The Nipissing Lakers Nordic ski team raced this past weekend in Sault Ste. Marie at the OUA championships hosted by Algoma University.

Friday started with a 15km skate interval start event on two laps of a 7.5km loop. First year skier Mia Smith led the Lakers women's charge finishing fourth in her OUA debut just 19 seconds off the podium. Smith was followed closely by Brooke Ailey in sixth only 11 seconds behind. Sean'Hope Craig was 22nd in her OUA debut, Jaime Schweyer 32nd and Aliera Pires 35th in her OUA debut.

On the men's side, Japhy-Kai Crookham led the Lakers' charge in 12th, followed by Nathan Golisky in 14th and Eily Woodman in 15th. Congratulations to these three on a strong OUA debut. Teammate Morgan Young was next in 22nd followed by Oliver Czerny in 28th, Ethan Aarts 30th, Cooper Legler 35th and Micah Peake 54th. 

On Sunday, the technique switched to classic and was completed in a mass start fashion with skiers racing around the 12km track together. 

It was Ailey leading the way so close to the podium in fourth, just 10 seconds off. Mia Smith earned her second top 10 of the championship with an eighth place finish, followed by Sean'Hope Craig earning her first top 20 in 18th. Jaime Schweyer and Aleira Pires skied well together finishing 28th and 29th. 

Japhy-Kai Crookham gained valuable OUA mass start experience leading the chase pack at times to finish sixth, just 13 seconds off the podium. Morgan Young earned his first OUA top 20 result finishing 19th followed very closely by Eily Woodman in 20th, Nathan Golisky 23rd, Ethan Aarts 24th, Cooper Legler 29th, Oliver Czerny 38th, and Micah Peake 45th. 

This wrapped up the individual race portion of the championship. Huge congratulations to Mia Smith, Brooke Ailey and Japhy Crookham for earning OUA-All Star status; combined two-day individual results placing within the top 10 overall. 

Sunday concluded the Championship with a team relay event. On the men's side, the trio of Morgan Young, Eily Woodman and Japhy-Kai Crookham earned 5th place overall just narrowly behind a Lakehead team in 4th. A second relay team from the Lakers men including Nathan Golisky, Cooper Legler and Ethan Aarts finished seventh overall.

On the women's relay, Mia Smith started the race strong, to be taken down in a fall up front in the pack early in the race, battling back to the chase pack, followed Sean'Hope Craig who battled to keep the team in the race, with Brooke Ailey anchoring the squad and reeling in skiers to a fifth place finish.

The three days of strong performances earned the Lakers women a bronze medal sharing the podium with Carleton in first and U Ottawa in second. The men very narrowly missed the podium finishing fourth, just behind U Ottawa.

Head coach Toivo Koivukoski is proud of the team.

"With a few race-hardened veterans on the team this season, pushed on by a strong group of rookie skiers, this team has a spirited team culture, and shows tons of potential. It was good to see that combination of experience and young talent manifest in the skiers' ability to crack the top ten and crowd the top twenty, while knocking on the door of individual and relay podiums. This has inspired our senior skiers to dig deep into their untapped potential, and developed confidence and race savvy in the younger skiers. Now the team rests, recovers, and builds their energy levels back up for the Canadian National Championships upcoming in Canmore, Alberta."