THUNDER BAY – The new year heralds an action packed weekend for the Lakehead University Thunderwolves. The track team gets their competitive schedule underway, the Nordic Ski team host the Ontario Cup event #1, and the men’s and women’s basketball teams host Western for a weekend series.
Track and Field: The LU Vs The Wolrd meet will serve as a good first test for coach Kip Sigsworth’s athletes. The meet will feature the entire LU varsity team competing against athletes from the Lakehead Running Club, various other varsity runners home for the holidays, and other local clubs. Meet time is Saturday from 9:30am – noon.
Coach Sigsworth says, “The meet this weekend will be a great chance for our athletes to see where they are at fitness wise after the holidays and get them into racing mode. It is a very low key meet but is a nice transition into our more competitive meets which start later in January. Both the men’s and women’s 3000m races should be very competitive, look for Alistair Brown on the men’s side and Tess Naroski on the women’s side.”
Nordic Skiing: Skiers from Lakehead University, the Lappe and Big Thunder Nordic Ski Clubs as well as NDC-Thunder Bay athletes will be competing against Ontario’s best this weekend at the Lappe Nordic Centre. Ontario Cup #1 will begin Friday, January 6th and continue until Sunday January 8th. Competitions will consist of a classic technique individual time trial on Friday, classic sprints on Saturday and a mass start freestyle event on Sunday. All races begin at 9:30 am.
Updates on specific start times for each category will be available Thursday evening. Race updates and results will follow events on on Friday, Saturday and Sunday – results will also be available on www.zone4.ca (click on: Ontario Cup #1).
Womens’ Basketball: The women’s team (4-4) will take on the Western Mustangs (3-5) Friday and Saturday @ 6 pm. Western is led by Laura Dally & & Jenny Vaughan. The Mustangs have great size on the perimeter, great guard play and great 3 point shooting.
Coach Jon Krenier shares, “Western is a tough test for our defense coming out of the Christmas Break. Western is a great perimeter team with great guard play. Their guards have great size and skill. Defensively we must be ready to contain Vaughan and limit Dally’s touches. It is crucial that we come out strong at home and play with energy and be ready to work hard for 80 minutes this weekend”.
Game coverage will be available on SSN Canada (www.ssncanada.ca/games) and CILU, 102.7 FM.
Mens’ Basketball: The men’s team look to improve on their 7-1 record (2nd in OUA West) against the 3-5 Western Mustangs.
Key Players for Western include Ryan Barbeau, who is a good outside shooter and gets to the FT line and attacks off the bounce; Peter Scholtes a big man who can put it on the floor from the high post area, bang down low and step out to the 3pt line and knock down shots. Adam Jesperson has been hurt and is unknown as to his status.
Coach Scott Morrison, whose team went 3-0 over the Christmas break in Montreal, is looking for his team to get back to league play at their usual high standard of play, “We experienced both good and bad moments on the court in Montreal, but at the end of the day we had three tough games that have hopefully helped prepare us for the ‘real games’ starting this Friday night. Like the rest of our conference, Western is a real tough team that executes well and has a couple of all-star caliber players in Barbeau and Scholtes. It is tough to contain those to guys let alone without worrying about their teammates who seem to all be able to knock down the 3 and finish around the hoop in transition. We are going to have to execute on both ends of the floor to put ourselves in a position to win in crunch time.”
Game times are Friday and Saturday @ 8PM.
Game coverage will be available on SSN Canada (www.ssncanada.ca/games) and CILU, 102.7 FM.