Vancouver wasn’t the only place that medals were being won last week.
The Huntsville High School Nordic Ski team traveled to Midland for their provincial finals and picked up some hardware of their own.
Thirty-two athletes from the school attended the Ontario Federation Secondary Athletic Association Nordic Ski Championships on Feb. 25 to 26. They proved once again that Huntsville is one of the top schools in the province at cross country skiing.
Silver medals were won by junior girls and senior girls in the distance event and by senior girls in the 4 by 800 m relay. The senior boys picked up the bronze medal in the eight km race and narrowly missed a medal in the relay. In total, 20 athletes came home with silver medals.
The season is one of the longer in high school sport with dryland training starting in the first week of November, Huntsville High School Nordic ski team members have been training Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday afternoons.
Training camps occurred during the month of November and December. Arrowhead Provincial Park Nordic Ski Center was their training facility.
This year the school had more athletes place individually on the podium with top eight finishers being recognized.
In a field of about 650 top skiers, impressive individual top 20 finishes were had by Heather Moore (11th) and Sarah Johnstone (15th) in junior girls; Brady Irving (16th) in junior boys; Holly Jones (eighth) and Natalie Connell (15th) in senior girls; and Cam Raynor (eighth) and Corey Helie-Masters (15th) in senior boys.
At the awards banquet, Paul Ferris was recognized for his nine years working with the Huntsville High School Nordic team with the athletic association’s Leadership Award.
Ferris has been the team co-ordinator and administrator over the years and has put in endless hours to help make Huntsville High School’s Nordic ski team a successful program.