Weather and trails perfect as 515 compete in 2014 Great Bear Chase

Mon, Mar  10, 2014 - By Great Bear Chase

The trails were pristine, the weather just about the right coldness and more than 500 skiers raced through the Swedetown Trails this morning during the 34th annual Portage Health Great Bear Chase Ski Marathon.

Winning this year’s race most coveted top spot, the 50 km freestyle champion, was Jan Myrda of Palos Heights, Ill. Myrda’s title came in a sprint to the finish that ended with a split-second difference, and Chris Pappathopoulos of Sun Prairie, Ws. Erica Ohearn of Traverse City was the top female finisher beating our Sarah Daniels of Savage, Minn. by less than a minute. Full 50 km freestyle results can be found here.

Photo by Cross Country Sport

Malin Eriksson of Marquette was the top female finisher in the 50 km classic, finishing with a 4:05/kilometer pace. Ben Cogger of Duluth, Minn. won the men’s race with an incredible pace of 3:22 per kilometer. Clogger finished more than six minutes ahead of local skier David Joda, who took second in the race. Full 50 km Classic results can be found here.

In what ended up to be a very fast-paced 25 km freestyle race, it was Elizabeth Slaby of Sobieski, Wis. who earned the top spot. Slaby finished the event with at time of 1:22:42, more than three minutes faster than the competition. In the men’s side of things Darrell Morse of Hayward, Wis. earned the top spot, coming in at 1:13:09. Local skier Grant Haataja finished second, about 10 seconds/kilometer off Morse’s pace. Full 25 km Freestyle results.

Allen Limberg of Wausau, Wis. earned the top honors in the men’s 25 km classic race, crossing the finish line at 1:33:07, less than 30 seconds before second-place finisher Troy Walters of Eagle River, Wis. finished. Mary Kozloski earned the top spot on the female side of things, finishing with a time of 1:45:55. See all the 25 km classic results.

Anabel Needham of Houghton and Gavin Martell of Grand View, Wis. won the freestyle short race, full results here. Lisa Konig of Houghton and Herb Ashbeck of Davisburg, Mich. were the 10 km classic winners. Full results from the 10 km classic.

We hope everyone had a great weekend. Thanks to the more than 100 volunteers it took to put this on, our many great sponsors who made this a profitable event for the Swedetown Trails Club, and for you, the skiers, who traveled from all over the Midwest and United States to participate in our race! Check back to GreatBearChase.com over the next week for a lot more content from this year’s event, including free photos from brockit photography.