2025 NC Preview

 2025 NC Preview    

Glebe looks to make it 15 consecutive overall titles after a commanding performance at the East Conference Championships earning 58 of a possible 60 points to defeat Colonel By.  In each of Glebe's 5 victories, however, Colonel By was the runner up, twice by as little as 2 points, and will be stalking the Gryphon's every step at the NC Championships.  Will the larger fields help the Cougars?  Will West Champs Nepean be able to knock the Gryphon's down a peg and will John McCrae's strong Junior and Senior Boy's teams mix up the balance of power?

Novice Girls

Glebe vs. Nepean (Round 1).  East vs. West.  Glebe won the East with the lowest score of the day, packing all four scorers in the top 10, led by individual favorite, Gerth.  With Glebe's 2 - 3, Blondin and Potter, only 15-20 seconds back of Bilcock (who led Nepean to the West Conference Title) at the Rebelles Invitational two weeks ago, it will be tough for anyone to knock them off.  Also the depth of the Gryphons will prove difficult as they packed 8 runners in the top 20 at East.  Meanwhile East Runner-Up Colonel By had an almost 4 minute gap back to their final tally (Monette), and they only have 4 runners, so they will need a big run from their back end to have a chance to wrest the second spot from the Knights, who had their 4,5 and 6 (Chang-Duffett, Oldfield and O'Connell) 2:30 behind Bilcock.

Gerth of Glebe has been the top NC runner in every race she has run this season, defeating West Champ Ganton (Maplewood) and East Runner-Up Allina twice.  These should be your top 3, with Hoogenraad (Longfields) and Dustin (Earl of March) looking to crack a spot on the podium.

NCBlogger's Picks

1. Glebe (39), 2. Nepean (128), 3. Colonel By (143) Darkhorse - Paul Desmarais

1. Gerth (Glebe), 2. Allina (Colonel By), 3. Ganton (Maplewood) Potential Troublemakers - Hoogenraad (Longfields), Dustin (Earl of March)

Junior Girls

Glebe vs. Nepean (Round 2).  The Glebe Girls have been undefeated all season against NC competition and were top 8 at OFSAA last year.  They've added even more depth to an already packed squad and look to defend their title.  With less than a 2:30 gap between #1 McInnes and their 6th Cuylits, they will be difficult to knock off.  Vickers, Ravard, Muir and Steffler have all been solid throughout the season giving the Gryphons the depth they need should one, or two have an off day.  Nepean has  improved much up front with Eccles knocking off last year's OFSAA Bronze medalist Harris (John McCrae) at West, and Fee running strong.  Their hopes will rest with well needed big runs from Wallner or Winkel, but it's unlikely it will be enough to catch the Gryphons, but more than enough to hold off John McCrae.

Alabed (Ashbury) moved back to Canada from Egypt and made an immediate impact this season, running to victories at the Gryphon Open, Rebelles Invite and East.  Harris and Eccles were only a couple seconds back over the shorter 4k distance at Rebelles and will need to come up with something big take the race from the heavy favorite.  It's difficult to see anyone upsetting one of these three, although Gauthier (St Laurent)  will certainly take a crack at it.

NCBlogger's Picks

1. Glebe (40), 2 Nepean (58), 3. John McCrae (105) Darkhorse - Colonel By

1. Alabed (Ashbury), 2. Eccles (Nepean), 3. Harris (John McCrae) Potential Troublemakers - Gauthier (St, Laurent), McInnes (Glebe), Fee (Nepean)

Senior Girls

Round 3!  They say a bird in hand is worth two in the bush, but in XC the more important question is, a 90 second gap in the middle of the race worth more than a 3:00 minute gap at the front? Big gaps upfront often look impressive, but make small differences in team scores where the back 3-4 runners have much more potential to gobble up points.  Nepean and East Runner Up Colonel by will post low stick's with Petrescu-Comnene (Nepean) and Lebel (Colonel By), the latter of which looks to win the race outright.  Trouble is, mind the gap.  Despite Glebe's top stick van Wesenbeeck likely a few minutes behind these front runners, the 2 minute gap back to their 4th, is much more tasty than the 7 minute gap behind Lebel and the 4 minute gap to Nepean's 4th and 5th.  Nepean's gap might be small enough to give Petrescu-Comnene's Knights the needed points to hold off the pesky Gryphons.  Colonel By will need a big run from their 4th (Lee) to have any chance of stealing a spot on the O-Show starting line on Nov 1st.

Lebel and Lauter (Franco Ouest) had a fabulous race at the Rebelles Invitational just a few weeks back, with Lebel taking the race by 0.01 seconds.  Lauter got the better of Lebel earlier in the season at the Gryphon Open sailing smoothly across the beach to open a comfortable gap.  Lebel is not likely to let her have that gap this coming week and it may come down to a kick again, in which Lebel likely has the edge.  Neither of these two are likely to be challenged for the top spot, which will likely leave Davies (Immaculata) in the bronze medal position with Petrescu-Comnene and Munro (Hillcrest) hoping to sneak in and steal a spot on the podium.

NCBlogger's Picks

1. Nepean (88), 2. Glebe (96), Colonel By (101) Darkhorses - Ashbury & Merivale

1. Lebel (Colonel By), 2. Lauter (Franco Ouest), 3. Davies (Immaculata), Potential Troublemakers - Petrescu-Comnene (Nepean), Munro (Hillcrest), Carleton (Franco Ouest), Daniels (The Element)

Novice Boys

Glebe had a few aces up their sleeve ahead of Conference, having a couple of runners who had not raced yet this season waiting in the wings.  It was enough to counter the dynamic 1-2 duo from Colonel By of Siderius and Lebel, by no small stretch the best 1-2 punch in the city.  The have a solid 3rd in Ross, but have to shrink the gap between Abi Chahine and Ross, which was 3 minutes at East, to have any chance.  A big run from the back end though could drastically lower their score and prove to cause trouble.  West Champs, Paul Desmarais, on the other hand, had less than a 30 second gap between there 1-2 Jean and Knight and their back end duo of  Roux and Naud and that gap has been consistent all season.  Trouble is their front duo were behind Glebe's front three at the Rebelles Invite, giving Glebe a good cushion as their 2 - 6 gap between Vyvey and and Maxwell-Swinburne is also under a minute.  On paper, it's Glebe, Paul Desmarais then Colonel By, but everything depends on Abi Chahine.  A big run from him could really turn the tables.

Siderius and Lebel have been 1-2 amongst Novice runners in every race this season.  In fact, they beat all the 2010s, except Charbot, at the Gryphon Open and Rebelles Invitational to boot.  No one is touching them this week, unless Siderius has more trouble staying on course....again.  West Champ Claydon-St. John (John McCrae) outkicked Taft (AY Jackson) at West and was a comfortable 15 seconds ahead of Glebe's Schreiner at both the Gryphon Open and the Rebelles Invitational.  These are likely your top 5 with Mitchell (Hillcrest) and Ross (Colonel By) trying to break things up.

