Lakers raced on the snow, signed a player for the court and Thunderbirds successful in the pool

The Nipissing Lakers Nordic Ski team recently competed at nationals in Whitehorse, Yukon.

Meantime, a little further south, the Men’s Basketball team signed a 20 year old point guard out of Montreal.

As well, the Thunderbirds were in Sudbury for a regional swim meet with many high ranking finishes.

The Nipissing Nordic Ski Team had three varsity athletes and five junior athletes compete at the Canadian National Ski Championships in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory recently.

The Lakers men were represented by Matt Chalmers and Jordan Cascagnette who finished fourth in the classic team relay.

Meantime, Kevin Durkee finished 18th in the 10km classic individual race.

On the junior side, the team qualified one racer through to the heats in the skate sprints, with Sebastian Gingras from Soo Finnish finishing 24th in the qualifier.

Among the Northern Ontario Junior Lakers as a whole, the new team ranked 5 of its athletes –Gingras, Hudson McCubbin, Matteo Reich, Hannah Story-Korman and Kristen Kornell among the top 30 skiers on the Ontario Cup circuit.

(Photo of Jordan Cascagnette at Nationals sprint, provided by Robb Fenton)

16 medals were won by members of the CT33 Thunderbirds swim team at a regional event in Sudbury this past weekend.

Peyton Paralovos lead the medal count with two gold medals, one silver and one bronze.

Jesse Hammond, Riley Periard and Olivia Trottier each captured gold medals at the event, while Trael Daly Stevens won three silver medals.

Other excelling to top three placements were Timothy Corbeil, Trael Daly Stevens, Michael Denomme, Samuel Denomme, Austin McLaren-Stewart and Rachelle Ouellette.

Jesse Hammond (15) and Trael Daly Stevens (13) each secured the club record for the 800 meter freestyle event in their age categories.

Two Thunderbird swimmers achieved Ontario Provincial Festival qualifying times.

Riley Periard (11) and Trael Daly Stevens (13) in the in the 50 metre Freestyle event.

This is Daly Stevens‘ third qualifying event this year.

Personal best times were recorded by most Thunderbird team members at the event with special mention to Abigail Betsill for her attending her first competition as a Thunderbird.

(Photo of Olivia Trottier  Backstroke; submitted by Dave Crewson, Team Photographer?)

The Nipissing Lakers have signed Montreal native Kasey Paul-Buzas to play for the men’s basketball team for next season.

The 20 year old is a point guard and will start attending Nipissing in September.

Buzas says “I‘m very excited to become part of the Nipissing program. Playing basketball at the university level as always been my dream.”

He adds “Nipissing felt like the best fit for many reasons. I wanted to play in the OUA, I like the fact that it’s a small school, the coach has experience and there’s a lot that can be accomplished.”

Head Coach Chris Cheng says “I am really excited with the signing of Kasey to our growing Lakers program. Kasey comes from a program with great coaching and mentorship, training, and competition.”