Thunder Bay, Ont. - The Carleton Ravens have captured their second consecutive OUA women's Nordic skiing championship with another impressive weekend of competition. The Ravens women were joined on the podium by the men's team, who have now finished second in back-to-back seasons.
Carleton got off to a fantastic start to the competition with Maggie McClure capturing gold in the women's 7.5KM Classic race, followed twelve seconds later by Helen McCulligh. McCulligh edged out Lakehead's Sophia Marshall by just 1.5 seconds to take second spot. Four Ravens finished in the top ten as Katherine Mason was just off the podium in third while Bronwyn Williams finished in seventh.
On the men's side, Raphael Guerout, Colin Ward, and Nathan Hay finished seventh through ninth as former Raven Aidan Kirkham, now completing graduate studies at the University of Ottawa, took the top spot. Isaac Fortin, Devon Pegrum and Kaeden Ward helped the Ravens round out six places in the top 15.
In the afternoon, the Ravens continued their dominance of the relays. After sweeping the top two spots last season, Carleton finished first and third in 2024 with the team of Katherine Mason, and Fiona and Maggie McClure took the relate by over 40 seconds. Carleton B finished the Race in third with veterans Emma Holmes, Bronwyn Williams and Hellen McCulligh just 20 seconds back of silver.
It was a battle in the men's relay as Carleton's Colin Ward, Devon Pegrum and Raphael Guerout finished just 7.5 seconds behind Lakehead Team A. Carleton's team trailed by 8.1 seconds after the first lap, but cut 6 seconds off the Lakehead lead heading into the final lap. Carleton Team B (Nathan Hay, Darion Dillabaugh and Issac Fortin finished in fifth.
In Sunday's 15KM distance race Ravens Isaac Fortin and Colin Ward couldn't chase down Aidan Kirkham, as the former Raven finished over 75 seconds ahead in first. It was a sprint finish between Fortin, Ward and Ottawa'as Edward Southward who all finished within 0.6 seconds of each other to round out the podium. Fortin was just 0.3 seconds ahead of Ward hitting the line to claim silver. Kaeden Ward rounded out the top ten for Carleton with an 8th-place finish.
It was a full-blown conspiracy in the lead of the women's race. Primed to bring home another OUA banner, Helen McCulligh led a group of four Ravens to the top of the standings with Maggie McClure capturing silver while Katherine Mason squeezed past Bronwyn Willims for third. Emma Holmes rounded out the top ten while Bella Mouchet finished in 13th
The Ravens dominated the hardware presentations over the weekend claiming 7 of a possible 8 women's medals while also bringing home the team medal and five OUA All-Star awards. For his work with the team, head coach Kevin Shields was once again named women's coach of the year.
On the men's side, four Ravens were named OUA All-Stars as the Ravens claimed three medals and an overall second-place finish.
