NC Preview

With the Conference Meets completed, it's now time for the annual National Capital Championship Preview.  Next Thursday, harriers from across the city will descend on Green's Creek, vying for a birth at OFSAA and looking for bragging rights as the 2015 National Capital Champions.  This year two teams and the top 5 individual runners not on a qualifying team will be able to represent the NC Region on the trails of Highland Nordic in Duntroon.

Glebe Collegiate will look to defend it's Girls, Boys and Overall titles again this year at Green's Creek.  With three teams as heavy favorites and two more with strong holds on second, Glebe looks to have the depth to pull it off again.

Midget Girls

The Glebe Midget Girls have had a strong season winning the Trinity Invite and were the top NC school at the Louis Riel Invitational.  Shapansky and Barrett also contributed to Glebe's 2nd place finish in the AA Varsity race at the McQuaid Invitational in Rochester, NY.  The Gryphon's have a great 1 - 2 punch that could take the top two spots and the depth to back it up.  Second place may be a tight battle.  East Champs Lisgar, who got a very strong run from Leighten, placed all 4 scorers in the top 10.  All Saints who were runner up to Glebe in the West also placed third at the Turkey Trot in Kemptville without their top 4.  In Kemptville All Saints got three scoring runners in before East Champ Downey (Osgoode), so they appear to have the depth to challenge for the second OFSAA qualifying spot.

Individually, Shapansky looks strong enough to hold off all challengers, winning twice at Green's Creek this fall (Cookie Run and Louis Invite) and hoping for a third.  Her teammate Barrett and Swyer (John McCrae) will likely follow in behind, although Galbraith (Franco Ouest) may also challenge for a podium spot.

NC Blogger's Pick:
Teams - 1. Glebe 41, 2. All Saints 77,  3. Lisgar 92
Individuals - 1. Shapansky (Glebe), 2. Barrett (Glebe), 3. Swyer (John McCrae)

Midget Boys

Glebe's Midget Boys are near perfect so far this season placing 2nd to St. Mike's in Port Hope, and winning the Gryphon Open, the Louis Riel Invite and the West Meet.  Their only loss against NC competition came to the Louis Riel Senior Boys at the Cookie Run to begin the season.  Pensom lead the Gryphons with a second place finish at the Cookie Run and with a win down in Port Hope, but has not raced since, just completing the Conference Meet to be eligible for NC's.  He will add to an already strong and deep team that placed 5 runners in the top 14 in the West and have a tight pack of three runners (Lane, Morris and Westdal) that have been very consistent.  East Champs Colonel By have a great front running duo in Jones and Cox with another trio (Monteith-Pistor, Bhindi and Wang) about 90 seconds behind that should be enough to secure second.  The final podium spot will be a battle between East runner up Lisgar, Holy Trinity and Bell, the latter two tied for 2nd at the West, with Trinity getting the nod due to the higher 4th place scorer.

Individually, Johnston Nielson (Borden) has looked very strong the past couple of weeks, winning the West by over a minute.  Pensom should be able to keep it close as the gap between them and their closest pursuers has been very similar, although over different courses.  Jones and Cox will battle with a tight group of three from the West - Shimizu (Merivale), Rogerson (Holy Trinity) and Gould (Merivale) for the bronze medal.

NC Blogger's Pick:
Teams - 1. Glebe 40, 2. Colonel By 60, 3. Lisgar 85
Individuals - 1. Johnston Nielson (SRB), 2. Pensom (Glebe), 3. Jones (Colonel By)

Junior Girls

Last year's OFSAA Silver medalists have a very different look this year.  Glebe lost several key members of last year's team and that set the stage for Nepean's depth to carry them to victory over the Gryphons at the West Meet, behind Witherspoon's 4th place finish.  Nepean's 2 through 5 have been consistently one minute (or less) apart all season, giving them an advantage over Glebe's large gap between Weston and her teammates.  It's unlikely that any other team has a chance to earn seats on the bus ahead of these two teams.  Bell will hope their two top girls (Sheridan and Banks) can keep their front end score as low as possible to help them hold off challenges from east Champs Carine Wilson and a very close runner up Beatrice Desloges.

Weston (Glebe) is certainly the class of the field.  Last year's OFSAA bronze medalist placed 2nd to McCulloch (Longfields) by a mere 12 seconds to kick the season off, then followed that up with a 2nd place finish in Rochester, NY, before coming back to Ottawa to win the Louis Invite and the West meet by huge margins.  Rossi (Gisele Lalonde) has been strong and consistent this season, winning the Gryphon Open and the East Champs and placing second to Weston at the Louis Riel Invite.  The battle for third will be tight with Soroczan-Wright (Colonel By), Lea (Carine Wilson) and Gibson (West Carleton) all having legitimate shots at claiming the bronze.

NC Blogger's Pick:
Team - 1. Nepean 53, 2. Glebe 58, 3. Bell 115
Individual - 1. Weston (Glebe), 2. Rossi (Gisele Lalonde), 3. Soroczan-Wright (Colonel By)

Junior Boys

Coach d'Arras managed to find his Bengal team another Junior runner and it's made quite the impact.  Borden only fielded three Midget's that would have otherwise challenged for a top 2 spot at NC's last year.  This year, with the addition of Price, Bengals Zanetti, Pegrum and Poole look to be a team that can hold off all challengers for the NC title.  Defending Champs Ashbury just might have something to say about that.  Although Borden defeated Ashbury (26-32) at the Louis Riel Invite, Midget Johnston Nielson ran up at that meet.  It certainly caught Ashbury by surprise, as Coach Holman was heard to exclaim, "Where did these guys come from!" but without Johnston Nielson in the race, the Colts would have outpaced the Bengals 28-31.  Nepean finds themselves on the outside looking in, but have yet to have their top runner from last year (Walsh) run hard this year.

