The National Capital Cross Country Championships will be hosted at Mooney's Bay on Thursday, Oct., 23rd, 2014. Glebe Collegiate looks to retain their hold on the Girls, Boys and Overall Aggregates on their home course, site of the annual Gryphon Open.
Midget Girls
The Glebe Midget girls are undefeated this season, winning the Trinity Invitational, Gryphon Open, Turkey Trot and West Conference Champs and are therefore heavy favorites to win the City Title. Things promise to be very tight in the battle for the second qualifying spot, with Bell, Nepean, Colonel By and Canterbury all having a legitimate shot at claiming second. The Cougars won the East over Canterbury, but both teams posted very respectable scores (21 - 29). The larger field should play into the hands of Colonel By, but if Canterbury can get big runs from Dudding and Mullan they could turn the tables. Both however may have to pick up the pace to challenge West runner-up Nepean and Bell, who narrowly missed 2nd by a mere 3 point margin (53-56). Nepean's top 4 (MacDougall, Freitag, Wotherspoon and Schute) are all tightly packed within 30 seconds, whereas Bell, like Canterbury will have two up front (Sheridan, Banks) and then a 1:30 plus gap to Klein and Cameron.
Individually, the pre-race favorite has to be Glebe's Mei Mei Weston. Weston finished 2nd to MacDougall (Regiopolis - Kingston) at the Trinity Invite, was 6th and the top freshman in a Varisty field of over 400 at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minnesota, and easily won the Turkey Trot and West Conference Meets. Amongst NC competitors, only her teammate Beth Rhead has been able to stay close. Emily Gibson (West Carleton) will look to give the West a podium sweep, with Sheridan close behind. East Champ Wong (Canterbury) will have some catch up to do if she hopes to crack the top 3. The final spot for a qualifying position at OFSAA will likely be a battle between Day (Holy Trinity) and one of either Sheridan, Soroczan-Wright (Colonel By) and Wong, depending on which team qualifies.
NC Bloggers Pick:
1. Glebe 27
2. Nepean 67
3. Bell 72
Outside chance: Canterbury and Colonel By
1. Weston (Glebe)
2. Rhead (Glebe)
3. Gibson (West Carleton)
Junior Girls
Glebe has shown incredible depth this season, placing first and second at the Trinity Invitational, winning the Gryphon Open and Turkey Trot and placing 7 girls in the top 10 at the West (and 10 in the top 14). Last years OFSAA silver medalists hope to repeat the task this year and come in as heavy favorites for the NC title. East Champs, Franco Cite, last year's runner up, look to have the strength to punch their ticket with the second qualifying spot, but need solid runs from all their top 4 to hold off Colonel By as they did in the East.
Defending OFSAA Champion McCulloch has once again been untouchable all season. Following a summer season that saw her crowned National Champion in the 1200m and 2000m, McCulloch has won both her races this fall, including a win on the NC course at the Gryphon Open. Sir Wil's Marin Scotten has been the closest to McCulloch all season finishing 52 seconds back at the Gryphon Open. Dickson (Earl of March) had an impressive run at the West, beating Trinty and Turkey Trot Champion and last year's runner up Shepherd (Glebe), while Gibson (Merivale) looks to round out the top 5. As only Shepherd is likely to qualify on a team, that should take care of the OFSAA qualifying spots, although Rossi (Gisele Lalonde) is close to cracking the top 5 as well.
NC Blogger's Pick:
1. Glebe 32
2. Franco Cite 69
3. Colonel By 81
Outside chance: All Saints
1. McCulloch (Longfields)
2. Scotten (Sir Wil)
3. Dickson (Earl of March)
Senior Girls
Glebe vs. Canterbury - Part II. Last year Canterbury went 1 - 2 - 3 in the East and then went on to narrowly defeat Glebe by 2 points at NC's and then again by 6 points to claim the bronze medal at OFSAA, while Glebe settled for fourth. This year the Gryphons will look for revenge as they went 1 - 2 - 3 in the West and hope to improve their fortunes at OFSAA as well. Last year's OFSAA silver medalist Claire Smith leads the Gryphons and is joined by Katherine Marshall (who was 6th as a Junior at OFSAA last year) and Alexa Livingstone. Natasha Wong (6th at West) rounds out a Gryphon Squad that scored a meager 12 points in the West. Not to be outdone, Canterbury also posted a team score of 12, with Stenman-Fahey, Codrington, Leckie and Dolin going 1 - 2 - 4 - 5 in the East. No other team really has the strength or depth to knock off one of these two, but Earl of March has always run well at the NC Meet and will try to make things interesting.
Defending NC Champion and OFSAA 3000m gold medalist Claire Smith is the class of the field. After not racing during the early part of the season, Smith showed she is ready as she ran to a comfortable victory in the West and is the heavy favorite to win at Mooney's Bay. Look for a repeat performance from the West with Marshall and Livingstone running for silver and bronze. Marshall and Livingstone have taken turns beating each other this year and work well together, the race for second could go either way. East champ Stenman-Fahey has a fearsome kick and will make things interesting if she can stay close, while Gryphon Open champ Meagan Adams, who won on the Gryphon Open course early this year looks for a better performance than she had at the West meet. With four of the top 5 and as many as 5 of the top 7 likely on the two qualifying teams, that makes a top 9 finish a likely possibility to punch a ticket to Waterloo. Look for Rodenburg (Earl of March) and Brennan (Franco Ouest) to nab the next two spots, leaving the final spot a tight race between Green (St. Pius), Gibson (West Carleton) and Hamtiaux (Franco Cite).
