Jessie Smith and Tracy Hardin take Boyne Highlands Classic

Results

Tue, Jan  6, 2009 - By Mike Muha

What a difference a day makes! Saturday's beautiful conditions for the Chestnut Valley Freestyle degraded to freezing rain and tricky course conditions for the 5 / 10 km Boyne Highlands Classic.

The race started 30 minutes late to allow people travelling over icy roads more time to arrive and prepare for the race. Fortunately, in the hour leading up to the start, the freezing rain stopped.

Many racers were very nervous about their kick wax choice. Klister? Hard wax? Hard wax over klister? Klister over hard wax? Waxless skis?

The Course

The course is relatively gentle for the first 5km - only a couple of longish (and fast) downhills but nothing really tricky (or so we thought). The second half of the course has a couple good climbs and several very fast descents feature hard turns. The track setter had mixed some of the frozen top layer with a more powdery under-layer creating a firm but forgiving track. The skate lane next to some of the tracks were quite slick, however, covered in a thin layer of ice from the freezing rain.

Larry Kanaby (256) held on to beat Don Camp (254) and Bob Smith (155) at the finish by 2 seconds.
 

Making things a bit more difficult for conditions were double tracks leading down every hill. It would have been a bit safer to have removed the tracks in the fast corners rather than have racers have to deal with tracks when trying to negotiate corners at speed.

The double track over the rest of the course was welcome. And neither track was superior to the other, making it easy to pass (or be passed).

The Race

Because this race was both a Michigan Cup event and a Junior Olympic Qualifier for the Great Lakes District of CXC Skiing, there were a larger than normal contingent of skiers from the Upper Peninsula and Ontario.

Jesse Smith once again blasted around the course to win the 10km classic in 35:33 in a photo finish with mentor Milan Baic (35:34). Tom McFadden from Marquette was third in 36:34.

In the women's 10K, Strait Strider Tracy Harden took the win in 49:10. Grand Rapids Nordic's Amy Todd was second in 52:19, with Gussie Peterson third in 53:47

Master skier James Doll (113) and Junior Zeb Johnston (250) duke it out in a doublepole sprint to the finish. At the end, it was youth over experience.
 

In the 5km event, Wendy Mihell of Sault Ste Marie was the fast girl, winning the J2 class in 22:09. Sister Ericka Mihell won the J3 class in 27:18, and Williamsburg's Maria Frick took the J1 class in 22:20.

In the boys race, Jack Carlyle of Sault Ste Marie took first overall and in the J2 class in 17:58. Blake Murray won the J3 class in 19:18.

There were numerous falls given the conditions, some from nervousness, some from snow snakes. There were a couple minor facial scrapes, an injured shoulder (get better soon Robin Luce!), one broken ski, and a broken pole. But everyone would have done it again.

Lunch was breakfast! Lots of eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, oatmeal, and rolls. People ate their fill and them some!

