NC Championships

The Glebe Gryphons won the Girls, Boys and Overall Aggregates at the 2013 Cross Country Championships at Green's Creek.  Glebe won 5 of 6 team titles, just missing going 6 for 6 as the Canterbury Senior Girls edged out the Gryphons by a mere two points.

Midget Girls
Shona McCulloch (Longfields) bolted to the lead and ran unchallenged over the hilly Green's Creek course.  Behind McColloch a chase pack of 5 followed with Dickson (Earl of March) out ahead of Shepherd (Glebe), Scotten (Sir Wil), and Rossi (Gisele Lalonde).  Kiana Gibson, third at the West last week, had to pull out of the race due to an accident causing 16 stitches to her lower leg.  Shepherd caught Dickson in the final stretch to claim the silver, 45 seconds back of McCulloch, while Dickson held onto the bronze.

Shepherd's teammate Grimes closed hard over the final K to move up to 5th, as Glebe placed all 4 scorers in the top 11, with Saravanamuttoo 8th and Anna Larkin 11th for 26 points.  Franco Cite, on the strength of two in the top 10, Borrens 7th and McLean 9th, defeated Colonel By (47-58) to claim the second qualifying spot.

Midget Boys
Turcanu (Bell) led the Midget Boys race for the first 2K with only McCann on his heels, while Gaudert (Colonel By) ran alone in third, as the top three distanced themselves from the field quite early.  Turcanu and McCann clipped each other coming out of the back loop and McCann took over the lead shortly thereafter and opened up a small gap which he continued to widen until the final stretch, running to a 10 second victory.  Gaudert closed strong over the final K but could not catch Turcanu and had to settle for the bronze.

Glebe got strong runs from Grall (4th) and Kealey (5th) with Salvino (10th) and Nowlan (13th) only 30 seconds back to clinch the boys title with 32 points.  Nepean's top runner Martire had an off day, placing 14th, but his teammates had strong runs with Jande (9th), Cheney (15th) and Burton (21st) to take the the second OFSAA spot (59-83) over East Champs Osgoode.

Junior Girls
For the first three and a half kilometres the Junior Girls race looked to be a repeat of last weeks West final.  Marshall (Glebe), Gaudet (Nepean) and Rodenburg (Earl of March) formed a lead pack that distanced themselves from the rest of the field.  Unlike last week however, Marshall was unable to pull away over the final stretch and Rodenburg used a powerful kick to win in the final 150m.  Marshall hung on to second with Gaudet taking the bronze.

The Glebe Girls looked impressive with Pouw (5th) and then another 5 girls within 11 seconds led by Millar (11th) then Greene (14th), Rupar (15th), Smith (16th) and Aiello (17th) to win the race.  Earl of March got strong runs from their next three behind Rodenburg's win (MacAskill - 12th, DeAveiro - 13th and Shearman - 21st) to steal the second OFSAA qualifying spot from Nepean (47-50), scoring a single lower at the NC meet then they did at the West, despite the larger field.

Junior Boys
Day (Holy Trinity) led early and ran comfortably to post a comfortable 21 second victory over East runner up Dionne (Lycee Claudel).  Dionne distanced himself from the chase pack in the first two K and ran solo in second most of the race.  Saville (Carine Wilson) held onto his bronze medal position from last week out kicking East Champ Abanto-Enns (Lisgar) down the stretch.

Louis Riel held a slight lead on Glebe at the 2K mark, but lost #2  Campbell to an ankle injury shortly thereafter.  Glebe runners led by Dillabaugh (6th), Harris (7th), Weston (10th) and Uhthoff (13th) all moved up in the second half to secure a comfortable 36-59 win over the Rebelles.

Senior Girls
Smith (Glebe) and Robertson (Brookfield) ran stride for stride over the first three and a half K, similar to last weeks West final, before Robertson made a move on the hill to open up a small gap.  Smith responded over the top of the hill to catch and pass Robertson and then continued to surge and widened the gap over the final 1500m to claim the gold in 17:23, 30 seconds up on Robertson.  The chase pack caught East Champ McGowan in the final stretch as St. Joseph's Adams sprinted by to claim the bronze.

McGowan was also caught by teammate Stenman-Fahey before the line, but that made little difference in the team scores as Codrington finished 7th and Currier was 17th to give Canterbury a narrow 2 point victory over Glebe (33-35).  Behind individual champ Smith, Glebe packed  5 runners in just over 20 seconds and 6 places with Livingstone (10th), Sibthrope (11th), Wong (13th), Barrett (14th) and Ridley (15th).

Senior Boys
Very little changed after the first few hundred metres in the Senior Boys field as Gloucester's Abdulkarim (aka Mo Farah) took the lead followed by Bernst (Glebe) and Richardson (Colonel By).  Abdulkarim ran 23:42 over the hills at Green's Creek to beat Bernst to the line by just under a minute.  Richardson held off a late charge from Howard (AY Jackson) to claim the bronze.

The tight battle expected between Glebe and Lisgar never really emerged, but another interesting battle took place over the second half of the course.  Glebe, led by Bernst, won the title with 54 points, with Zechel (12th) and Rupar (15th).  Patrick Marhsall's return to form helped Glebe secure the win as he placed 25th.  Lisgar had to hold off a late charge from Woodroffe over the final couple of K.  While Lisgar runners held their spots, Woodroffe's back 3 improved 9 places over the final K, but the Lords managed to hold on to second, defeating the Tigers 79-86.

NC Blogger would like to thank Gary Monsour, Ashley Richard and Simone Wilson for a great day of racing and wish all NC athletes the best of luck at OFSAA next weekend in Sudbury.

Full results are available on the Glebe XC page