HIGH ACHIEVERS: Ottawa nordic skiers, ringette players celebrate Ontario Winter Games medals

By Martin Cleary

The National Capital District cross-country ski team, which was represented almost exclusively by Nakkertok Nordic racers, won more than half of their discipline medals on the first weekend of the Ontario Winter Games in Thunder Bay.

After two sprint races, a pair of five-kilometre classics and a relay, the Eastern Ontario regional team won five gold, two silver and one bronze medals.

Owen Siderius, Ella Kainz, Evan Rebane and Evelyn Davies were the individual race champions and they combined to regain the relay title, which the region lost to the Lake Superior Division at the 2023 Winter Games in Renfrew.

The co-ed team of Kainz, Rebane, Davies and Siderius placed first in the relay in 22 minutes 11.5 seconds and posted an impressive 52.9-second margin of victory. They also reclaimed the Reijo Puiras Trophy for the NCD.

The No. 2 NCD team of Ella Semeniuk, Roman Custic, Audrey McFarland and Lluc Bou stopped in fifth place in 23:47.4.

~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~

“We knew what our athletes could do based on earlier results,” said NCD and Nakkertok coach Nolan Scheier. “My main goal was to bring home the relay trophy. At the last Ontario Games, we lost it to the Lake Superior Division. It’s nice to have it back.”

Siderius, Rebane and Davies were triple medal winners at the Games, while Kainz earned two medals.

“Every single athlete put out great performances and I’m proud of them and they should be proud of themselves as well,” added Scheier, whose club will host the Canadian championships from Mar. 9-16.

Siderius posted the fastest time over the short one-kilometre-plus sprint course, finishing the boys’ solo race against the clock in two minutes, 12.79 seconds. Rebane grabbed the bronze medal in 2:14.49. The NCD had six racers in the top 10 including Bou, who was fourth in 2:21.63, and Custic, who took fifth in 2:25.33.

Kainz and Davies finished one-two respectively in the girls’ sprint in 2:39.46 and 2:39.90.

Rebane posted the fastest time in the first lap and the second-best time in the second lap to win the boys’ five-kilometre classic in 16:25.2. Siderius used the fastest time in the second lap to finish as the silver medallist in 16:35.3. Bou was fifth in 17:04.6.

There was no stopping Davies in the girls’ five-kilometre classic as she posted unmatched times in both laps for a winning clocking of 18:19.0. Kainz was fifth in 19:01.4 and NCD’s Julia Van Wesenbeeck claimed sixth in 19:11.1.

Meanwhile, Thalia Nalley of the Gloucester-Cumberland U19AA team scored in overtime to give Team Green a 5-4 victory over Team Orange in the gold-medal ringette final.

In another one-goal game, Team Blue edged Team Grey 4-3 for the bronze medal.

A total of 19 Ottawa players won Ontario Winter Games medals in ringette, which saw players from across the province placed on teams named after colours rather than represent their regions. There were six or seven Ottawa players on each of the six team rosters.

Besides scoring the game-winning goal, Nalley also added two assists for Team Green. She finished tied for first place in the individual points race with 14 based on five goals and nine assists.

Tia Flynn-Mantyla of Gloucester-Cumberland also had an assist in the championship game. The other Ottawa players on Team Green were Arianna Hansma and Sara Hayami, both of West Ottawa, and Kyra Dobson Takoff and Cara Davis, both of Nepean Ravens.

Team Orange was sparked by Maya Howard of Gloucester-Cumberland, who scored two of her five Games goals in the final, and Olivia Weylie of West Ottawa, who had one goal. Kate Murphy of West Ottawa had one assist.

Silver medals also went to Team Orange players Amelia Nolan, Bettina Utano and Avery Krajewski, all of Gloucester, and Kailee Leskiw of West Ottawa.

Kate MacDonald of Nepean counted three assists and Emily Barteaux of West Ottawa and Charlotte Rioux of the City of Ottawa contributed one assist each in Team Blue’s bronze-medal effort. Barteaux was fifth in the point scoring race at 12 from seven goals and five assists.

Olivia McEnery of Nepean, Abbi Beck of Gloucester and Heidi Pineo of City of Ottawa also earned bronze medals.

Ottawa players accounted for all the Team Grey scoring in the third-place game as Alyssa Perreault of West Ottawa notched two goals and Mia Hayami of Nepean had one. Perreault scored nine goals and added four assists in seven games and was fourth in the points scoring race, while Hayami was eighth at five goals, six assists and 11 points.

In futsal, the Ottawa Futsal Club Titans doubled the score on the Scarborough G.S. Gold as their 4-2 decision earned them third place in the four-team competition and the girls’ U18 bronze medal.

The Titans placed third in the round robin, after a 2-0 win over the Gold, but fell to Thunder Bay Chill 2-1 and Unionville Milliken SC 5-1.

The Ontario Winter Games resume this weekend with competitions in 5-pin bowling, archery, artistic swimming, biathlon, curling, hockey and fencing.