February 21, 2006 – The Lakehead Thunderwolves men’s and women’s Nordic teams dominated their competition and successfully defended both their OUA men’s and women’s team championship titles at the OUA Nordic Championships hosted by Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario this weekend.

Final men’s team results showed Lakehead first, Carleton second, and Waterloo third with a massive 68 point gap between Lakehead and second place Carleton for the team championship. The Lakehead women were equally impressive placing ahead of Laurentian and Carleton with a huge 67 point gap between the Wolves and the second place Lady Vees.

Lakehead’s Steven Hart was named OUA Male MVP for the second year in a row after winning gold in both his individual races and adding a third gold in the team relay. Hart has not lost an OUA qualifier or championship race in the past two seasons. Lakehead had six men named as OUA All Stars; Hart, Skeets Morel, Jeff Cameron, Andrew Casey, Phil Wood and Jesse Winter. The women had five selected; Mallory Deyne, Rena Bode, Linnaea Kershaw, Emily Hayman, and Berit Dool.

On the weekend; the Wolves took 13 of the possible 16 medals available to them in the six races competed in; three individual gold out of four possible, four individual silver out of four possible, two individual bronze out of four possible, two team relay gold out of two possible, and two team relay silver out of two possible. Lakehead could not win the team relay bronze as each school is only allowed two teams in the relay races and both Lakehead’s men’s and women’s A teams took gold and B teams took silver.



In Sunday’s second day of competition; the Wolves crushed the opposition taking five of six possible medals and placing almost every team member in the Top 20. In the men’s 15 km free race; Stephen Hart took gold; Skeets Morel silver, Jeff Cameron bronze, Andrew Casey 4th, Phil Wood 6th, Jesse Winter 8th, Doug Bolster 12th, and Matt Schoales 17th. In the women’s 10 km free race; Mallory Deyne took silver, Rena Bode bronze, Berit Dool 4th, Linnaea Kershaw 5th, Amanda Holdsworth 19th, Ava Rudachyk 25th,



On Saturday; Lakehead won five of six individual medals given; took gold and silver in both relays, and placed many skiers in the Top 20 of all the races. In Saturday’s Women’s 6 km classic; freshman Linnea Kershaw took gold, Rena Bode silver, Mallory Deyne was 4th, Emily Hayman 5th, Amanda Holdsworth 10th, Berit Dool 14th, and freshman Ava Rudachyk 15th. In Saturday’s Men’s 12 km classic; Stephen Hart took gold; freshman Phil Wood silver, Skeets Morel bronze, Andrew Casey 4th, Jeff Cameron 5th, Jesse Winter 7th, Matt Schoales 14th, and Doug Bolster 22nd. Both the Lakehead A and B Relay teams took gold and silver for both men’s and women’s relay races as well on Sunday.

Now both teams prepare to defend their CIS-CCUNC national championship team titles at the Canadian Nordic Championships which will be held in Thunder Bay in just over two weeks time.