Paull and Flynn Win the Gripper; Baic and Ciesla Top Juinors

Sun, Jan  21, 2007 - By Mike Muha

A race at last!

The snow came, although there wasn't enough of it to set a track at Garland for the Garland Gripper Classic Race, so the race was moved to the Cross Country Ski Headquarters. The Headquarters made the best tracks possible in minimal snow by using a special tracksetter that rolls a track into the snow. The device looks like a roller with tracks going around it. If XCHQ had used a normal tracksetting sled, dirt and grass would certainly have been pulled to the surface. Great job on grooming!

132 racers took advantage of the new snow and raced two laps (junior and women) or three laps (men) around the three+ km loop. The course looped around the Manitou Trail, separating racers from a large number of ski tourers on the rest of the trail system. The race course was doubletracked, had three main hills and lots of flatter "doublepoling" sections.

An interval start was used to handle the large number of racers. Racers started every 15 seconds, starting with Juniors and Women (and Curt Peterson, who somehow received a women's race bib) and finished with the men.

Junior Division

Traverse City's Hannah Ciesla put in a blistering pace to finish first among junior girls with a time of 28:43. Kaitlyn Patterson (Cadillac) and Emily Westerman (Traverse City) finished second and third.

NordicSkiRacer Brendon Baic from Walloon Lake put away the competition with a time of 22:30 for first place. Kyle Endicott of Traverse City finished second, with Baic's teammate Mac Brennan from East Jordan taking third.

Junior Girrrls getting excited about having enough snow to race in the Lower Peninsula!

Seniors

Emily Flynn of Team NordicSkiRacer won the day among women with a time of 27:28. Gussie Peterson (Cross Country Ski Headquarters) and Karen Dawson (NordicSkiRacer) finished second and third overall.

The battle among them was a bit closer. Strait Strider's Denny Paull took victory with a time of 30:34, beating Jesse Smith from Traverse City by on 14 second. NordicSkiRacer's Hugh Pritchard was only another 20 seconds behind.

At least one skier doublepoles the entire course. Cliff Onthank gave his upperbody a workout, dragging the rest of his body up and down hills and flats - and finishing 4th overall!

Emily Flynn on her way to victory in the Senior Women's race divison

 

