well. I think I placed around the same in skate and classic, and that’s always a goal, to try and be equal in both.”

Highlighting things from a local perspective was the performance of Maddie Norman as the Voyageur veteran was named to the OUA All-Star team.