2008 OFSAA Report

NC runners win individual Silver, Team Bronze in Sarnia

National Capital area athletes had some outstanding performances at the OFSAA Championships in Sarnia on Sat. Nov. 1st, 2008. Joanna Brown (All Saints CHS) claimed the silver medal in the Senior Girls race, while Colonel By won bronze in the Junior Girls team competition.

Jessica Parry (Catholic Central - London) tried to break the field early in the Senior Girls race. Parry, one of OFSAA's most decorated female athletes, had recently returned from India, where she had represented Canada at the Commonwealth Youth Games winning 2 silver medals (1500 m - 4:20; and 4 x 400 m). Not many expected anyone to be able to run with Parry, but Brown hung with her through the first two kilometres as they opened a small lead on the rest of the field, which quickly strung out behind them. Parry made a move to drop Brown going up the hill on the final loop, but Brown closed the gap and was shoulder to shoulder with Parry at 3K. Through the woods Brown made several attempts to get past Parry, but each time she was beaten back, literally, by Parry's elbows. With just over a kilometre to go Brown managed to get past Parry, but was unable to open enough gap to nullify Parry's finishing kick. Parry pulled away over the final 500 m, opening about a 10 m lead with 200 m to go. Brown fought back hard and while both girls recorded an identical 17:27.5 finishing time, was unable to catch Parry before the line.

Colonel By's junior girls had some adversity to overcome. Lead runner Kathryn Tuck rolled her ankle Friday evening and was still favoring the ankle Saturday morning. A good tape job, advil and some encouraging words from Coach Cote seemed to do the trick though, as Tuck raced to an 11th place finish. Her teammates, worried about their leader, realized they would all have to run well in order to improve on their 7th place finish from a year ago. Rachelle Beanlands placed 28th, followed by Rachel MacPherdan (91st) and Yolande Winegarden (99th) to give the Cougars a team total of 230, to edge out 2007 Midget Girls bronze medalists Thousand Islands (Brockville) by 12 points for the bronze medal.

Top finishes by other National Capital athletes included:
Midget Girls - Emma Galbraith (Franco-Ouest) - 19th
Midget Boys - Adam Palamar (Merivale) - 5th
Junior Boys - Mohamed Souleiman (Louis Riel) - 10th
Senior Girls - Lisa Giles (Merivale) - 9th, Heather Slinn (Hillcrest) - 10th
Senior Boys - Tim Huebsch (Gloucester) - 20th

Full OFSAA Results