There is little to nothing that is downhill in the trend for Sudbury alpine skiing - and to some extent, that of northern Ontario as well - in recent years.
With healthy youth numbers pretty much across the board spurring a resurgence on the more competitive side, organizers and athletes with the Adanac Ski Club, as well as an Elliot Lake Ski Racers' squad that boasts some very talented local kids, find no lack of good news stories to share.
In mid-January, athletes from both groups attended a weekend of ski racing in the Collingwood area, with the lads from the Elliot Lake and girls from Adanac Ski Club securing top honours, from a Sudbury perspective, on both sides of the gender-specific results.
The Elliot Lake 14U foursome of Evan Ayers (1st in giant slalom; 4th in slalom), Mauro Frescura (2nd in giant slalom; 3rd in slalom), Cohen Grieve (3rd in slalom) and Joe Zito (10th in giant slalom) were joined by Adanac standout Ella Prosperi (6th in giant slalom) in a collection of top-ten performances in fields of well over one hundred, with Anna Corsi (Adanac) not all that far removed at 20th at races that were hosted at Osler Bluff in January.
All of the above are members of the revived NOD (Northern Ontario District) team, a crew of 38 young skiers or so, most of whom attended an early season camp in Alberta before Christmas.
“We (NOD) are punching above our weight when we are competing against the province,” noted Adanac Ski Club head coach Dave Hunt. “We often will have boys and girls spread out between venues. We train together (at times) so that the kids are more comfortable when they have coaches from other clubs.”
Such is the reality of trying to squeeze in racing opportunities in a region that simply cannot match the array of venues of provinces such as British Columbia, Quebec or Alberta.
Still, dedicated NOD administrators and coaches work in tandem to offer a regional series as well, one that made a stop in Mattawa in January and looks forward to staging the upcoming Mealey Classic Invitational at Searchmont in Sault Ste Marie next week, directly on the heels of the Mealey Speed Camp at the same site.
The Mount Antoine Classic featured giant slalom on Saturday, with the slalom events hosted some 24 hours later. Following are a collection of results for Sudbury and area talent - with sincere hopes that we have not overlooked anyone in the upper echelons:
Women’s Giant Slalom (combined times - two runs):Ella Prosperi - 1:11.77 - 3rd
Anna Corsi - 1:14.61 - 7th
Rebecca Jutras - 1:14.95 - 8th
Men’s Giant Slalom:
Evan Ayers - 1:09.26 - 1st
Mauro Frescura - 1:10.08 - 3rd
Elliot St Onge Winckel - 1:10.98 - 7th
Jackson Jost-Noob - 1:11.47 - 8th
Joe Zito - 1:11.65 - 9th
Cael Mannella - 1:12.02 - 10th
Cohen Grieve - 1:12.23 - 12th
Women’s Slalom:
Ella Prosperi - 1:14.27 - 4th
Rebecca Jutras - 1:18.32 - 5th
Anna Corsi - 1:18.72 - 6th
Malin Hunt - 1:25.43 - 9th
Emily Massimiliano - 1:27.48 - 10th
Men’s Slalom:
Mauro Frescura - 1:08.61 - 2nd
Evan Ayers - 1:09.67 - 3rd
Elliot St Onge Winckel - 1:11.81 - 5th
Joe Zito - 1:13.42 - 7th
Cael Mannella - 1:13.55 - 8th
Grayson Tagliabracci - 1:37.48 - 12th
Not too surprising is the fact that a number of the youngsters above will be competing at the 2026 Ontario Winter Games, hosted by the city of Orillia and welcoming the alpine ski contingent to Mount St Louis Moonstone just outside of Coldwater.
This group includes Anna Corsi, Ella Prosperi, Emily Massimiliano, Malin Hunt, Kathryn Pegues and Rohan Saidi-Smith, all from the Adanac Ski Club, as well as Sudbury representatives Cohen Grieve, Joe Zito, Evan Ayers, Jackson Jost-Noob and Mauro Frescura, all of whom compete with the Elliot Lake Ski Racers.
(also skiing for Elliot Lake and heading to the OWG are Hailey-Mae Sagan - from Elliot Lake - and Rex Meawasige from Manitowaning)
As much as Dave Hunt and others will stress that the 12U bracket does not require much in the way of competition at this stage in their development, there will be some opportunities for that division to test the waters in the final few months of the year.
The likes of Zavier Gervais, Milena Frescura and Jasper Dopson will make the trek to North Bay on the weekend of February 20th to the 22nd, attending the Agnico Eagle Classic at Laurentian Ski Hill, with the Joe Sarich Classic in Elliot Lake set for the very next weekend February 27th to March 1st.
End of year racing is always highlighted by the provincial championships during the March break, the Honda Cup at Searchmont later that month as well as some entries making their way to the Can-Am Challenge (hopefully) and the Whistler Cup.
