Monday, October 22, 2007

NC Preview

The NC Championships are set to go this Thursday, Oct 25th at Terry Fox Athletic Facility (Mooney's Bay). Events get under way with the Midget Girls at 10:00am and finish with the Senior Boys at 1:00pm. Teams and individuals will vie for the 2 team spots and three individual spots available to represent the National Capital Region at the OFSAA Championships in Niagara Falls.

The East and West Conference Meets yielded a few surprises. The biggest surprise was All Saints CHS, who had hidden some of their talent prior to the Conference Meets. Sarah Boyd, a transfer student from Oregon captured the Senior Girls race leading her previously unranked team to a 2nd place finish behind #1 ranked Glebe.

Junior Joanna Brown (All Saints) ran a strong race to win and lead her team to victory as well and now enter the NC meet as heavy favorites for one of the two OFSAA qualifying spots.

Michelle Pion (Franco-Ouest) captured the Midget Girls race and lead her team to a second place finish. It was a great way for Franco-Ouest, who have not competed in XC before to begin their season...with a victory.

Junior Boy, Sam Milliken of Merivale (photo), came through with a big race to capture the West Conference Title. It was a big step for Milliken who had been beaten by runner up Stuart Wilson (Glebe) by over 1 minute earlier in the season over the same course.

The East Conference held fewer surprises with all pre-race favorites coming through on race day. Lester B. Pearson held the lone surprise capturing the Midget Boys team title. #1 ranked Junior Girl team, Garneau, had a rough run. After having placed 4th overall at TISS earlier this year and beating West Conference Champs All Saints (without Brown), Garneau placed 5th in the JG race.

Battles to watch on the 25th:

Midget Boys
Rarely has our region seen the kind of battle the Midget Boys race will produce. Both Glebe and Nepean have earned provincal top 8 rankings and only 3 points separated these two teams at the West Meet, with both teams combining to place all 8 scorers in the top 12. The individual race looks to be a three way battle between Carranco (Glebe), Fawcett (Nepean) and Skupek-Martin (Louis-Riel).

Midget Girls
Colonel By is the class of the field, but the battle for second should be very tight between West Champion Glebe and East runner-up Beatrice Desloges. Glebe beat Beatrice by a mere two points at TISS earlier this year and it should be very close on race day. Beatrice gets the nod upfront, but this battle will come down to the fourth runners. The individual race will likely be a rematch of the East fight between Tuck (Colonel) By and Petersen (Canterbury).

Junior Boys
Glebe dominated (as Midgets) last year with all four runners in the top 8, but my how things change in a year. 2006 MB runner up Hillcrest should make it an interesting battle for the team title. In the individual race, Gregrezgi (Rideau) should battle with Gunn-Doerge (Immaculata) and Milliken (Merivale). Stuart Wilson (Glebe) will look for redemption after a poor race at the West Conference meet last week.

Junior Girls
All Saints and Canterbury (last years MG OFSAA reps) should both be making the trip to the Falls this year. Canterbury and All Saints have completely different teams. Cantebury having three closely packed runners up front with a fourth well back. All Saints has West Champ (Brown) and then a couple tight running duos a few minutes back. Canterbury's hopes rest on their fourth runner keeping close enough to the pack to keep the team score down. Right in between these two is Gloucester who will try to run as a team to upset one of these two teams. The individual race should belong to the West, with Brown (All Saints), Nativ (West Carleton) and Kemp (Nepean), in that order.

Senior Boys
The Earl of March is the team to beat, but will be dogged by East Champs Hillcrest. Similar story to that of the Junior Girls. Hillcrest's hopes rest on getting their third and fourth runners as far ahead of the Earl's #4 as possible. The Earl should pack 1-3 (Loney, Pateras and MacAuley) tightly at the top of the field while Hillcrest will counter with their 1-2 punch of Kennedy and Wheeler. Only Gloucester has a chance of upsettingone of these two. Individually this race belongs to two time OFSAA XC medallist Ian Donald (Nepean). Kennedy will battle with Loney and Pateras for the other two medals.

Senior Girls
Glebe gets the nod here based on placing all four scorers in the top 12 in the West, All Saints and Gloucester should battle for the second spot. Glebe's weakness is that they are only 4 deep (40 spots and almost 3:30 second between #4 and #5), so should one of the top 4 stumble they could be vulnerable. All Saints runs based on the strengh of West Champ Boyd, while Gloucester has a tight packed top three. Once again, it may be the fourth runners who decide the fate of these two teams. Individually, 2006 OFSAA JG Silver Medallist Lindsay Anderson (Colonel By) should win followed by Boyd with Bateman (Glebe), Francki (Sir Wil) and Harvey (Bell) fighting for the bronze medal.

Girls Aggregate:
Glebe, All Saints and Colonel By all have legitimate shots for the Girls Title. Each team has a #1 ranked team, with Glebe and All Saints both having a shot at a second OFSAA birth. Colonel By is the only one with teams in all three categories.

Boys Aggregate:
Glebe is the top pick with strong MB and JB teams and a SB team that may have a top 5 finish. Hillcrest with strong JB and SB teams and a MB team with a potential top 5 finish is the other team to watch.

Overall Aggregate:
Glebe, with 4 teams with top 2 potential is the heavy favorite to repeat as NC Champions

NC Schedule of Events:
9:30 am Coaches Meeting
10:00am Midget Girls
10:30am Midget Boys
11:00am Junior Girls
11:30am Junior Boys
12:15pm Senior Girls
1:00pm Senior Boys


2006 NCSSAA Cross Country Championship Results

4 comments:

ew said...

The 2007 OFSAA X-C Championships is being held at Firemen's Park in Niagara Falls, not in Grimsby. The venue is a conservation park where local runners often train; it is very hilly but the x-c course is avoiding the most difficult hilly terrain.

Ottawa High School Cross Country said...

Sorry, our hotel is in Grimsby, so that was dominating my thinking over the last week or so. my bad. I fixed it. Thanks for paying attention!

Jackie Calloway said...

rude that you are hating on your senior girls team when it is completely unnecessary

RUDE

Ottawa High School Cross Country said...

hating on my senior girls team?? I believe i've pikced them to win....how is that rude??