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Who can resist a Woolly Hippo?
2025-01-19
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Who can resist a Woolly Hippo?

Certainly not a good chunk of the local Nordic ski community as Walden Cross Country hosted the January tradition on a near perfect day for participants young and old alike.

Members of several local X-C racing units were on hand to take advantage of the opportunity to gear up for Ontario Cup races and such that will dot the calendars of January and February with regularity.

"This is a lot more relaxed," acknowledged 13 year old Laurentian Nordic Ski Club racer Julia Masters, the third place female and 12th overall in a 6km grouping of more than 30 skiers.

"You want to get back into the nature of racing," she continued. "You need to know how to race. You need to know what your strategies are going to be so that when you get to big races, you know what you're doing."

"I've been working on trying to get less nervous."

With only cross-country wizards Maija Nener and Megan Pineau ahead of her in the Girls Division, Masters has been pleased with the progress that she has made, continuing to draw on her multi-sport athleticism and, in particular, some of the transitional skill sets that she carries from her hours of speedskating workouts to the Nordic trails.

"Skate skiing is the race that I did today and that is so similar to speedskating," said Masters. "The tuck position, the basic position in speedskating is basically the same position when you are going down hills in cross country skiing."

A grade eight student at Lo-Ellen Park Intermediate School, the daughter of a father who skied is beginning to find her racing range as she puts herself out there in events such as this.

"I was trying to conserve my energy for six whole kilometres, which is pretty hard, but still push as hard as I can," said Masters. "I pushed hard the entire race and didn't get tired."

A push was also what Laurentian Voyageurs men's nordic ski team captain Cormac Adams was looking for as he and his teammates work diligently on their preparation in anticipation of the OUA Championships from February 20th to the 23rd in Sault Ste Marie.

"We had a big training day yesterday so we were not looking for our best results here, just to get in a hard practice and see how well we do against some local competition," noted Adams, a 21 year-old native of Oakville who was ironically introduced to XC in grade 11 while attending a Canoe Kayak Ontario camp in Gatineau.

"There is a lot of overlap," suggested the young athlete who ranked sixth in the 12km race, earning a place in the top half of the field, comparing his training in nordic ski to his time on the water as a sprint canoe/kayak paddler.

"The poling motion and the way that the speedwork is done is similar - and there is a lot of technique in both of them. And there is obviously a lot of cardio for both."

Led by the likes of Jamie Brain, Laydon Bursey, Lucas Jones, Cameron Boland and Cormac Adams, the Voyageurs feel ready for the test that university provincials provides. "The team is looking good," said Adams.

"We have a lot of vets, but quite a few newbies - but nothing in between, which is kind of funny. As the captain, I am looking to make the whole team do as well as we can this season - and to improve as much as I can."

Following are top-end results from some of the various distances that were contested at the 2025 Woolly Hippo last weekend:

12km Distance
1st - Callum Wiss (U18) - 33:45.0
2nd - Kerry Abols (Masters) - 34:44.9
3rd - Konrad Wiltmann (Masters) - 34:48.6
4th - Jamie Brain (Sr - Men) - 34:49.0
5th - Clinton Lahnalampi (Masters) - 34:54.8
6th - Cormac Adams (Sr - Men) - 34:55.3
7th - Lucas Jones (Sr - Men) - 34:59.6
8th - Logan Lariviere (Para Nordic) - 37:43.4
9th - Laydon Bursey (Sr - Men) - 37:50.0
10th - Margot West (Sr - Women) - 38:43.2

6km Distance
1st - Julian Luoma (U16) - 16:54.6
2nd - Gord Farrell (U16) - 17:56.7
3rd - Colin Ward (Masters) - 19:22.7
4th - Hector Loiselle (U18) - 19:28.1
5th - Chesley Godwin (U16) - 19:57.9
6th - Austin Conroy (U18) - 20:11.1
7th - Maija Nener (U18) - 21:32.9
8th - Megan Pineau (U16) - 21:57.4
9th - Luke Thomas (U16) - 22:11.2
10th - Ryan Pineau (U14) - 22:15.6

3km Distance
1st - William Nicholls (U12) - 12:27.5
2nd - Paul Masters (U12) - 12:28.3
3rd - Emma Pilbacka (U16) - 13:07.0
4th - Kal Pilbacka (U12) 13:15.3
5th - Reuben Stringer Jenner (U12) - 13:15.5
6th - Olivia Luoma (U12) - 13:36.2
7th - William Kurt (U12) - 13:45.1
8th - Joseph Girard (U12) - 14:22.3
9th - Roslyn Godwin (U12) - 14:51.9
10th - Meehan Lonsdale (U12) - 15:14.2

1km Distance
1st - Matti Pilbacka (U10) - 5:19.9
2nd - Henry Lonsdale (U10) - 5:37.3
3rd - Isla Case (U10) - 5:46.1
4th - Charles Dickieson (U10)- 5:47.0

350m Distance
1st - Emerson Herold (U8) - 4:37.7
2nd - Dario Zanini (U8) - 4:54.4
3rd - Matilda Dickieson (U8) - 5:24.5
4th - Alexandra Gravelle (U8) - 6:54.3

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