NEWS RELEASE
PORCUPINE SKI RUNNERS
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Over 200 of Ontario’s top cross country skiers aged 10 to 14 were at the Ontario Youth Championships this past weekend hosted by the North Bay Nordic Ski Club. The Porcupine Ski Runners were well represented during the event collecting nine medals over the two-day event.
“This is our second Ontario Championships with this young team and I’m very proud of these hardworking young athletes,” said PSR coach David Vodusek. The course for both the classic and freestyle events was a challenging one that featured a gradual 1 km ascent followed with a 2 km rolling descent with intermittent climbs and curves.
On the first day of competition in the peewee girl’s 3 km classic technique Big Thunder’s Sally Stewart and Kanata Nordic’s Ella Niedre were first and second with Porcupine Ski Runners Julia Vodusek capturing 3rd place overall and the bronze medal in a time of 12:41. PSR peewee girl teammates were Nicole Kukulka placing 11th overall in a time of 13:55, Allysha Gray 12th (14:00), Mari Luhta 13th (14:06), Chantal Kukulka 14th (14:15), Marissa Pladzyk 20th (14:46), Brielle Charette 21st (15:00) and Chloe Young 26th (15:22).
In this event sisters Nicole and Chantal Kukulka captured gold and silver medals respectively in the 2008 year of birth category won. In Saturday’s classic mixed team relays, Allysha Gray teamed up with Big Thunders Kytalyn Smith and captured the silver medal with Brielle Charette teamed up with Mono Nordic’s Marina Sobotka winning the bronze medal. In the atom category, PSR’s Nicole Kukulka and Walden Cross Country’s Callum Wiss teamed up to win the gold medal. On Sunday’s 3 kilometer peewee girls’ freestyle event, Julia Vodusek was first overall capturing the gold medal in a time of 10:56 with Ella Niedre winning silver and Georgian Bay Nordic’s Ellen Groh winning bronze.
Also in the peewee girl event, Chantal Kukulka was 7th overall and also captured the gold medal in the 2008 year of birth category in a time of 12:11 with sister Nicole Kukulka winning the bronze medal in the 2008 year of birth in a time of 12:43 and 17th overall. PSR teammates Brielle Charette was 15th overall in a time of 12:35 with teammates Allysha Gray in 18th (12:48) and newcomers Mari Luhta 24th (13:41), Chloe Young 25th (13:45) and Marissa Pladzyk 26th (13:46).
The team will be continuing to compete this season taking in this weekend’s PSR loppet and other ski marathon events throughout northeastern Ontario during the month of March.
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