NCSSA Championships

Glebe Collegiate captured their 7th consecutive Overall Aggregate, sweeping both the Boys and Girls Aggregates at the NCSSA Championships at Mooney's Bay on Thursday.

There were no surprises in the team competition as all of the favorites delivered on race day, although the individual races for qualifying saw some surprising results.

Nepean claimed the Midget Girls race (66 points) with South Carleton (104) finishing in the runner up position.  Unfortunately, South had a runner unable to commit to OFSAA and so, with only three runners able to attend, graciously gave up their qualifying position to Lisgar, who finished only 2 points behind in the team standings.

Lauren Reid (All Saints) went out strong and led wire to wire, with only Newlove (St. Peter) able to stay close.  The gap stayed consistent most of the race with Reid holding on for a 6 second victory.  Katherine Chadwick was patient in the chase pack, but pulled away over the final back loop to earn bronze.

The Midget Boys race saw individual champ (and the most appropriately named athlete of the meet) Joe Fast lead his teammates to a 12 point victory over Louis Riel.  Louis ran a brilliant team race, packing all four scoring runners within 22 seconds to claim the second qualifying spot over West Champs Longfields Davidson.

Joe Fast (Ridgemont) showed he could win races not only by relying on his great finishing speed as he has done his past few races.  He surged early in the race and ran unchallenged to post a 25 second victory over Meredith (De La Salle)

The Glebe Junior Girls packed a 1 - 2 finish (Shapansky, Barrett) to tally the lowest team score of the day (21), placing all four scorers in the top 10.  All Saints, led by bronze medallist Shields, secured their second consecutive OFSAA birth behind the Gryphons with a comfortable 19 point margin over Sir Robert Borden (62-81).

Glebe captured the Junior Boys race with another impressive score (25) led by individual champ Pensom.  Unfortunately, the Gryphons will be without Pensom next Saturday in Port Hope due to a provincial championship soccer match.  The same holds true for runner up Colonel By who will be missing their #4 man Zhu, a teammate of Pensom's.  Even without these two scoring, both teams finished well ahead of third place Bell.

The Junior Boys packed stayed rather tightly bunched through the first 2K loop before it started to break up the second time up Mooney's Bay hill.  The final K saw a few gaps develop and Pensom prevailed over Cox (Colonel By) in a repeat of the East final.  West Champ Johnston-Nielsen (Sir Robert Borden) claimed the bronze.

The Glebe Senior Girls, lead by Weston and Shepherd's 2 - 3 finish posted 26 to score the largest victory of the day over runner up Canterbury (90), a repeat of last years NC Senior Girls final.  Nepean claimed the bronze.

By the time they hit the top of the first hill, only 200m into the race, very little changed in the Senior Girls race.  McCulloch (Longfields) went out hard, established a big early lead, and continued to press to the end, with Weston and Shepherd cleaning up the remaining medals.

The Glebe Senior Boys made it four in a row to end the day for the Gryphons with a comfortable 14 point victory over rival Franco Ouest (57-71), while Louis Riel captured the bronze.

Michael Mather (Franco Ouest) established a comfortable early lead and maintained the gap for the entirety of the race.  Pedersen (Merivale) made it 5 for 5, finishing second for the 5th consecutive race this fall.  He plans to do the same next week at OFSAA!  The Mooney's Bay course must have been to McCann's (Franco Cite) liking as the Gryphon Open champ returned with a great run, bettering all three runners who beat him at last week's East Championships to claim the bronze medal.

NC Blogger would like to thank all NC harriers and their coaches for a great season and wish the best of luck to all NC athletes competing at OFSAA next weekend in Port Hope.

Full Results available on the Glebe XC page.