Class	Place	Last	First	City	Time	Rank
J2 Female 15 & Under - 7.4 Km	1	Otwell	Julia	Traverse City	0:32:54	19
	2	Egbert	Megan	Traverse City	0:33:35	22
	3	Frick	Maria	Williamsburg	0:38:14	36
	4	Patterson	Britta	Cadillac	0:40:51	39
	5	Perkins	Katie	Traverse City	0:41:01	40
	6	Ward	Anna	Traverse City	0:45:37	47
J1 Female 16-17 - 7.4 Km	1	Ciesla	Hannah	Traverse City	0:28:43	12
	2	Patterson	Kaitlyn	Cadillac	0:29:05	13
	3	Westerman	Emily	Traverse City	0:31:48	16
	4	Tiffany	Bridget	Traverse City	0:34:04	25
	5	Keenan	Kayla	Traverse City	0:34:45	27
	6	Wunsch	Adele	Traverse City	0:35:27	30
	7	Hertler	Katie	Traverse City	0:42:08	42
	8	Shaw	Jenna	Traverse City	0:43:14	45
OJ Female 18-19 - 7.4 Km	1	Gulledge	Catarina	Roscommon	0:33:22	21
Female 20 -55 - 7.4 Km	1	Flynn	Emily	Okemos	0:27:28	10
	2	Dawson	Karen	Farmington Hills	0:34:43	26
	3	Pritchard	Julia	Brighton	0:35:15	28
	4	Call	Mary	Alpena	0:37:07	32
	5	Beatty	Barb	Harbor Springs	0:37:12	33
	6	MuellerBrumbaugh	Carole	Rockford	0:37:25	35
	7	Upton	Fran	Roscommon	0:38:31	37
	8	Patterson	Diane	Cadillac	0:41:07	41
	9	Barnes	Teresa	Kalamazoo	0:43:11	44
	10	Weir	Debi	Rapid City	0:53:58	50
	11	Hewlett	Julie	Tecumsah	1:38:55	52
Female 56 & Over - 7.4 Km	1	Peterson	Gussie	Midland	0:31:50	17
	2	Mendyk	Connie	Harbor Springs	0:37:21	34
	3	Timm	Cheryl	Bay City	0:42:21	43
	4	Caldwell	Beth	Ann Arbor	0:45:30	46
	5	Murray	Jean	Mt. Pleasant	0:47:36	48
	6	Merwin	Carole	Lake Isabella	0:53:38	49
J2 Male 15 & Under - 7.4 Km	1	Baic	Brendan	Walloon Lake	0:22:30	1
	2	Innis	Raymond	Traverse City	0:30:53	14
	3	Brown	Greg	Traverse City	0:31:26	15
	4	Schilkey	Garrett	Traverse City	0:32:00	18
	5	Roach	Shawn	Traverse City	0:33:44	23
	6	Heimburger	Matt	Traverse City	0:35:22	29
	7	Trepp	Joergen	Traverse City	0:36:59	31
	8	Roberts	Travis	Lake City	0:55:08	51
	9	Ruffner	Garrett	Tecumsah	1:39:08	53
	10	Roberts	Kyle	Lake City	1:47:14	54
J1 Male 16-17 - 7.4 Km	1	Brennan	Mac	East Jordan	0:23:39	3
	2	Putman	Ellliot	Traverse City	0:24:46	5
	3	Connick	Ian	Traverse City	0:26:31	6
	4	Tarczon	Kevin	Traverse City	0:26:54	7
	5	Alanson	Mark	Traverse City	0:27:10	8
	6	Harris	Kirk	Traverse City	0:27:20	9
	7	Schade	Alexander	Traverse City	0:33:00	20
	8	Endicott	Neal	Traverse City	0:39:09	38
OJ Male 18-19 - 7.4 Km	1	Endicott	Kyle	Traverse City	0:23:03	2
	2	Ward	William	Traverse City	0:24:29	4
	3	Harris	Ben	Traverse City	0:28:42	11
	4	Hawkin	Sam	Traverse City	0:33:45	24
Male 20 To 42 - 11.1 Km	1	Paull	Denny	Cheboygan	0:30:34	1
	2	Smith	Jesse	Traverse City	0:30:48	2
	3	Pritchard	Hugh	Brighton	0:31:08	3
	4	Kuhl	Steve	Brighton	0:32:30	5
	5	Byar	Christian	Spring Lake	0:32:40	6
	6	Smigiel	Stephen	Cedar Springs	0:33:09	7
	7	Vigland	Todd	Interlochen	0:34:08	9
	8	Todd	Dell	Grand Rapids	0:34:49	11