NCBlogger's Picks

1. Glebe (68), 2. Paul Desmarias (78), 3. Colonel By (80) 

1. Siderius (Colonel By), 2. Lebel (Colonel By), 3. Claydon-St.John (John McCrae) Potential Troublemakers - Taft (AY Jackson), Schreiner (Glebe), Mitchell (Hillcrest)

Junior Boys

Immaculata has always felt jilted by our predictions.  We did, after all, predict them to come 2nd to Louis Riel in 2022, and they took it personally.  They eked out a 3 point victory over Louis at NC's then went on to win the OFSAA title at Dagmar.  I've got a soft spot for people who trash-talk with their feet. The Saints tied with Glebe at East this year but got the nod with the higher 4th place finisher Roseman (18th) to Glebe's Behrend (20th).  Mac also brought up their top Novice runner, Roseman to bolster their chances.  The 25 second gap between the two was similar at the Grpyhon Open and only slightly smaller at the Rebelles Invitaional.  With Glebe's Hurst hunting for a medal spot, Immaculata hopes rest on Scullion keeping the gap, and the number of scorers, between himself and Hurst (over a minute at East and 5 places) as small as possible, while Glebe's Pilkington and Behrend try to catch Mac's Cronkwright and Roseman.  Both teams boast a small gap with less than 50 seconds for Mac 1 - 4 and a minute for Glebe's 2 - 5.  The nod goes to Glebe on depth as Mac's 5th is a good piece back, but Mac's tendancy to run well when it matters makes them top dogs.  West Champs John McCrae could spoil the party for one of these two but the 3 minute gap between Yakimchuck and Roeste will likely be too much to overcome.  Last year's Champs, Canterbury also might have something to say with the strongest 1-2 punch in the Sineus twins, Onyx and Zain, but that 3 minute plus gap back to 4th needs to be smaller. 

West Champ Charbot (St. FX) has won each and every race this season by comfortable margins, his closest pursuer being Hurst, by 15 seconds over 4k at the Rebelles Invitational.  He will likely run unchallenged to victory.  His closest pursuers will likley be Hurst and Sineus, while Saikaly (Colonel By) and Yakimchuck fight for 4th and 5th.

NCBlogger's Picks

1. Immaculata (80), 2. Glebe (82), 3. Canterbury (100) Darkhorses - John McCrae, Franco Cite

1. Charbot (St. FX), 2. Hurst (Glebe), 3. O. Sineus (Canterbury) Potential Troublemakers - Yakimchuck (John McCrae), Saikaly (Colonel By), Z. Sineus (Canterbury)

Senior Boys

The more experienced the athletes, the more exciting the racing and that certainly holds true with the Senior Boy's race.  Just as the Senior Girl's race will be a tight affair, the Senior Boy's race promises a close finish and a very tight four way team battle.   

Glebe were unlikely East Champs, having placed 4th at the Rebelles Invitational, but a 30 second 1 - 4 gap certainly puts them in the mix to win at the NC Champs.  Rebelles Champs Louis Riel played it cool at East with their 1 & 3, Fortier and Young, placing in the 80's.  Had they finished relatively close to where they finished at Rebelles it would have placed them right alongside Glebe and Colonel By.  The Cougars had a strong showing, only two points back of Glebe, led by East Champ Siderius but will need big runs from their back duo of Ross and Walker to beat either of these two.  West Champs John McCrae will also be in the mix.  They ran to a very comfortable victory at West despite their #2 man Yakimchuck struggling over the 2nd half of the race.  They will need him to run at his best if they hope to crack the top 3.   The two OFSAA spots will certainly come from two of these four teams.

Mortimer (Hillcrest) has raced sparingly this year.  Skipping the Gryphon Open to run with the University athletes at Capital XC, Mortimer turned in a solid 7th placefinish against much older competition.  Siderius (Colonel By) on the other hand has raced more often, twice on the NC course, and won both times over the trails at Green's Creek outkicking Mortimer in the latest race.  He looks to match his brother's victory in the Novice race with a title of his own.  Outside of these two, only the Louis duo of Fortier and Rebane have a chance of staying close, giving the East a likely podium sweep, although West Champ Charlebois (Sacred Heart) has raced only once this year, outkicking McKercher (John McCrae) and Recoskie (St. Joseph) at West.

NCBlogger's Picks

1. Colonel By (68), 2. Glebe (70), 3. Louis Riel (73) Not a Darkhorse - John McCrae (77)

1. Siderius (Colonel By), 2. Mortimer (Hillcrest), 3. Fortier (Louis Riel) Potential Troublemakers - Rebane (Louis Riel), Charlebois (Sacred Heart)

2024 NC Preview

Year after year it seems I do less and less, but the one thing that remains, and will always remain, will be the NC Preview and Predictions.  Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments below.  I love hearing from my followers....both of them.

The cancellation of the Turkey Trot meant one less race for many schools and many more athletes. Despite the Gryphon Open serving as an OFSAA Preview Meet, many athletes did not race until Conference, which makes my job much harder!  Race more athletes!!

Glebe has won 17 of the last 18 overall city titles, but has some serious contenders looking to knock them aside and claim the crown. Glebe defeated Colonel By by a mere 3 points at the East (44-41), while Nepean dominated in the West with 42 points, sweeping all three Girl's races. Nepean will need their Senior Boys to step up at NC's to add some valuable points if they hope to wrest the title from Glebe or challenger Colonel By.

Finally, with the NC hosting OFSAA this year, a double cohort of athletes (4 teams and 10 individuals) will qualify for the OFSAA Championships to be held at Mooney's Bay.

Novice Girls

It's an ancient medieval battle to start the day, with the Knights mounting a charge to take down the mighty Gryphons. 

Glebe has been undefeated all year, with victories in Port Hope, the OFSAA Preview Meet (Gryphon Open) and this past week at the East.  Their largest margin of victory however, was only 12 points over Kingston at Trinity.  The battles have been tight and that might help the Gryphons, who have proven themselves in tight spots, when things come down to the wire.  Led by McInnes, Glebe's following trio of Vickers, Ravard and Steffler have all been very close to each other throughout the season and should pack well again at NC's.  

Nepean has a similarly well packed team, placing all 4 scorers in the top 10 at West led by silver medalist Fee.  Just off the podium, Eccles was the top Knight at the Gryphon Open and Winkel and Stewart round out a tighly packed squad.  Colonel By has two low sticks in Coldrey and Edwards, but will need big runs from MacFarland and Cabasson to unseat the Gryphons or the Knights.    

Sir Robert Borden and John McCrae were separated by only a single point at West and one of these two teams should grab the 4th spot.  It will be a battle to the line with the 3rd and 4th scorers for each team (Lee and Lloyd vs. Manley and McLellan) making the difference.  

Individually, there has not been an NC athlete within 30 seconds of John McCrae's Harris all season, the closest being McInnes at the Gryphon Open.  East Champ Gauthier (St. Laurent) is also undefeated this year against Novice runners, placing 3rd in the Junior race at the Rebelles Invite ahead of West runner up Fee.  

NC Blogger's Picks

Teams - 1. Glebe 47, 2. Nepean 51, 3. Colonel By 60 

Fighting for Fourth - Sir Robert Borden and John McCrae

Individuals - 1. Harris (John McCrae), 2. Gauthier (St. Laurent), 3. McInnes (Glebe)

Potential Troublemakers - Coldrey (Colonel By) and Fee (Nepean).

Novice Boys

Immaculata and Garneau have very similar teams with their top 2 closely bunched, and two more tightly bunched a small gap back.  Gerges and Deveau (Garneau) led their teammates (Cazabon and Mantha) to victory at the East only 8 points ahead of Mac's Davies, Conkwright, Pollman and Scullion.  West Champs Earl of March will have to work hard to hit the podium ahead of East's Colonel By, who packed all 4 scorers within 30 seconds to finish 3rd at the East.  Even Canterbury, lead by East Champ Onyx Sineus and his twin bother Zain (4th) may be able to wrest the spot from  West Champs Earl. 

Sineus (Canterbury) had an impressive victory at the East and Charbot (St. FX) was similarly dominant in the West.  Charbot was the top NC athlete in the field at the Grpyhon Open just under 20 seconds ahead of Davies (Mac) who was 5th in the East.  Charbot will have more company at NC's and will have to work hard to break up an East sweep of the podium.

