Despite four consecutive days of rain and windy cold temperatures leading up to the OFSAA Championships in Etobicoke, race day dawned clear and sunny and set the stage for a great day of racing. The mostly flat course, with one significant hill (although the junior and senior boys got it twice) was in great condition despite the rain and many National Capital athletes ran great races.
Sikubwabo earns Gold, Jarvis nabs Silver
The day began with NC's midget girls champ Olivia Robertson (Brookfield) just missing the podium. Robertson found herself in a great position at the top of the hill (7th) and continued to move through the field to finish 4th, just 6 seconds out of the bronze medal position.
Alec Jarvis (AY Jackson) ran a brilliant race. Content to stay with with the chase pack as several athletes who went out too hard were eaten up by the pack. Jarvis bounced around in the chase pack, at times being as high and third and as far back as 7th between the 3 and 4 K mark. Over the final 600m Jarvis made his move and was only two seconds back of gold medalist Elmhirst (Bill Crothers) at the line.
Glebe's Yves Sikubwabo ended the day with a predictable bang. The showdown between Sikubwabo and Eamonn Kichuk (Bill Crothers) never materialized as Kichuk had an off day, placing 34th and was never in contention. It was Connor Darlington (RS McLaughlin) who took the race out hard and at one point had a 30m lead on Sikubwabo as the field spread out very quickly with the fast pace. Sikubwabo played it patient waiting until just past the 4K mark, as Darlington started to struggle to move into the lead. Sikubwabo ran unchallenged over the final 3K to post a 12 second victory over hard closing Rob Denault (Aurora) and Xavier King (Pickering). Darlington faded to 4th.
No NC teams on the podium
No NC teams managed to achieve a top 8 finish this year, with Glebe coming the closest placing 9th in the Junior Girls race with Charlene Rhead (12), Alexa Derksen (46), Rowan Harris (108), Emily Copeland-Dinan (191) and Heather Kirby (206) combining for a total of 358, 40 points shy of 8th place Lo Ellen Park (Sudbury).
Top finishers Midget Girls Olivia Robertson (Broofield)-4th; Kerstyn Farrell (John McCrae)-27th; Kelesy Grimes (Hillcrest)-36th Team: Earl of March (456) - 18th (note, Earl of March was re-instated to run at OFSAA) Midget Boys Alec Jarvis (AY Jackson)- 2nd; Brandon Howard (AY Jackson) 21st; Farah Abdulkarim (Gloucester)-23rd Team - AY Jackson (379) - 11th Junior Girls Samantha Klus (Bell)-11th; Charlene Rhead (Glebe)-12th; Lindsay Kary (St. Matthew)-13th Team - Glebe (358) - 9th Junior Boys Kyle McCleery (South Carleton)-23rd; Mickey Day (Holy Trinity)-28th; Alex Maxwell (St Paul)-49th Team - South Carleton (447)-19th Senior Girls Emma Galbraith (Franco Ouest)-9th; Kathryn Tuck (Colonel By)-26th; Isabelle Kanz (Garneau)-47th Team - Colonel By (401)-14th; Nepean (408)-15th Senior Boys Yves Sikubwabo (Glebe)-1st; Adam Palamar (Merivale)-12th; Alex Berhe (Woodroffe)-43rd Team - Glebe (423) - 14th; Merivale (452)-15th
Glebe Collegiate captured the Girls, Boys and Overall title at the Hornet's Nest in the 2010 National Capital Cross Country Championships. Glebe scored 32 points (best 4 of 6) to outpace Nepean (19) and Colonel By (18).
Glebe won the SB race and was 3rd in both the MB and JB races to win the boys aggregate with 22 points, 10 points clear of second place Merivale (2nd in SB, 4th in JB). In the Girls Aggregate, Glebe won the Junior Girls title and was 6th in the girls for 12 points, a mere one point ahead of Nepean (1st - SG, 7th - MG) and Colonel By (2nd - SG, 5th - MG).
Midget Girls Pre-race favorites Earl of March suffered a major blow today as they did not have uniforms! OFSAA and NC By-laws state that "runners must wear identical school uniforms" and uniforms are defined as "tops that have the school name, nickname or school crest." This left the door wide open to West runner up All Saints who stepped up and won, placing two girls in the top 6 (Borasto, 4th and Howard 6th), while East Champs Hillcrest took the second OFSAA qualifying spot. In the individual race, Grimes (Hillcrest), Farrell (John McCrae), and Robertson (Brookfield) stayed closely packed until the "HILL" at which point Robertson took charge. Farrell hung on until the end but could not match Robertson's finishing speed. Farrell's teammate, Viau, placed 5th to take the third individual OFSAA qualifying spot.
