Thirteen Nordic skiers teamed up with skijorers and their dogs for a skier/skijorer relay event at the Bartlett High School Nordic Ski Trails. The race began with a mass start for the skiers who skied 5K and then tagged their skijoring partner who skijored the same 5K course. The weather was in the low twenties and the trail was soft due to the new snow that fell the previous day and overnight.

The coed team of Mick Wendland and Becky Voris each posted the second fastest time of the day in their respective discipline which was good enough to give them the fastest coed team and overall time of 30:36.4. The top three coed teams filled the top three overall places before the top male team of Stephan Otterson and Bud Rice (who posted the fastest skijor time of the day) finished in 33:27.4. Trond Jenson (fastest skier time of the day) and Terri Pauls were second in 30:53.5 and Sam Barber and Lulie Williams were third in 33:05.3.

Jenson (16:02) beat Mick Wendland (17:35) on the opening ski to give Pauls a 93-second lead, but Voris’ skijor leg (13:01.4) was 1:50 faster than Pauls’ (14:51.5) to give Jenson and Voris the victory. Rice’s skijor time (12:44.6) of the day moved his team up three spots in the overall standings.

The only female team of Tasha Bergt and Kathy Faryniarz beat all but the top men’s team by finishing fifth overall in 33:32.9. The perennial question of how much faster is a skijorer than a skier was analyzed again. This year, the skijorers were 22% faster than the skiers, up from 18-19% in past years, perhaps due to the softer trail creating a slower course for both the skiers and skijorers.

Many thanks to volunteers Bud Rice, Wayne Deere, and Sam Barber for grooming and marking the course and to Race Director Kathy Faryniarz for organizing the race and running the registration table with Becky Voris. Timing was performed by Bill Cole, Jim Hurd, and Karen Hurd.