NC Blogger's Picks:

Team - 1. Garneau 48, 2. Immaculata 61, 3. Colonel By 90

Fighting for Fourth - Canterbury, Earl of March, Glebe

Individual - 1. O.Sineus (Canterbury), 2. Charbot (St. Fx), 3. Gerges (Garneau)

Potential Troublemakers - von Teichman (Paul Desmarais), Deveau (Garneau), Z.Sineus (Canterbury) 

Junior Girls

In 2023, Nepean edged Colonel By by a single point to capture the NC title and it looks to be another tight battle shaping up this year.  Nepean won in 2023 without a single scorer in the top 10 and won't likely have one again this year, with Hume their top scorer in the West, placing 10th.  Packing all four runners inside a minute though will likely make the difference. The Cougars will counter with the individual favorite in Lebel, but with over a 2 minute gap back to their second scorer, Amberg, it may not be enough to keep the score down.  Colonel By, Garneau and Pierre Savard will all have over 4 minutes between their top scorer and final tally, which will make the fourth runner the King-, I mean Queenmaker.

Lebel (Colonel By) remains undefeated against NC competition this year and heads to KRC as the heavy favorite.  She used a strong final k to pull away from Daniels (The Element) at the Hornet's Nest and has both the strength and finishing speed to fight off any challengers.  West Champ Dahila (Pierre Savard) nipped East Runner up Daniels in their only head to head match up this season so she get the nod for the silver.  There are not many challengers in sight to reach the podium, but Carlton (Franco Ouest, Chernoff (Lisgar) and Arabackyj (De La Salle) will take a stab.

NC Blogger's Picks: 

Team - 1. Nepean 73, 2. Colonel By 92, 3. Garneau 102

Fighting for Fourth - Pierre Savard, Earl of March, Glebe

Individuals - 1. Lebel (Colonel By), 2. Dahlia (Pierre Savard), 3. Daniels (The Element)

Potential Troublemakers - Arabackyj (De La Salle), Carlton (Franco Ouest), Chernoff (Lisgar)

Junior Boys

The Difference a year can make.  Last year, Glebe did not field a single athlete in the Novice Boys race, but the 2009's came out in droves this fall as Glebe clipped last year's East Champs and NC Runner Up Immaculata by six points to win the East.  That said, West Champs Merivale won the Gryphon Open by a healthy margin and Deveer, the West bronze medalist, topped the East Champ, Glebe's Schreiner at the Gryphon Open by just under 30 seconds. Merivale, who placed third in the Novice race last year has added some key pieces in Cobb and Ginn and along with returning Fu, Russell and Deveer, should have the depth to more than hold off any challengers.  

Last year's NC Champs Earl of March, led by West Champ Van Brabant (aka LVB) will have their work cut out for them to hit the podium this year or even make it to the dance, as Ashbury, third at East, looks to have an ace up their sleeve.  Ashbury had 3 in the top 5 before Lamont, who won the Rebelles Invite and was the 2nd NC athlete at the Gryphon Open had to drop back due to a nagging quad. If he can hold form and perform he did earlier in the season, Ashbury could challenge Merivale for the title.

The West trio of LVB, Bonilla (Holy Trinity), and Deveer may be able to repeat the performance at the NC Championships, although if Lamont is healthy he could mix things up.  Merivale's Ginn (5th for Merivale at West) was their top Gunn (haha see what I did there) and top NC athlete at the Gryphon Open, so he may have just been lurking in the weeds as well. 

NC Blogger's Picks:

Teams - 1. Merivale 58, 2. Ashbury 67, 3. Glebe 91

Fighting for Fourth - Earl of March, Immaculata, Colonel By

Individuals - 1. LVB (Earl of March), 2. Bonilla (Holy Trinity), 3. Deveer (Merivale)

Potential Troublemakers include Lamont (Ashbury), Ginn (Merivale), Van Elst (Redeemer Christian), Schreiner (Glebe)

Senior Girls

Nepean swept the Girl's race at West capturing the Senior Girls with a comfortable 19 point gap over Paul Desmarais and Ashbury, with their massive 22 athlete squad grabbed victory in the East by 7 points over Glebe.    Both teams bring similar squads to the table with Petrescue-Commene and Pender (Nepean) looking to score single digits, while Izumikawa and Johnston-Zemek (KJZ) (Ashbury) will try to offset their scores.   While both teams have significant gaps back to their final tally, Barber and Forestier have kept the gap to 3 - 3:30, while Ashbury's Hewison and Turner have been closer to 4:30 - 5.  That might be the difference in the larger NC fields, as more time means significantly bigger gaps.  

Franco Cite will be led by East Champ Knight and they likely have the best 1-2 punch in the city with Fraserwalls also looking to score low. Franco, along with East runner-up Glebe and West runner-up Paul Desmarais will contend for the final two spots on the dance floor Nov 4th at Mooney's Bay.  The gaps are just too big for either of these teams to post a serious challenge to Nepean or Ashbury, but should provide an exciting battle for the two bonus spots on the OFSAA start line.

Jeffrey (St. FX) posted an impressive victory in the West over Peak's Streek who struggled with a stitch over the second half, but was able to hold off 2023 NC Junior Champ, Franco Ouest's Lauter, for the silver.  In the East Knight was followed by Mac's Davies and Glebe's Van Wesenbeeck.  No one can touch Streek if she is on form, and the OFSAA Steeple Champion has a history of showing up big when it matters, capturing OFSAA XC bronze in 2022.  She was also the top NC finisher in the Senior race last year, placing 12th.  It's tough to bet against that kind of talent and experience, but please remember this is HS sport, so you shouldn't be betting on it anyways. 

NC Blogger's Picks:

Teams -  1. Nepean 88, 2. Ashbury 99, 3. Glebe 115

Fighting for Fourth - Franco Cite and Paul Desmarais

Individuals - 1. Streek (Peak Academy), 2. Jeffrey (St. FX), 3. Knight (Franco Cite)

Potential Troublemakers include Lauter (Frano Ouest), Davies (Immaculata) and Van Wesenbeeck (Glebe)

Senior Boys

This one is likely one of the easiest of the day to call as the Louis Riel Senior Boys have their eyes set on a much bigger prize than the NC Championships.  They have the upfront talent and depth to be a serious contender for the OFSAA podium and should easily handle anything any NC team can throw at them this week at Walter Baker.  Louis placed all 4 scorers in the top 9 at East to post a winning score that was half that of last years OFSAA Junior Silver Medalists Colonel By (23-46).  These two teams should prove the class of the field leaving everyone else to fight for scraps.  

Those scraps though have a lot of meat with the two extra spots on the OFSAA starting line.  Lisgar was perhaps the surprise of the day at East, giving Glebe a scare, only 6 points back.  Outside of Louis and CB, they will pack the best and if they can keep the gap small enough it could find them on the line Nov 4th.  Glebe's 1-2 punch of Taler and Heins is tough for any team to match but with a 3+ minute gap back to their 3-4-5 (Johnston, Bou, Woolf) it will mean big runs are needed from the back end.  It's not often that a Conference Champ is on the outside looking in, but the Bulldogs will be in a dog fight to unseat one of the top four teams from the East. West Champ McKercher and Yakimchuck will have to rally the pack to earn a trip to the Bay.  Then there is West runner-up Nepean who packed well at West, but may have been lurking in the shadows, trying to fly under the radar and surprise teams at the NC Meet.

Taler - Cova. Cova - Taler.  It's been back and forth between these not only this year, but since the two first locked horns in Grade 10. Neither has remained undefeated over the other for a full season, and although Taler (Glebe) got the best of Cova (Louis Riel) at the Gryphon Open, Cova got the nod over Taler when the two crossed the line together at East. These two are certainly the class of the field, but after that, there is a massive cue of athletes fighting for the final spot on the podium with OFSAA 2022 Junior Bronze medalist Heins (Glebe), 2023 NC Junior Champ Mortimer (Hillcrest), Siderius (Colonel By), Fortier (Louis Riel), James Rebane (Louis Riel) and West Champ McKercher all lining up to take a stab.   