Midget Boys The return of Matheson-Fitchett was enough to propel AY Jackson to their first XC team title, as Jarvis and Howard finished 1-2 yet again to secure the victory for AY over last week's West Champs Nepean. Nepean ran with a tightly bunched top 3 to hold off a late charging Glebe by 6 points to book their ticket for Etobicoke. The lead pack of Jarvis, Howard and Abdulkarim (Gloucester) stayed pretty close until just before the "HILL" when Jarvis made his move. Abdulkarim held on for 3rd, while Thompson (Samuel Genest) and Lebouef (Sir Wil) finished 4th and 5th for the remaining individual OFSAA qualifying spots.
Junior Girls Last year's Champs, Glebe, repeated in convincing fashion defeating the 2009 Midget Champs from Bell by a comfortbale 23 points. Kary (St. Matt), led from the gun and tried to run away from the field early opening up as much as a 50m lead over chasers Klus (Bell) and Rhead (Glebe). Rhead made her move just before the "HILL" (funny how this little 'bump' in the course figures so prominently in the races), leaving Klus and going after Kary. Rhead, runner up four times this season (Gryphon Open, TISS, HawX and West Conference), outkicked Kary down the final stretch to move to the top of the podium for the first time this season. Klus hung on for third, while Derksen (Glebe) finished fourth. Domitrovits (St. Pius) and Hayes (Mother Teresa) grabbed the last two individual OFSAA qualifying spots.
Junior Boys South Carleton, Louis Riel and Glebe were back and forth all race long in the team race, with South Carleton holding the largest lead (8 points over Glebe) at the 2K mark. By the 4K mark, Louis Riel had narrowed the lead to 5 points as Glebe fell out of contention. With only 200m to go, South held the narrowest of leads over Louis Riel, but Louis Riel's Louis-Seize and Houlton both outkicked several runners down the home stretch to give defending MB Champs Louis Riel a 3 point victory. McCleery (South Carleton) sensed he had a chance to beat defending Midget Boys champ Day (Holy Trinity) and took charge at about the half way point opening up a small lead as Day, struggleing with stomach issues had to pull over to 'lose some of his lunch' heading across the ravine. Day hung tight and used his finishing speed to power away from McCleery down the stretch, while Sukunda (Louis Riel) finished strongly in third, pulling away from Maxwell (St. Paul) over the final metres. O'Neill-Dee, came from a long ways back to finish 5th and pick up the third individual OFSAA qualifying spot.
Senior Girls It doesn't get much closer than this! Pre-race favorites Colonel By and Nepean made the promise of an exciting senior girls race come to life as both teams combined for a total of 8 of the first 14 runners to cross the line. West Champs Nepean eeked out a narrow 2 point victory (34-36) over East Champs Colonel By. In fact, both teams fourth runners crossed the line at almost the same time (within 1 second). Had Seale (Colonel By) managed to beat Nepean's Van Walraven, both teams would have been tied at 35, with the win going to Colonel By based on the higher fourth place finisher. Galbraith (Franco Ouest) ran a strong race to post a 30 second victory over East runner up Kathryn Tuck (Colonel By), who reversed the tables to beat last week's East Champ Kanz (Garneau). Bell's O'Higgins ran a strong race to finish 4th and claim the last spot on the bus to Etobicoke.
Senior Boys West Champs Glebe and runner up Merviale claimed the top two spots again this week with Glebe posting an 18 point victory (36-54). East Champs Colonel By lost #3 (Zhu) as he fell coming down one of the steep muddy hills at the midway point of the race, otherwise they may have challenged for 2nd, but instead placed a distant third. Sikubwabo (Glebe) led from the gun and ran unchallenged to a 1:37 victory over Palamar (Merivale) who was just as impressively over a minute ahead of the chase pack of Smith (SRB), Berhe (Woodroffe), Marhsall (Glebe) and East Champ Saville (Colonel By). Berhe pulled away from Smith and Marshall down the stretch, with Saville finishing 6th for the final OFSAA individual spot.
Good luck to all our OFSAA qualifiers at the OFSAA Championships next week in Etobicoke. Meet information can be found on the OFSAA website www.ofsaa.on.ca/crosscountry