NC Bloggers Pick
1. Glebe 17
2. Canterbury 40
3. Earl of March 80
Outside chance: Nepean
1. Smith (Glebe)
2. Marshall (Glebe)
3. Livingstone (Glebe)
Midget Boys
Nepean won the Gryphon Open, Pirates Invite and Turkey Trot leading up to their West Conference victory and look to be the stronger of the two Champs heading into the NC Champs. Ashbury got strong runs from Graham and Carere to win the East, but will need big runs from Taylor and Hillier if they hope to counter the tightly bunched 2 - 3 - 4 of Nepean (Gaudet, Thebaud and Nicole) who has been lead all season by strong performances by Walsh. Lisgar needs a better performance from Ferguson if they hope to challenge for a spot, while John McCrae likely has the best front 3, but will need a big improvement from Zhai to upset Nepean or Ashbury. The surprise however, might come from Bell who should be able to challenge for a top 3 spot.
Jonathan Rioux (Louis Riel) had a huge win at the East, but West Champ Hayman (West Carleton) looked very comfortable as well in winning the West. Rioux was also the top midget at the Cookie Run and the Louis Riel Invite and placed a close 2nd, over 40 seconds up on 3rd at the Pirate Invitational in Brockville. West runner up Steele had a comfortable win over Graham (Ashbury) earlier at the Gryphon Open and will look for the final podium spot. With only Graham likely to qualify on a team, only one spot remains a possibility and that will likely fall to Franco Cite's Fournier.
NC Blogger's Pick
1. Nepean 83
2. Ashbury 105
3. Bell 115
Longshot: John McCrae
1. Rioux (Louis Riel)
2. Hayman (West Carleton)
3. Steele (West Carleton)
Junior Boys
The NC Champs will likely be a rematch of the West Conference battle between Glebe and Franco Ouest, which saw the two schools claim 10 of the top 12 spots in the race. Although very close at the halfway point, Glebe prevailed by getting 5 runners in ahead of Franco's #2 man (Bouma). Led by Mather, the Vikings finished 1 - 8 - 10 - 11 - 12 at the West to fall 17 - 30 to the Gryphons who went 2 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7, led by Teagan Harris. East Champs Osgoode and East runner up Ashbury will need more than a couple of Vikings or Gryphons to stumble if they hope to steal one of the two qualifying spots.
The individual title will likely be a battle between Franco Ouest's Mather and Franco Cite's McCann. Only one of these boys will be able to keep their undefeated streak this season alive, which includes McCann not only winning the Louis Riel Invitational, but beating all the Senior Boys in the race as well. Mather has had two comfortable victories this season, so it will be interesting to see how he responds to a battle to the line with McCann. Harris (Glebe) and Turcanu (Bell) will likely round out the top 4, but with half of these boys qualifying on a team (and the next 6 runners in the West likely coming from Glebe and Franco Ouest) Thomas (St. Patrick), Alie-Lamarch (Gloucester) and Caves (Mother Teresa) will battle it out for the final two spots.
NC Blogger's Pick
1. Glebe 25
2. Franco Ouest 40
3. Osgoode 108
1. McCann (Franco Cite)
2. Mather (Franco Ouest)
3. Harris (Glebe)
Senior Boys
Ottawa Collegiate Institute Showdown - the Sequel. Last year the two old Ottawa Collegiate Institute Campus' (Glebe and Lisgar) battled for supremacy at the Hornet's Nest and both will look to take the battle up again this year at Mooney's Bay. This year however, the Gryphons are bolstered by the addition of most of last year's OFSAA silver medalists Junior Boys team (Dillabaugh, Weston and Burney) along with transfer Farah Abdulkarim (6th at OFSAA as a Senior last year). The Gryphons did not run a full team until the Turkey Trot last week, but had convincing victories there and at the West. East Champs Lisgar comfortably beat the Gryphons at the Grpyhon Open even without East #2 Nussbaum, but Glebe was without any of their top 4 scorers Abdulkarim, Bernst, Dillabaugh or Weston (1 - 2 - 6 - 8 @West). Only Louis Riel has a chance of upsetting one of these two teams, but it seems unlikely.
We can expect a repeat performance from last year's race in the individual competition as well, with Abdulkarim (Glebe) looking to defend his NC title from teammate Bernst. Defending OFSAA Junior Boys Champion Day (Holy Trinity) will likely have enough to hold off a challenge from the Lisgar trio of Kinahan, Nussbaum and Abanto-Enns, the latter who had a dreadful run at the East meet. With only Day running for the individual spots, once again a top 9 finish might be enough to earn a spot on the starting line at OFSAA. Robillard (Louis Riel), Motuma (Woodroffe), Caughey (Bell) and Saville (Carine Wilson) will duke it out for the last three spots.
NC Blogger's Pick
1. Glebe 28
2. Lisgar 41
3. Louis Riel 58
1. Adbulkarim (Glebe)
2. Bernst (Glebe)
3. Day (Holy Trinity)
Information about the NC Championship Meet, along with results from the season can be found on the Glebe XC page.
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