NC Blogger's Picks:

Team - 1. Louis Riel (31), 2. Colonel By 56, 3. Glebe 82

Fighting for Fourth - Lisgar, John McCrae, Nepean

Individuals - 1. Taler (Glebe), 2. Cova (Louis Riel), 3 Mortimer (Hillcrest)

Potential Troublemakers include Fortier (Louis Riel), Siderius (Colonel By), Heins (Glebe)

Best of luck to all the athletes competing this coming week, but even better luck to the Glebe Harriers!  See you all at Walter Baker.

2023 OFSAA Recap

The 2023 OFSAA XC Championships were held on a beautiful fall day at Centennial Park in Etobicoke, ON.  Although the morning began with rain, by the time the gun sounded to start the Novice Girl's race the weather began to co-operate and some very fast conditions were available for all the races.  National Capital runners had some outstanding performances throughout the day and earned the honour of being the 3rd toughest region of the 18 associations from across Ontario.  The day culminated for the NC Region with a Senior Boys Team Title for the Glebe Gryphons.

For starters, a big shoutout to Noah Lamoureux, who became the first NC athlete to participate in the OFSAA Para race in the Intellectual division. Noah, guided by South Carleton Coach Carolyn Connell, placed 20th overall and 16th in the ID category.  

NC Novice Girls Champ Laila Lebel (Colonel By) once again led all NC athletes placing 12th in the Novice Girls race.  Behind Lebel, Riley Daniels (The Element) had an exceptional race, overtaking NC silver medalist Dahlia Loreti down the stretch.  Colonel By used Lebel's low score to turn the tables on the NC Champion Nepean Knights, who were without their top runner, Hume.  

NC Summary:

12. Lebel (Colonel By), 26. Daniels (The Element), 28. Loreti, (Pierre Savard)

14. Colonel By (487), 30. Nepean (698)

Immaculata also turned the tables in the Novice Boys race, besting NC Champs Earl of March.  Mitchel Skelton (Immaculata) was the top NC finisher, placing 22nd overall.  As Daniels had done, Luke Van Brabant (Earl of March) improved from 4th at Cities, to be the NC's second best finisher in Etobicoke, by besting Anik Bonilla (Holy Trinity) by less than a second.

NC Summary:

22. Skelton, Immaculata (22nd), 2. Van Brabant, Earl of March (32nd), 3. Bonilla, Holy Trinity (34th)

14. Immaculata (509), 18. Earl of March (549)

The Junior Girls race produced the first top 10 finish for an NC Team when last year's Novice OFSAA silver medalists from Nepean, placed 9th overall.  Little changed in terms of individual performances as the top 6 NC runners finished in similar order to the NC Championships a week ago, led by Kyra Lauter (Franco Ouest), who placed 17th.

NC Summary:

17. Lauter (Franco Ouest), 21. Van Wesenbeeck (Glebe), 28. Davies (Immaculata)

9. Nepean (419), 22. Glebe (626)

In the Junior Boys race Colonel By's make up may have changed slightly, but the results were very similar to last year when they captured the silver medal in the Novice division.  In fact, there was only a 9 point difference in the team score from one year to the next (241-250)!  Talk about consistency! Led by Owen Siderius, the Cougars placed 3 scorers in the top 40 of the 270 athlete field.  Siderius continued his year long battle with Hillcrest's Charlie Mortimer as there was little to chose between them as the crossed the line with less than a second between the two.  Evan James Rebane (Louis Riel) kept the order of finish the same as the NC Champs and was the 3rd NC athlete to cross the line.  Not to be left out, John McCrae made the Junior Boys race the only race with two NC teams in the top 8, with a 7th place finish, led by Jackson McKercher's 51st place finish.

NC Summary:

9. Mortimer (Hillcrest), 10. Siderius (Colonel By), 24 James Rebane (Louis Riel)

2. Colonel By (250), 7. John McCrae (377)

Grace Streek (Peak Academy) has dealt with abdominal pain while running all fall.  It hampered her in some of her races so much she ran the last k of several races almost doubled over.  At the Turkey Trot, it hurt so badly, she finished almost 2 minutes behind race winner Hamilton (Holy Cross Kingston), whom she bested by 43 seconds at OFSAA.  While the pain was still present, Streek stayed tall and sprinted past NC Champion Lauren Alexander down the final straight to lead all NC athletes to the finish line.  Jocelyn Giannotti (Holy Trinity) and Kate Johnston-Zemer (aka KJZ - Ashbury) also placed in the top 20, making the Senior Girl's race the best finish of any of the races for NC athletes.  Alexander's teammates ran well enough behind her to help the Gryphons place 6th overall.

NC Summary:

12. Streek (Peak Academy), 14. Alexander (Glebe), 15 Giannotti (Holy Trinity)

6. Glebe (419), 14. Ashbury (525)

The final race of the day saw both the best individual performance and the best team performance of the day for NC athletes and teams.  Saul Taler (Glebe) latched on to the back of the lead group and simply refused to let go.  Taler's 7th place finish helped lead his team to victory in the Senior Boys race in a highly anticpated battle with last year's Champions, London Central.  Central had the edge with Individual Champ McAllister and their 2nd, Royce one spot up on Glebe's #2 man Heins, but as we all know so well, it's 4 to score and Glebe's Derek Strachan and Kiefer Melinz-Dupuis, both put themselves infront of Central's third scorer to seal the deal for the Gryphons.  It was the first Senior Boys team title for any NC Team at the OFSAA Championships.  Louis Riel's Daniel Cova was the NC's second finisher, while Heins rounded out the top 3.

NC Summary

7. Taler (Glebe), 12. Cova (Louis Riel), 29. Heins (Glebe)

1. Glebe (193), 26. Immaculata (627)

NC Blogger would like to thank all athletes, coaches and parents for an outstanding season and look forward to next year when the NC Region will host the best at Mooney's Bay for the 2024 OFSAA XC Championships!  

2023 NC Recap

Glebe captured it's 13th consecutive overall aggregate at the NCSSAA XC Title at Green's Creek on Thursday.  The Gryphons won both the Senior Boy's and Senior Girl's races placed second in the Junior Girl's and fourth in the Junior Boy's.  Nepean captured the Overall Girls Title with victories in the Novice Girl's and Junior Girl's, while Immaculata won the Boy's Title, placing runner up in both the Novice Boy's and Senior Boy's races and picking up a single point in the Junior Boy's race as well, placing 8th.  

In the first race of the day, Loreti (Pierre Savard) lead much of the early going, but could not match Lebel's (Colonel By) finishing kick as she pulled away on the last loop of the soccer fields to a comfortable 10 second victory.  McGregor (Immaculata) swapped places with The Element's Daniels from last week to earn the bronze.

Nepean, despite not having a runner in the top 10, packed all four close, lead by Annie Hume's 11th place finish to beat Colonel By for the team title by a single point 79-80 and will head to OFSAA as NC Champions.  Garneau came oh so close with 84, as only 5 points separated the top 3 teams.

The Novice Boys saw the first upset of the day as Earl of March captured the NC Title.  Wagner was the big difference maker for the Lions, having placed 34th last week at the West he improved to 17th in the larger NC field.  Led by 4th place finisher Van Brabant, the drop in points was sufficient to eek out a 5 point victory over Immaculata 62-67.  Immaculata's Skelton won the race over Merivale's Deever, while Bonilla (Holy Trinity) captured the bronze.  Merivale was third with 79 points.

Nepean made it two for two capturing the Junior Girl's race.  Last year's OFSAA Novice Girl's silver medalists showed their grit and had a much more comfortable margin of victory than their Novice Girls, tallying 46 points to runner-up Glebe's 99.  John McCrae made a push to steal the spot from the Gryphons, but came up short with 107.

Lauter (Franco Ouest) followed by Davies (Immaculata) made a strong surge up the Green's Creek hill and started to pull away off the top.  Van Wesenbeeck let them go, but reeled in Davies over the final k, to capture the silver.   

