2009 OFSAA Report

The 2009 OFSAA Cross Country Championships at Boyd Conservation Area in Woodbridge were certainly run under some tough conditions, and some of the toughest athletes, those from the National Capital region, had some outstanding performance. No OFSAA Championship in recent history has seen the amount of athletes in need of medical assitance that these Championships caused. While many were worried about the roughness of some of the terrain, it wasn't the terrain, but simply the toll the course exacted on the the athletes, along with, ironically, the first real nice XC weather we have had this fall. Warm sunny temperatures caused some to suffer from heat problems, one athlete passed out, fell and disolcated her hip, a spectator suffered a heart attack and, perhaps the most interesting story of the day, a Midget Girl was taken out by a collision with a frightened deer!

Brown Golden, Palamar earns silver

All Saints' Joanna Brown (right, with 150m to go) won the Senior Girls title at the 2009 OFSAA cross country championships while Adam Palamar (Merivale) took home the silver. Brown played it smart, electing to stay wide and out of trouble early in the race. Despite running a few extra metres the decision paid off as the lead group thinned out rather quickly and Brown was able to take control of the race. Brown had a comfortable lead by the time she reached "Killer Hill" and was unchallenged over the final 2K, running to the largest margin of victory (25 seconds) in any race.

Palamar, on the other hand, had lots of company in the junior boys race. A tight pack of 8 to 10 runners stayed close together for the first 3K and included, along with Palamar, Nepean's Scott Donald and Colonel By's Sebastien Saville, with Palamar doing much of the leading, including pushing the pace up "Killer Hill." (see photo at right, Saville on left, with Kichuk and Palamar) OFSAA 2008 Midget Champion Eamonn Kichuk pulled ahead in the final kiolmetre and only Palamar was able to stay close enough to make it interesting. Kichuk's 4 second margin of victory was the smallest margin of victory in any of the boys races. Donald held on to the lead pack long enough to earn a 6th place finish, while Saville faded a bit over the final 2K to finish 20th.

Glebe earns top 8 finish

Palamar's efforts helped his team to a ninth place finish overall, missing top 8 by a mere 16 points. Glebe Collegiate's Junior Girls, Charlene Rhead (22), Holly McCulloch (89), Alex Derksen (100), Elyssa Loewen (122), and Sophie Laflamme (212) combined to give Glebe 333 points and the National Captial Regions' only top 8 team finish.

Top finishers for the region (both individual and team) were:

Midget Girls - Lindsay Kary (St. Matthew) - 8th; South Carleton - 36th
Midget Boys - Mickey Day (Holy Trinity) - 8th; South Carleton - 22nd
Junior Girls - Emma Galbraith (Franco-Ouest) - 4th; Glebe - 8th
Junior Boys - Adam Palamar (Merivale) - 2nd, Scott Donald (Nepean) - 6th; Merivale - 9th
Senior Girls - Joanna Brown (All Saints) - 1st, Isabelle Kanz (Garneau) 13th; Nepean - 22nd
Senior Boys - Andrew Towle (Ottawa Tech) - 50th; Merivale - 16th

FULL RESULTS