RESULTS: Abby Johnson and Samuel Fay tame THE BEAST!

Mon, Jan  31, 2022 - By John Gravlin

"Hills are my thing" said Laramie, Wyoming native and UofM ski team member, Sam Fay, after skiing away from the field on "The Beast" skate ski course at the Black Mountain Freestyle on Sunday. His winning time of 37:29:08 was probably slowed a little by the surprise of 3-4 inches of fluffy new snow on the course that was groomed as quickly as possible by Denny Paull and Tim Fowler as race time quickly approached. Denny jumped off his snow machine and onto his skis and had enough energy left to sprint against former champ, Ryan Harris, on the lake finish but had to settle for 3rd as the 31 (and 1 day) year-old held off his mentor to earn 2nd place.

Ryan Harris and Samuel Fay

In the women's race, Abby Johnson, a Black Mountain Nordic Ski Team member, who had worked the aid station for the classic race the day before, had her strongest finish yet on her home course, winning the women's podium with a time of 50:53:07. Second place went to UM skier Isabel Carr with Team NordicSkiRacer's Jolene Ng finishing 3rd.

Christine Seager with Rick Neier

The sun came out and the 19 degree temps were almost balmy for the racers as they skied "The Beast" in a clockwise direction this year. Course designer Mark Stormzand has returned to the Cheboygan area and has helped the race committee learn of the creation of the skate loop at Black Mountain. Reactions to the race have been strongly positive from all those who skied.

A few more photos from Rick Kraai here: 2022 Black Mountain Freestyle photos.

2022 Black Mountain Freestyle

Sunday, January 30, 2022

WOMEN
Overall	Bib	Name	Age	Time
1	94	Abby JohnSon	36	50:53.7
2	72	Isabel Carr	21	55:15.6
3	60	Jolene Ng	27	1:01:12.7
4	93	Christine Seager	59	1:02:23.6
5	70	Tauni Camilli	20	1:11:28.1
6	55	Gwen Stevenson	55	1:15:09.5
7	64	Julie Hewlett	68	1:59:59.0
MEN
Overall	Bib	Name	Age	Time
1	75	Samuel Fay	20	37:29.8
2	78	Ryan Harris	31	38:17.1
3	85	Dennis Paull	57	38:22.5
4	88	Stephen Smigiel	55	39:06.9
5	76	Glenn Goodman	55	40:50.0
6	77	John Gravlin	67	40:53.9
7	66	Ken Dawson	71	41:58.5
8	62	Charles Moore	47	42:13.5
9	82	Ricardo Lung	51	42:54.8
10	50	Cliff Onthank	68	42:55.8
11	74	Yvon Dufour	58	43:16.1
12	84	David O’Neal	53	43:27.8
13	73	Doug Cornell	62	44:05.0
14	71	Don Camp	68	44:06.4
15	89	Allen Sorgenfrei	57	44:14.9
16	87	Steve Seager	64	44:29.0
17	90	Kevin Vazquez	29	45:05.6
18	61	Mike Muha	64	47:36.0
19	69	James Bebee	61	47:39.7
20	81	Robin Luce	70	47:41.8
21	65	George Frye	37	49:33.6
22	56	Tony Percha	62	49:38.6
23	79	Alan Hough	60	49:42.2
24	58	Mike Temkin	58	50:24.2
25	57	Marco Opitz	28	52:51.6
26	51	Ethan Westerkamp	21	56:32.0
27	52	Christopher WesterKamp	42	57:01.2
28	91	Tom Wernette	59	58:56.4
29	59	Dan Nolan	70	59:03.2
30	67	Joseph Brebeck	26	1:00:04.2
31	83	Rick Neier	64	1:02:15.3
32	68	David Barkhausen	71	1:03:42.1
33	92	Ernie Brumbaugh	75	1:08:56.1
34	80	Peter Johnson	76	1:11:48.9
35	63	John McKeon	61	1:12:04.6
	86	Spencer Ruffner	70	DNS