Siderius (Colonel By) made a strong move heading down then back up Green's Creek hill in an attempt to break up the Junior Boy's pack and take the sting out of Mortimer's (Hillcrest) kick.  It was a decisive move that put lots of daylight between him and most of the the field, but not enough to drop Mortimer.  Mortimer had closed the gap by the time they came back out of the trails to the fields and pulled away over the second half of the race to capture his first NC XC crown.  A duo of Rebelles, James Rebane and Gorall, took the third and fourth spots, attempting to give their team the low scores needed for the second qualifying spot, but unfortunately, McKercher and Yakimuch (John McCrae) were not far behind and with the strength of their back end, Harris and Lin the Bulldogs were able to hold off the Rebelles 62-72 to claim the second spot behind the Cougars 42 points.

Alexander (Glebe) and Giannotti (Holy Trinity) played it patient, content to sit in the chase pack, along with Streek (Peak), KJZ (Ashbury) and Jeffrey (St. FX) through the first half of the race, out to the hill and back.  The chase pack slowly broke up over the second half as Alexander was able to overtake early race leader Chiumera (St. PiusX) in the woods before coming out to the fields with a comfortable gap, which she maintained over Giannotti through the finish.  Streek ran through as well to claim the bronze.  Alexander's teammates ran well behind her as Glebe posted a comfortable margin of victory, but it was behind the front running Gryphons that things were very interesting.  At the half way point, only 3 points separated West Champs Paul Desmarais and East / West runners-up Ashbury and John McCrae (135-133-132).  All teams really pushed for those valuable spots over the last mile with Ashbury emerging victorious 110-122 over McRae, with Paul Desmarais fourth with 125.  

The big story of the day was the Glebe Senior Boys who placed all four scorers in the top 6, lead by Taler, who placed second, and Strachan who captured the bronze, with Heins not far behind in fourth.  Cova (Louis Riel) prevented the Gryphon trio from sweeping the podium with a great display of strength as he started to string out the field after coming off the Green's Creek hill and continued to push over the second half to run to a 23 second victory.  Their 15 - 106 victory over Immaculata was the lowest Senior Boys team score NCSSAA history. 

As predicted, you can never count the Immaculata Boys out when they come in as underdogs.  They relish the roll and it was all the motivation they needed to wrest the second qualifying spot away from West Champs Sir Robert Borden 106 - 116.

NC Blogger would like to wish all the qualifiers the best of luck at OFSAA next week and thank everyone for a great season!

2023 National Capital Preview

Apologies for letting the blog slide again this season.  I am having difficulty keeping up, but once again we are back for the NCSSAA Preview! All pre-season results and results from the Conference Meets can be found on the Glebe XC site. The Conference Meets brought beautiful weather and great racing conditions and some very impressive performances.  While there are a few races that look very predictable, there also look to be some very tight battles in the quest for teams to earn a spot on the OFSAA dance floor on Nov 4th in Etobicoke. 

Novice Girls

Laila Lebel (Colonel By) has looked very strong all season.  Besting all Novice competition at the Turkey Trot, Gryphon Open and the East.  Her only defeat came at the hands of two Juniors at the Capital XC where she still reached the podium racing against grade 10s.  Dahlia Loretti (Pierre Savard) had a very impressive victory at the Rebelles Invitational, beating all the Juniors but was well back at West.  Is she just lurking in the weeds or was she sick? Just running to finish? East runner-up Daniels (The Element) and West Champ Cesario (St. Pius X), who along with Lebel finished 1-2-3 at the Gryphon Open, could repeat the performance at NC's unless Loretti was holding back and is ready to fire.  With only Lebel out of the top 5 expected to qualify on a team, every spot will matter.  McGregor (Immaculata), Arabackyj (De La Salle), Crawlton (Franco Ouest) and Blackadder (South Carleton) should duke it out for the final 3 spots.  

Lebel looks to lead her Cougar teammates to victory again at NC's but Nepean's tight packed top 3 of Hume, Chadwick and Renfroe will be very tough to beat.  While not likely have a single counter in the top 10, a 30 second 1 - 3 gap with a 4th, Hutchens, less than a minute back, Nepean should group very well.  Lebel should provide a low stick for Colonel By, but with a 2:30 gap back to their next scorer Amberg, the Cougars will have their work cut out for them.  The Cougars need to keep their back end as close as possible to Hutchens if they hope to upset the Knights.  Both West runner-up Earl of March and East runner-up Garneau will have to improve massively if they hope to steal a spot from the top ranked teams.

NC Blogger Picks

Teams: 1. Nepean (72), 2. Colonel By (84), 3. Garneau (108)

Individuals: 1. Lebel (Colonel By), 2. Dahlia (Pierre Savard), 3. Daniels (The Element), 

Novice Boys

West Champ Deveer (Merivale) and East Champ Skelton (Immaculata) have yet to lock horns this year and that should make for an exciting show down at Green's Creek this coming Thursday.  Deveer won the Gryphon Open a week ahead of the West, besting Skelton's teammate, Lanca, by the same margin Skelton beat him in winning the East.    While Skelton had a rather large cushion, Deveer's pursuers were considerably closer as the West looked to be the deeper of the two fields.  Bonilla (Holy Trinity) should round out the top 3, but Lanca, Lodha (Ashbury), Rose Royo (St. FX), Van Brabant (Earl of March) and Elmasry (John McCrae) can't be counted out.  With Deveer, Skelton and Lanca on top 2 contending teams, a top 8 finish could earn a spot on the OFSAA starting line.  

Merivale, Immaculata and Earl of March all match up very well and the two NC reps should come from these schools.  Merivale is most vulnerable in the larger NC field as the gap between Deveer and his teammates is over a minute and a half, while the Earl has a tight packed top 2 in Van Brabant and Zabarah (4 seconds at West) and then another two relatively close Chen and Preuss just over a minute back.  While the gap between Chen and Preuss was small, there were 7 places between them at West.  Preuss needs to close that gap in order to gain the valuable points needed to upset the Mauraders,  Immaculata will counter with Skelton and Lanca, and although the gap is a little bigger between the two, there won't be many scorers between them.  Rioux and Smith crossed the line together and only finished a minute back, giving Immaculata the tightest grouping of the three teams.  

NC Blogger's Picks

Teams: 1. Immaculata (70), 2. Merivale (85), Earl of March (90)

Individuals: 1. Deveer (Merivale), 2. Skelton (Immaculata), 3. Bonilla (Holy Trinity) 

Junior Girls

There were a few girls who spent some time in the summer, honing their speed on the track and it shows!  Both Lauter (Franco Ouest) and Van Wesenbeeck (Glebe) missed the podium last year at NC's but look to be fighting for the top spot this year.  Both girls had impressive victories at their conference meets.  Lauter won the Captial XC and was the top Junior at the Rebelles Invitational, while Van Wesenbeeck captured the Gryphon Open and was runner-up at the Turkey Trot.  Lefavire (Louis Riel) and Allibon (John McCrae) also look to be contending for top 5 spots but were outside the top 10 last year.  Defending NC Champ Davies (Immaculata) continues to look strong and was only 2 seconds back of Lauter at Captial XC and 20 seconds back of Van Wesenbeeck on two occasions this fall (West and Gryphon Open).  Behind these 5 we have a couple of Knights (Petrescue-Commene and Forestier) who were part of Nepean's OFSAA Silver Medalist Novice team last year, so a top 10 finish might put you in the conversation for the O-Show in November.  Look for Murphy (Pierre Savard), Taft (AY Jackson) and Bergevin Hemsing (De La Salle) to fight for those last individual spots.

OFSAA Silver Medalists Nepean packed well again at West and look to be heavy favorites coming into the NC Meet.  With only 90 seconds separating 1 - 4, they should easily defend their title and punch their ticket.  Last's years runner-up Glebe looks to hold on to the second spot.  With individual favorite Van Wesenbeeck, they have four more potential scorers packing within 30 seconds, but they will be far enough back to make it interesting.  If John McCrae can get a big run from Rockburne, to close the gap on her teammates, John McCrae could steal the spot.  

