October 2, 2011
2011 St. Regis Canoe Classic - Race Results
Fifty-eight Paddlers; Twenty-three Canoes/Kayaks Take Part
Host: Paul Smith’s College

Fifty- eight paddlers participated in the St. Regis Canoe Classic held Sunday on the Paul Smith’s College campus with a total of twenty- three canoes and kayaks entered in the event. There was plenty of opportunity for winners, with over thirty categories. Those placing in the top three received custom designed coffee cups for their efforts.

Collegiate Race: Paul Smith’s College took both first and second place overall in the C-4 Collegiate division. Leading the way were Ian Boyd, Ryer Becker, Mike Cerasaro, and Dylan Kirk of Paul Smith’s College with a time of 46:39. Peter Mangolds, De Wasiewski, Samantha Nassimos, and Randall Bishop were the first mixed C-4 in 48:31. Hamilton College followed closely with their C-4 Women’s team: Amy Dow, Kayla Brenden, Jackie Specht, Anna Bastidas with a time of 51:27. The second mixed team was also Hamilton, with Kate Bennert, Caroline Gregory, Leah Wolf, Duo Gong coming in at 51:43. Cornell University’s mixed team with Noah Kantro, Le Li, Kate Grosslein, Hannah Kiem finished strong in 58:38.

4.7 River Loop Categories: Kerry Newall, Paul Repak, Tim Grossman, Ana Hull, Jacob Polfleit, Dave Kucia, and Josh Buchanen joined forces the morning of the race to win the war canoe class with at time (and possibly course record) of 44:37. In the 2-Man Guideboat category, Joseph Randi, Eileen Visser and Scott Visser (our youngest paddler of the day) from Potsdam, NY won in 1:08:58. George Cook and Patrick Coffey, both of Saranac Lake, were first in the C-2 Men’s Recreation Unlimited class with a time of 54:37. Karl Zaunbrecher from Saranac Lake dominated the C-1 Recreation field in a time of 59:10. The C-2 Stock Women’s class was won by Theresa Schlimmer (Cortland, NY) and Bethany Ellis (Blodget Mills, NY) in 1:08:51.

Touring Kayaks: Chip Brieant of Paul Smiths, NY was the top touring kayak (men over age 50) and won the 7 mile Kayak-River loop in a time of 1:38:08. Coming in second, only a minute and one second behind was Jeffery Kelly of Port Henry, NY with a time of 1:39:09.

Eleven Mile Amateur Racing Canoes: Mike Schlimmer of Brockport teamed with Joe Schlimmer of Cortland to win the C-2 Amateur Men’s race in 1:46:40. They were followed closely by Jon Santor of Rainbow Lake and Gordy Santor of Plattsburgh with a time of 1:50:07. Chas Billingsley (Lake Clear, NY) and Rodger Dempster (Saranac Lake, NY) teamed up to win the C-2 Amateur Men’s (50 +) in 1:53:56. Ben and Mary Schlimmer of Cortland, NY won the C-2 Amateur mixed category in 1:48:20. Rounding out our C2 Amateur class were Bob and Linda Cooley of Scotia, NY who won the mixed (50 +) with a time of 2:09:51. Jeff Pederson (Gilbertsville, NY) won the C-1 Amateur Men’s (50 +) in 2:07:00.

Seven Mile Stock Canoe Race: Fred Goodnough of Theresa, NY teamed with Brian Watson of Watertown to win the C-2 Men’s Stock division in 1:35:05. On the women’s side, Clair Stover and Sarah Jillings, both of Hamilton College won with a time of 1:44:04. The C-2 Mixed Stock class proved to be one of the largest categories with Jim and Julie Cunningham, of Ticonderoga, NY, taking first in 1:29:23 followed by Christine Robak and Andrew Jillings from Hamilton College with a time of 1:34:56. Dave and Denise Paddock of Lake George finished strong behind them in 1:42:53.

Overview: This was the twenty-third year of the St. Regis Canoe Classic, and perhaps one of the foggiest years at that. The race features a mass start (and has since 1999) making for an interesting start to the event. The racers seemed to like this format, and from an organizational standpoint, the mass start enables the entire event to finish much quicker than most canoe races.

As always, the amateur (racing) boats pulled away from the recreational canoes long before they reached the river, while the stock canoes battled for position over the first four and one-half miles to reach the half mi