Results

PLACE	BIB	LAST NAME	FIRST NAME	CITY	TIME	RANK
5 Km Classic
J3 Female 13 & Under - 5 Km
1	186	Mihell	Erika	Sault Ste Marie	0:27:18	14
2	212	Tomie	Erin	Sault Ste Marie	0:29:24	16
3	167	Reich	Anna	Sault Ste Marie	0:30:15	18
J2 Female 14-15 - 5 Km
1	294	Mihell	Wendy	Sault Ste. Marie	0:22:09	5
2	118	Brennan	Brady	East Jordan	0:24:28	9
3	234	Rickard	Hannah	Traverse City	0:25:34	10
4	235	Hinsenkamp	Jane	Traverse City	0:27:12	13
J1 Female 16-17 - 5 Km
1	275	Frick	Maria	Williamsburg	0:22:20	6
2	274	Swaffer	Rachel	Traverse City	0:22:47	7
3	131	Irvine	Maija	Sault Ste Marie	0:27:21	15
J3 Male 13 & Under - 5 Km
1	260	Murray	Blake	Marquette	0:19:18	3
2	179	Ortiz	Liam	Sault Ste Marie	0:19:47	4
3	141	Desrosiers	Brandon	Sault Ste Marie	0:26:00	12
4	154	Reich	Matteo	Sault Ste Marie	0:29:31	17
5	172	Irvine	Brian	Sault Ste Marie	0:31:53	19
6	225	Cook	Anthony	Freeland	0:36:08	20
7	280	Ruffner	Garrett	Tecumseh	0:41:04	21
J2 Male 14-15 - 5 Km
1	286	Carlyle	Jack	Sault Ste Marie	0:17:58	1
2	264	McFadden	Mike	Marquette	0:19:10	2
3	233	Icard	Joel	Williamsburg	0:23:29	8
4	249	Lance	Josh	Traverse City	0:25:47	11
10 km Classic
Female 20 to 39 - 10 Km
1	271	Todd	Amy	Grand Rapids	0:52:19	48
2	289	Lemos	Heather	Grosse Point Woods	1:19:21	69
Female 40 to 59 - 10 Km
1	297	Hardin	Tracy	Cheboygan	0:49:10	39
2	251	Peterson	Gussie	Midland	0:53:47	52
3	299	Mueller-Brumbaugh	Carole	Rockford	1:02:43	61
4	284	Joslin	Susan	Troy	1:14:45	66
5	279	Hewlett	Julie	Tecumseh	1:34:06	72
Female 60 and Over - 10 Km
1	273	Lund	Lorraine	Midland	1:00:41	58
2	135	Mendyk	Connie	Harbor Springs	1:22:44	71
3	243	Murray	Jean	Mt. Pleasant	1:36:56	73
4	246	Caldwell	Beth	Ann Arbor	1:53:27	74
J1 Male 16-17 - 10 Km
1	261	Wagner	Zach	Marquette	0:37:02	4
2	276	Baic	Brendan	Walloon Lake	0:37:34	6
3	241	Williams	Ross	Williamsbug	0:38:28	8
4	262	Mattioli	Tony	Marquette	0:38:36	9
5	232	Brown	Greg	Traverse City	0:38:39	10
6	265	McFadden	John	Marquette	0:39:59	12
7	248	Innis	Raymond	Traverse City	0:41:16	16
8	287	Hogan	Spencer	Sault St Marie	0:42:54	22
9	263	Murray	Shayle	Marquette	0:44:07	27
10	250	Johnston	Zeb	Marquette	0:44:47	29
11	236	Lance	Alex	Traverse City	0:46:48	36
12	237	Norris	Micah	Traverse City	0:47:57	37
13	132	Zimmerman	Karl	Sault Ste Marie	0:49:59	42
14	238	Roach	Shawn	Traverse City	1:04:42	62
OJ Male 18-19 - 10 Km
1	282	Smith	Jesse	Traverse City	0:35:33	1
2	283	McFadden	Tom	Marquette	0:36:34	3
3	170	Brennan	Mac	East Jordan	0:38:17	7
Male 20 To 29 - 10 Km
1	189	Coulter	Melzar	Grand Rapids	0:39:36	11
Male 30 To 39 - 10 Km
1	291	Weddle	Andy	Holly	0:37:15	5
2	155	Smith	Robert	Roscommon	0:43:36	26
Male 40 To 49 - 10 Km
1	231	Baic	Milan	Williamsburg	0:35:34	2
2	229	Harrington	Jim	Petoskey	0:40:09	13
3	270	Todd	Dell	Grand Rapids	0:41:40	18
4	288	Goodman	Glenn	Bellaire	0:41:50	19
5	256	Kanaby	Larry	Bad Axe	0:43:32	24
6	277	Rockwood	Andy	Traverse City	0:44:30	28
7	113	Doull	James	Petoskey	0:44:51	30
8	295	Britton	John	Zanesfield	0:45:09	31
9	230	Smith	Randy	Williamsburg	0:46:28	33
10	120	Mihell	Jim	Sault Ste Marie	0:46:39	34
11	266	Cornell	Doug	Corunna	0:50:57	45
12	240	Temkin	Mike	Troy	0:52:08	47
13	272	Smulski	Hubert	Grand Blanc	0:53:07	51
14	257	Ernst	Dale	Sandusky	0:54:53	53
15	292	Maclean	David	Ludington	1:08:05	64
16	239	Paull	Denny	Cheboygan
Male 50 To 59 - 10 Km
1	258	Bladel	Randal	Granger	0:40:18	14
2	296	Gravlin	John	Linwood	0:40:46	15
3	268	Muha	Mike	Wixom	0:41:23	17
4	253	Weingartz	Chris	Petoskey	0:42:26	20
5	252	Peterson	Curt	Midland	0:42:42	21
6	293	Pryor Jr.	Jim	Saginaw	0:43:30	23
7	254	Camp	Don	Grand Haven	0:43:35	25
8	173	Kostrzewa	John	Traverse City	0:48:13	38
9	224	Neier	Rick	Tawas City	0:49:20	40
10	255	Rynalski	Frank	Bay City	0:49:34	41
11	285	Luce	Robin	Central Lake	0:50:34	43
12	116	Barbeau	Paul	Sault Ste Marie	0:52:33	49
13	278	Thielfoldt	Devan	Troy	0:52:59	50
14	151	Reynolds	Craig	Charlevoix	0:56:32	55
15	247	Ahrenberg	Bill	Cheboygan	0:58:25	56
16	244	Moore	Jeff	Northville	1:00:31	57
17	281	Ruffner	Spencer	Tecumsah	1:02:37	60
18	267	Worrel	Greg	Detroit	1:06:23	63
19	290	Liemos	Stephen	Grosse Pointe Woods	1:13:25	65
20	191	Uhrig	Wolfgang	Troy	1:17:42	67
21	242	Mergentime	Larry	Ortonville	1:18:01	68
22	228	Brundage	Bill	Traverse City	DNF
Male 60 To 69 - 10 Km
1	269	Kaltz	William	Pinckney	0:46:18	32
2	227	Jones	Cris	Roscommon	0:46:43	35
3	259	Smigiel	Steve Sr.	Ada	0:50:49	44
4	300	Brumbaugh	Ernie	Rockford	0:52:07	46
5	298	Gambert	George	Bellaire	1:01:31	59
Male 70& Over - 10 Km
1	117	Haefner	Bill	Clarkston	0:55:49	54
2	245	Caldwell	John	Ann Arbor	1:22:44	70