NC Blogger's Picks

Teams: 1. Nepean (38), 2. Glebe (82), 3. John McCrae (91)

Individuals: 1. Van Wesenbeeck (Glebe), 2. Lauter (Franco Ouest), 3. Davies (Immaculata) 

Junior Boys

Look for a repeat of the East Conference finish with Mortimer (Hillcrest), Siderius (Colonel By) and Walker (Colonel By).  The boys were 1-2-3 as Novice last year as well, but expect Mortimer to turn his gold to silver this year as he heads to the start line undefeated this season, including two close victories over Siderius. Behind this trio are a several pairs of runners challenging for team titles, with McKercher / Yakimuch (John McCrae), Gorall / James Rebane (Louis Riel) and Bou /O'Hare (Glebe).  The latter are unlikely to upset the individual order of things, but could make things messy in the team race.  Depending on the how the team battle shakes out, Lee (Mother Teresa), Recoskie (St. Joseph), Gimby (South Carleton), McIntyre (West Carleton), and Chelgoum (Gisele Lalonde) could be in the mix for a top 5 individual finish.  

The team battle however looks anything but decided.  Colonel By are the OFSAA Silver Medalists from 2022, but only return with the impressive 1-2 punch of Siderius and Walker.  After that, things drop off with almost a 3 minute gap back to their 4th at East Bordovsky.  All four teams have close 1 -2 finishers before a gap back to 3 - 4.  West Champs John McCrae pack them the closest, with only 90 seconds between 1 - 4 and had the lowest team score of the day at West tallying only 23 points.  Lead by West Champ McKercher and runner-up Yakimuch, they will spot the front running Cougar's and Rebelles a few spots, but there are so many more points be be gained on the back end.  They could find themselves heading to Etobicoke as NC Champs. Glebe and Louis Riel were only 3 points apart at East behind Colonel By, but they both need big runs to catch John McCrae. Glebe's back end Johnston and Eaton need to be ahead of McCrae's Lin and Harris, but that is a big ask.  Louis' fate rests in their 4th, Backman who was 4 minutes behind at East.  He'll need to close that gap for the Rebelles to have a chance.  

NC Blogger's Picks

Team: 1. Colonel By (48), 2. John McCrae (65), 3. Louis Riel (70)

Individuals: 1. Mortimer (Hillcrest), 2. Siderius (Colonel By), 3. Walker (Colonel By) 

Senior Girls

Chiumera (St. Pius X) has not lost an NC competition in her XC career and she looks to carry on with that in 2023.  Her only serious threat will come from East Champ Alexander (Glebe), whose only previous race was a 5th place finish at McQuaid in Rochester, NY.  Gianotti (Holy Trinity) has been Chiumera's closest pursuer with only 10 seconds separating the two at Capital XC, but that grew to 30 seconds at West.  The Hornet's Nest course favors athletes that can break away before the twisty forest loop, but can also be dreadfully cruel to athletes who go out too hard.  Alexander should be able to close on Chiumera down the stretch, but if the gap is too big coming out of the woods, it'll be over.  Streek (Peak), Jeffrey (St. FX), Villeneuve (Paul Desmarais) and K-J-Z (Ashbury), and Knight (Franco) will duke it out for the last spots on the OFSAA start line.  With only Alexander and Villeneuve likely on a team, it's unlikely any others will be able to wrest a spot away for a ticket to OFSAA.

Glebe lost 4 of 5 from their OFSAA Silver Medalist Senior team last year, but return their #1 Alexander, who will likely lead the team to victory over the Green's Creek Trails.  West Champs Paul Desmarais looks to have a solid hold on spot number 2, but West runner-up John McCrae and East runner-up Ashbury, who also won the Rebelles Invite on the Championship course will look to upset the front running favorites as all teams have rather large gaps between their top runners and their 4th.  The 3rd and fourth runners, Waddington / Sutherland (Glebe), Di Lello / Olszewski (Paul Desmarais), McKenna / McQuinn (John McCrae) and Turner / Bruce (Ashbury) hold the keys to their team's success.

NC Blogger's Picks

Teams: 1. Glebe (65), 2. Paul Desmarais (105), 3. John McCrae (132)

Individuals: 1. Chiumera (St. Pius X), 2. Alexander (Glebe), 3. Gianotti (Holy Trinity)

Senior Boys

Cova (Louis Riel)  is on a mission.  Since his defeat by Taler (Glebe) at NC and OFSAA last year, Cova has not lost to anyone from the NC region.  Taler is the defending OFSAA Junior Boys Champ and the only one with a chance of upsetting either one of these two is Strachan (Glebe).  Glebe may pack 4 in the top 6 with Heins and Melinz-Dupuis only broken up by Smith (Immaculata).  With Glebe almost assuredly winning the team title, and Immaculata, Louis, Garneau and West Champs Borden all fighting for the second team spot, 6 of the top 10 could qualify on teams, making a top 10 finish  enough grab a spot on the OFSAA starting line.  Smith, Cohen (Louis Riel), Max Wilson (Woodroffe), Barrett Goold (Sir Robert Borden) and Padoin-Castillo will fight for those spots.

Glebe went 2-4-5-6 at East with only 0.8 seconds separating their 1 - 4.  With Taler and Heins 1 - 3 in the Junior Boys race at OFSAA last year, they certainly have what it takes to not only win the NC Title, but challenge for the top of the podium at OFSAA. The battle for the second qualifying spot will be very interesting. Despite not having a runner in the top 10 at East, Garneau only finished one point behind Louis Riel.  The Junior Boys OFSAA Champion Immaculata Boys team found the step up to Senior a monumental task as they finish 4th at East, but only 7 points out of second.  We found out last year though that the Immaculata Boys show up when it counts, as they came into cities last year having been beaten by Louis only to win Cities and go on to OFSAA gold.  West Champs Borden are similar to Garneau in that they will not have a top threat, but will try to mix things up.  Louis has the up front talent, but will need a big run from Abou-Arraj if they hope to finish runner-up to Glebe again.  Once again, the fate of all four teams rest with their 4th.  

NC Blogger's Picks

Team: 1. Glebe (15), 2. Borden (143), 3.Louis Riel (145)

Individuals: Cova 1. (Louis Riel), 2. Taler (Glebe), 3. Strachan (Glebe)

Best of luck to all NC Athletes!

2022 National Capital Preview

Most of the big names came through at the Conference Championships, but there were a few surprises and the stage is now set for the National Capital Championships as athletes vie for a spot on the start line the first week of November at Dagmar Ski Resort in Uxbridge, ON.  There are no grade 9 - 11 students that have had the chance to run an OFSAA XC race, so there will be high hopes and dashed dreams over the trails at Mooney's Bay this coming Thursday.  There are some secure spots, but as we know, in sport, nothing is ever guaranteed until the race is over, which is why they don't hand out awards until the athletes have crossed the line.

Novice Girls 

Whether due to injury, illness, or just playing it cool, Nepean had a couple of their top scorers well back at Conference, but they still come in as heavy favorites.  Nepean's top three scorers, Pender, Hale and Petrescue-Commene have all taken turns beating each other this season.  With Voros not far back they have a solid hold on the first spot, despite being beaten by South Carleton at West.

The second spot is where things get real interesting.  West runner up South Carleton, East Champs Glebe and runner up Colonel By will be very close.  Glebe has a little more wiggle room with a low score in potential podium threat Van Wesenbeeck, but this race will all come down to the back end, runners three and four, where big swings in points are possible.  Glebe needs their Madeleines (Leschinsky and Beauregard) to keep ahead of South's Adams and Nemchin to help them seal the deal and while Colonel By was ahead of Glebe at the halfway point at East, they will need to run a strong second half to wrest the spot away from either of these two teams.