Louis' Rioux has been strong all season, often racing up with the Senior Boys to find some good competition.  His 45 second victory at the East (and over a minute up on his nearest Junior competitor at the Louis Invite) make him the favorite, although Turcanu (Bell) has yet to be challenged this year.  The battle for bronze should be interesting with Steele (West Carleton), Zanetti (Borden), Pederson (Merivale), Finn (Beatrice Desloges), Holton (Lisgar), Giddings (Franco Ouest) and Fournier (Franco Cite) all having legitimate chances at claiming bronze, as all have taken turns beating one another at some point during the season.

NC Blogger's Pick:
Team - 1. Ashbury 53, 2. Sir Robert Borden 55, 3. Nepean 80
Individual - 1. Rioux (Louis Riel), 2. Turcanu (Bell), 3. Steele (West Carleton)

Senior Girls

Defending OFSAA Champions Glebe lost 3 of their top 4 scorers from last year's team, but got ample replacements from last year's OFSAA Silver medalist Junior squad.  The Gryphons need to take care of business here in the NC though before looking ahead at defending their provincial title.  The Gryphons packed 8 runners in the top 15 at West and are heavy favorites to win this coming Thursday.  Led by Shepherd's 2nd place finish at the West, Gryphon runners placed 4th through 6th as well with Marshall (8th as a SG at OFSAA last year), Pouw and Grimes.  East Champs Canterbury have had great success not only here in the NC, but at OFSAA as well, placing 3rd and 4th the past two seasons and know how to prepare for the big races.  Earl of March has the better front end (Dickson and Egli), but will need a big run from their 3 and 4 (MacAskill and Smith) in order to unseat the Chargers packed who all scoring runners within 1:15 of each other at the East.

McCulloch (Longfields-Davidson) has been, once again this season, unstoppable.  She won the Trinity Invitational and set a course record at McQuaid in Rochester, NY, before winning the West by almost one minute.  Behind McCulloch an interesting battle could ensue between Gryphon teammates Shepherd and Marshall.  Shepherd beat Marshall quite handily at the West, but it was Marshall's first race of the fall.  The saavy veteran has a history of racing well when it counts placing 11th, 6th and 8th in three trips to OFSAA.  Dickson and East Champ Scotten may try to disrupt the the duo of Gryphons as they all follow in McCulloch's wake.

NC Blogger's Pick:
Team - 1. Glebe 20, 2. Canterbury 60, 3. Earl of March 65
Individual - 1. McCulloch (Longfields-Davidson), 2. Marshall (Glebe), 3. Shepherd (Glebe)

Senior Boys

Last year Glebe and Franco Ouest runners accounted for 10 of the top 19 spots at the NC Championships in the Junior Boys race.  They continued the battle at the Senior level this year taking 11 of the top 14 spots in the West.  This year however, Franco got the best of the Gryphons and every Gryphon scorer was beaten to the line by his corresponding Viking, for a narrow 5 point win.  The larger field at NC's may help the Vikings even more if West Champ Roberts can get a few insurance placers between himself and Dillabaugh.  Harris has to find his medal form from 2014 and Perreault has to find another gear to catch Bouma if the Gryphons are to turn the tables.  Last year's Junior silver medalist Mather could also help pad the gap with a strong race at Green's Creek.   There is no other team with the up front strength, but more importantly the depth to seriously challenge these two, but Robillard (Louis Riel) will try to score low and rally his Rebelle teammates to challenge for a podium spot.

The loss of McCann (Franco Cite) has really opened up the Senior Boys race this season.  East Champ Alie-Lamarche (Gloucester) and West Champ Roberts (Franco Ouest) have to be the favorites heading in, but things get very muddy after that.  Alie-Lamarche was beaten by TISS's Rafuse to win the Louis Invite, but Robillard (Louis Riel) had beaten Rafuse quite handily the previous week in Brockville at the Pirates Invite.  Only Roberts remains undefeated and therefore gets the nod.  Dillabaugh (Glebe) the top returning Senior from last year's championships, Saville (Carine Wilson), Abanto-Enns (Lisgar), Harris (Glebe) and Mather (Franco Ouest) have all taken turns beating up on each other this fall.  Harris beat all NC runners (including West and East runner's up Dillabaugh and Abanto-Enns) at the Trinity Invite, while Saville (3rd at the East) beat both Gryphons at the Louis Riel Invite with a strong finishing kick.  Look for a tight pack for almost the entire duration of the Senior Boys race, as it will likely be less than 30 seconds that will separate the top 10 boys in this year's race.

NC Blogger's Pick:
Team -  1. Franco Ouest 39, 2. Glebe 44, 3. Louis Riel  70
Individual - 1. Roberts (Franco Ouest), 2. Alie-Lamarche (Gloucester), 3. Abanto-Enns (Lisgar)

Best of luck to all athletes as they prepare for the NC Championships!