Lakes of the North Ski Race Review

Lakes of the North Ski Race Review

Exactly 101 racers and tourers participated in the event up from 68 last year. We were blessed with the best ski course conditions ever for this event. This international race featured skiers from Michigan, St. Joseph Island Canada, and Spain. Alex Vanais blew the senior men’s field away from the first turn and finished the 7.3 km course in 19:22 which was 12 minutes faster than last year’s men’s time. Nobody was in sight behind him at the finish line. Jordyn Ross similarly distanced the rest of the women’s senior field. There were many interesting achievements and observations from yesterday. Brenda Carlson Brown with her extensive training and fitness level from adventure racing over the summer clearly had the best race of her life finishing 2nd overall in senior women in a strong field of competitors. Great great job Brenda. In junior women the race was won by Isabelle Thelan and just coming into the 13 year age group Gwen Urbain showed she can race with the older kids finishing 2nd. That was a nice performance. New to the race this year and winner of junior men’s was Ryan Millerfollowed by Carter Thelen and Joe Thuente.

Well the older…. Er mature men and women do race hard. The largest class of the day was Senior men 60 -69 and they had 4 of the top 20 competitors in the competition with Randy Bladel, GregWorsnop, Don Camp and John Gravlin placing well. Also nice to see Wendy Anderson, a many time overall Michigan Cup overall winner returning to racing this weekend. And oh my gosh the 70+ mens division swelled to 7 this year with Bill Kaltz winning and finishing an astonishing 21st overall. Nice.

Cross country ski racing a family sport?….. You bet. At the race yesterday we had Dietlef and Daniela, Dreezens, Tarras’s, Jeremy and Melinda, Joe (in a sling) and Jonie, the Petersons, Smiegels, Thuentes, Urbains, Coulters and exchange students from Spain, Joe and Brenda Carlson Brown, Patty Mallon and Gary Faria, John Gravlin and Tracy Harden, and Gillis’s. This sport is growing and now with all the kids programs. Keep it up folks.

Last note is that women comprised about ½ of the entrants. This is an all time high. Continue to get more ladies out there. And I/we would like to hear ideas on how to get more women skiers participating but this was good yesterday at Lakes of the North..

Full race results are on line at vasaskiclub.org

Please send any suggestions to improve or corrections to the preliminary results to