Individually, East Champ Davies (Immaculata) and West Champ Lofthouse (St. Mark) have been undefeated against Novice competitors this season, but only one will walk away next week with that title.  Davies was the top '08 at Capital XC, while Lofthouse won the North Dundas Invite ahead of the Conference Meets.  Lofthouse held off Pender to win the West, but Pender was well behind East runner-up Buchanan (Franco-Cite) at the Louis Riel Invite, who in turn was beat by Pender's teammate Petrescue-Commene.  Looks to be a real competitive race, as these girls have been been up and down all seasons.  With 2 of the top 6 likely on a qualifying team that will mean a 7th place finish might be enough to punch a ticket to Uxbridge.  Expect Hutt (DeLaSalle), Leblanc (St. Pius) and Lefaivre (Louis) to fight it out for that spot.

NC Bloggers Picks  

Teams - 1. Nepean (32), 2. Glebe (100), 3. South (110)

Individuals - 1. Davies (Immaculata), 2. Lofthouse (St. Mark), 3. Buchanan (Franco Cite)

Junior Girls

Nepean will strive to make it 2-for-2 in the Girl's races as the defending Novice Girl's Champs come in as favorites to defend their title, this time as Juniors.  Without a top threat, Nepean's top runner Barber will have to run well to crack the top 10, but they will likely pack all four scorers within 45 seconds.  The tight bunching will reward them with a low team score.  Similar to the Novice Girls, that second qualifying spot will be a tight battle between three teams, which could be separated by as few as 5 or 6 points.  It's the back end, that all important fourth runner, that will make the difference for West Runner-Up St. Mark, East Champs Franco-Cite and John McCrae.  Franco will have the low stick in Knight, while McCrae will counter with Jennings.  St. Mark, like Nepean will not likely have a single point counter, but will pack much tighter than Franco or McCrae.  McCrae and Franco, on the other hand, have the greatest potential to lower their score if they can get a big run from their fourth runners, Rodriguez and Sabha.  

Chiumera (St. Pius) has yet to be beaten against NC Competition and that streak will likely extend through this year.  Speaking of streaks, it will be a Streek (Peak Centre) that is likely to be Chiumera's closest pursuer, with Streek finishing only 11 seconds behind at Capital XC.  East Champ Johnston-Zemek (Ashbury) was a minute adrift at Capital XC which should be more than enough to secure bronze.  Since there are no teams likely to have an individual in the top 5 it will be a clearer picture for these girls. Place top 5, or you don't go.  Jeffrey (St. FX) and Villeneuve (Paul Desmarais) are most likely to take those spots, although Knight (Franco Cite) will be in the hunt, although she has a second chance with her Faucons teammates.  

NC Blogger's Picks:

Teams -  1. Nepean (65), 2. St. Mark (115), 3. Franco-Cite / John McCrae (120)

Individuals - 1. Chiumera (St. Pius), 2. Streek (Peak Centre), 3. Johnston-Zemek (Ashbury)

Senior Girls

While there is no such thing as a sure, thing, oddly enough, the more mature the athletes get, the more predictable their behaviour (and results) become.  Go figure.  The Glebe Senior Girls will look to make it 9 consecutive years holding the Senior Girl's crown.  The Gryphons scored a paltry 14 points, placing 6 in the top 8 at East and scored even less, 13, in winning the Capital XC Challenge earlier this year. Podium threat Alexander, leads a cast of Gryphons about a minute behind her with Gormley, Trott, McColgan and Waddington that will likely pack within 30-45 seconds.  Meanwhile, West Champs Merivale looks to have a solid hold on the second qualifying spot, packing all four scorers tightly to win the West by almost 50 points.  Something drastic will have to happen for one of these two teams to be upset.  

Both Individual Conference Champs laced up the spikes for the first time this fall at Conference and showed that a lack of racing does not mean a lack of fitness.  Defending NCSSAA and Athletics Ontario U18 XC Champion Van Brabant (Earl of March) looked very comfortable cruising to a 1 minute victory over defending NC Junior Girls Champ Gionnatti (Holy Trinity) in the West, while Baggley (Gloucester) opened up a gap early and maintained the gap throughout, running to a 25 second victory over last year's Junior Girls runner-up Alexander (Glebe). With only Alexander likely to have a qualifying team, the next spots likely belong to Sarai (West Carleton) and Soler (Longfields), with Hertz (John McCrae) on the outside, looking in, needing a big run to crack the top 5 individuals.

NC Blogger's Picks:

Teams - 1. Glebe (28), 2 - Merivale (65), 3 Longfields (120)

Individuals - 1. Van Brabant (Earl of March), 2. Baggley (Gloucester), Gionnatti (Holy Trinity)

Novice Boys

The Colonel By Novice Boys have the upfront talent and the depth to come in as heavy favorites to win the NC title.  They won the XCookie Open race with 3 novice scorers and Turkey Trot before steamrolling to victory at East with a mere 20 points, despite one of their top dogs rolling an ankle and taking it easy all the way.  Even without one or two of their low scorers, their depth will carry the day. Second will be a close battle between West Champs Nepean and East runner up Glebe.  Expect Nepean's top 2, Moons and Hawkes to edge out Glebe's top 2, O'Hare and Battou-Achab, and hold a slight advantage, but once again, it's the back end that often carries the day.  Whomever has the better races between Glebe's Johnston / Kurien and Nepean's Fee / Frank will likely come out victorious, with many more points available in the latter stages of the race.  Johnston and Fee have taken turns defeating each other this season, with Fee 20 seconds up at Louis, while Johnston held a 12 second advantage at the Turkey Trot.  Kurien has always got the better of Frank by 30 and 10 seconds respectively at the same races.  Outside these two teams only John McCrae has a chance of cracking the top 2.  There is little they can do to improve upfront, likely placing two in the top 6, McKercher and Yakimuch, but if Kydd can come up with the race of his season, even running 30-40 seconds faster could mean 20 - 30 points to help his teams chances.

Colonel By's Siderus and Walker could go 1-2 for the Cougars, but Mortimer (Hillcrest) will likely have something to say about it.  Siderus bested his teammate by 15 and 18 seconds in their two early races, and Mortimer by 15 at East, so it will be very tight.  Will Walker's ankle be good to go?  After them the duo's of Moons / Hawkes (Nepean) and McKercher / Yakimuch (John McCrae) will duke it out.  With four of the top 7 likely on a qualifying team, and the next Glebe's O'Hare before another couple Cougars in Ross / Ghie a top 11 spot might be enough to earn a spot on the OFSAA start line.  Zegers (Mer Bleue) and Uren (St. FX) might be able to sneak a spot depending on how the team battle unfolds.

NC Blogger's Picks:

Teams - 1. Colonel By (25), 2 Glebe (72), 3. Nepean (78)

Individuals - 1. Siderus (Colonel By), 2. Mortimer (Hillcrest), 3. Walker (Colonel By)

Junior Boys

Defending Novice Champs Immaculata looked to be the team to beat heading into the Conference Meets, but Louis Riel had a surprise in store for them.  Not running a full team until their own Invitational, a week ahead of Conference, kept their secret weapon hidden.  They placed three scorers,  ahead of Mac's second runner, lead by individual champion Cova. While Mac got all four scorers in ahead of the Rebelles, Plessas was only 12 seconds behind Mac's 4th Meehan, which sealed the deal.  Louis' front end is stronger, so as long as Plessas is able to keep Meehan or Padoin-Castillo in sight, it should be enough to seal the deal.  There is no other teams with the depth to seriously challenge either of these two teams, with Glebe and John McCrae likely a good chunk back battling it out for the bronze.