	9	Coulter	Melzar	Grand Rapids	0:36:37	17
	10	Foltz	Jon	Boyne City	0:36:48	18
	11	Goodman	Glenn	Bellaire	0:37:22	20
	12	Seaman	Michael	Mt. Pleasant	0:38:01	21
	13	Vreeken	Steve	Rochester	0:38:09	22
	14	Trarnow	Aaron	Ann Arbor	0:40:12	28
	15	Smith	Robert	Roscommon	0:40:24	29
	16	VonWallmenich	Theo	Alma	0:43:33	41
	17	Feldkamp	Tim	Ann Arbor	0:43:39	42
Male 43 To 49 - 11.1 Km	1	Muha	Mike	Wixom	0:33:57	8
	2	Heady	Doug	Ann Arbor	0:35:24	12
	3	Rockwood	Andy	Traverse City	0:36:52	19
	4	Smith	Randy	Williamsburg	0:38:16	24
	5	Green	Jamie	Gaylord	0:38:34	25
	6	Kanaby	Larry	Bad Axe	0:40:03	27
	7	Moore	Joel	Harbor springs	0:40:44	31
	8	Kurz	Mark	Indian River	0:42:01	37
	9	Madorski	Mark	Leonard	0:43:50	43
	10	Temkin	Mike	Troy	0:44:11	44
	11	Knight	Kip	Elk Rapids	0:44:55	45
	12	Neier	Rick	Tawas City	0:45:10	46
	13	Eifler	Bob	Traverse City	0:45:29	48
	14	Freed	Mark	Mt. Pleasant	0:45:47	50
	15	Ernst	Dale	Sandusky	0:48:40	56
	16	Love	John	St. Johns	0:50:46	63
	17	Schultz	Tyler	Saline	0:54:30	68
	18	Gillespie	Sam	Shelby Twp	1:20:30	78
Male 50 To 55 - 11.1 Km	1	Onthank	Clifford	Traverse City	0:31:43	4
	2	Weingartz	Chris	Petoskey	0:35:55	14
	3	Camp	Don	Grand Haven	0:36:11	16
	4	Luce	Robin	Central Lake	0:39:43	26
	5	Kessler	Randy	Milford	0:41:50	35
	6	Rynalski	Frank	Bay City	0:42:57	39
	7	West	Bob	Bloomingdale	0:45:20	47
	8	Ruffner	Spencer	Tecumsah	0:47:02	53
	9	Pike	Jeff	Highland	0:47:18	54
	10	Moore	Jeff	Northville	0:48:10	55
	11	Kraai	Rick	Holland	0:49:18	57
	12	Nolan	Dan	Holland	0:50:15	61
	13	Thielfoldt	Devan	Troy	0:51:10	65
	14	Ahrenberg	Bill	Cheboygan	0:56:38	71
	15	Mergentine	Larry	Ortonville	1:09:03	77
Male 56 To 60 - 11.1 Km	1	Brundage	Bill	Traverse City	0:34:47	10
	2	Peterson	Curt	Midland	0:35:39	13
	3	Dawson	Ken	Farmington Hills	0:36:07	15
	4	Kaltz	William	Pinckney	0:38:11	23
	5	Jones	Chris	Roscommon	0:41:03	32
	6	Brumbaugh	Ernie	Rockford	0:42:45	38
	7	Timm	Larry	Bay City	0:43:22	40
	8	Christopher	Wayne	Alpena	0:46:13	51
	9	Call	Vince	Alpena	0:46:28	52
	10	Johnson	Max	Brutus	0:49:21	58
	11	Gambert	George	Bellaire	0:49:51	59
	12	Weir	Rick	Rapid City	0:50:08	60
	13	Merwin	Greg	Lake Isabella	0:50:27	62
	14	Sexton	Ron	South Lyon	0:54:12	67
	15	Reicks	Brian	Roscommon	0:59:24	74
Male 61& Over - 11.1 Km	1	Haefner	Bill	Clarkston	0:40:34	30
	2	Clary	Ed	Amherst	0:41:26	33
	3	Smigiel	Steve Sr	Ada	0:41:49	34
	4	Johnson	Peter	Whitehall	0:41:55	36
	5	Meyer	Jim	Onaway	0:45:46	49
	6	Blumenthal	Dave	Alpena	0:51:08	64
	7	Boal	Ellis	Charlevoix	0:53:43	66
	8	Drysdale	Raymond	Albion	0:55:47	69
	9	Dealing	Jim	Mt. Pleasant	0:56:27	70
	10	Matson	Bill	Saginaw	0:57:21	72
	11	Caldwell	John	Ann Arbor	0:57:28	73
	12	Rushford	Tom	Bay City	1:05:50	75
	13	Wells	Richard	Hamtrakick	1:08:04	76