Taler (Glebe) has had quite the season winning the Trinity Invitational in Port Hope before losing a tight battle with the defending OFSAA 800 & 1500m Champ Kenny at Capital XC.  Taler, however, returned the favor the following week making a strong move early to defeat Kenny by 40 seconds at the Turkey Trot.  At East, Taler, Cova and Heins stayed tightly bunched for most of the race before Cova kicked away to victory.  Will Taler try the same tactic again to turn the tables on Cova, by making a move early?  Heins looks to have a solid lock on the bronze medal position ahead of Mac's Smith.  The final OFSAA spots should belong to Ghozani (Lisgar), Johnston-Zemek (Ashbury) and West Champ (Sankey) with Goold (SRB) looking to sneak in for one of those coveted spots.  

NC Blogger's Picks:

Teams - 1. Louis (44), 2. Immaculata (46), 3. Glebe (75)

Individuals - 1. Cova (Louis Riel), 2. Taler (Glebe), 3. Heins (Glebe)

Senior Boys

Like their Senior Girl's, the Glebe Senior Boys have not known the taste of defeat at the NC Championships since 2012, when they finished tied for first with Nepean, but lost on the tiebreaker (higher finishing 4th place runner).  They certainly expect to find themselves on top again this year.  With the best 1 - 2 punch in the city, Strachan and Melinz-Dupuis will strive to repeat what they did as Junior's and finish first and second.  Behind them they've got a plenty of depth to back them up, having placed 6 runners in the top 15 at East. West Champs Bell look to have a solid lock on second place behind West Champ Kushner.  Mother Teresa, Nepean, Colonel By and Immaculata will have a tightly contested battle for third, but the top two teams have a rather large cushion to protect themselves.

The Glebe duo of Strachan and Melinz-Dupuis looked very comfortable having been the top 2 NC runners at every race so far this season.  Behind them Thanksgiving weekend marathoner's (yes you heard that right) Padoin-Castillo (Immaculata) and McDaniel (Ashbury) will try to hold off Bell's Kushner.  Another week might help the legs recover a little more, but Kushner had plenty in the tank left at West as he kicked away from OFSAA 400m Champion Sanders (Mother Teresa). That's quite the range Mr. Sanders.  With 4 of the top 6 likely to be on a qualifying team, and Glebe's Hurley, who could be the next across the line, a top 10 finish might make the dance.  Belan (Canterbury), Lacasse (Colonel By) and Del Rio (St. Joseph) all have a realistic chance of nabbing those final two spots.  

NC Blogger's Picks

Teams - 1. Glebe (29), Bell (85), 3. Mother Teresa (130)

Individuals - 1. Strachan (Glebe), 2. Melinz-Dupuis (Glebe), 3. Padoin-Castillo (Immaculata)

Best of luck to all next week at Mooney's Bay.  

Conference Wrap Up

Nepean captured the Girl's and Overall Aggregates at the West winning both the Junior Girl's and Novice Boy's races.  John McCrae prevented Nepean from completing the full sweep by winning the Boy's Aggregate on the strength of their Junior Boy's win and runner up finish by their Novice Boys.

Other winners included South Carleton (Novice Girls), Merivale (Senior Girls) and Bell (Senior Boys).  

Individual winners were: 

Naomi Lofthouse (St. Mark) - Novice Girls, Isabella Chiumera (St. Pius) - Junior Girls, Amelia Van Brabant (Earl of March) - Senior Girls, Jackson McKercher (John McCrae) - Novice Boys, Levi Sankey (Merivale) - Junior Boys, and Zachary Kushner (Bell) - Senior Boys.

In the East, Glebe swept the Aggregates with wins in the Novice Girl's, Senior Girl's and Senior Boy's races.  

Franco Cite captured the Junior Girls, Colonel By won the Novice Boys while Louis Riel was victorious on their home course in the Junior Boys.

Individual winners were:

Evelyn Davies (Immaculata) - Novice Girls, Kate Johnston-Zemek (Ashbury) - Junior Girls, Olivia Baggeley (Gloucester) - Senior Girls, Owen Siderus (Colonel By) - Novice Boys, Daniel Cova (Louis Riel) - Junior Boys, and Derek Strahcan (Glebe) - Senior Boys.

Stayed tuned for our National Capital Preview coming soon.

Conference Week is Here!

The Invitational and Open Meets have wrapped up and we are ready to jump into the OFSAA qualifying meets.  Several teams have shown some promise this season, but many schools have also been conspicuously absent from the early season meets.  

Teams to watch heading into Conference week include both Glebe Senior teams, which  look strong, but in very different ways.  While the boys likely pack the best 1-2 punch in town, with Strachan and Melinz-Dupuis placing as the top 2 NC individuals at the Capital XC Challenge, the girls will likely prevail through their depth as demonstrated by placing 6 in the top 15 at the same meet.

The Glebe Junior Boys have a similar 1-2 punch with Taler and Heins, but defending Novice Champs Immaculata led by Smith and Padoin-Castillo looked strong at Capital XC winning with a healthy margin, despite not running some of their top dogs, 2021 Bronze Medalist McGregor and Meehan.  On the girls side, defending Champs Nepean looked strong in their only showing this fall, winning the Turkey Trot in Kemptville with a solid score, while 2021 Runner Up Canterbury took the Capital XC Junior race with a combination of Novice and Junior runners.

Two teams stand strong in the Novice categories, with Nepean's Novice girls being utterly dominant at the Turkey Trot, placing three in the top 5 to win by a huge margin.  Those Novice runners also bested all the Junior competition the following week at the Louis Riel Invite.  Likewise, the Colonel By Novice boys also captured the Turkey Trot in convincing fashion, and to one up the Nepean Girls, scored 3 Novice Boys in winning the Open division at the season opening XCookie Run.  

The NC has not teams or individual runners at OFSAA XC since 2019, so the athletes will be hungry to earn spots on the starting line at the Dagmar Ski Resort in Uxbridge, ON, the first week of November.

Best of luck to all athletes competing this week and we'll see you on the trails!

XC 2022 is Underway!

The 2022 XC Season kicked off this past week with Glebe competing at the Trinity Invitational in Port Hope and Louis Riel hosting the XCookie Run at the Hornet's nest.

Saul Taler (Glebe) was the class of the field in Port Hope, capturing the Junior Boys race in rather convincing fashion.  Taler hung back from the lead group over the first k before moving to the front alongside Bill Crother's Liu (Unionville, ON).  Taler made his move just before Mt. Trinity and gapped Liu by over 35 seconds in the final kilometre.  Taler's teamates, Whike, Carney and Craig ran well behind him as Glebe's Junior Boys finish 3rd.  

Taler's teammates also had success findng the podium in Port Hope as Julia van Wesenbeeck (Novice Girl) and Lauren Alexander (Senior Girl) captured silver and bronze their respective races.  Glebe's Senior Girls team of Alexander, Waddington, Thomas and Welburn placed second in the Senior Girls race.  

The following day saw Junior Girl Adrienne Fraserswalls (Franco Cite) best the field in the Varsity Girls race at the XCookie Run.  Colonel By's Soran Ghazal captured the Varity Boys race, which saw Colonel By place 4 grade 9's in the top 8 of the field, making them a very formidable team and stating their intention to capture the City Title in late October.  

Up next week is the Capital XC Challenge at Mooney's Bay.  The Friday afternoon races will feature Junior and Senior Divisions at shorter race distances and the XC season slowly gets underway. 

Results and Meet Information can be found on the Glebe XC site  

Best of luck to all this season and as always, Happy Training! 

Conference Wrap Up and NC Preview

Well, not much going on this year, so it will be difficult to predict what might happen at the NC Meet, but we'll give it a shot!

The Conference Meets wrapped up showcasing some new talent, as both Novice and Junior runners had not had a chance to strut their stuff at the High School level over the past two years, so lots of new faces to enjoy.  It was also obvious that some talented athletes spent time during the pandemic to log some miles and get ready.  Look for some new faces to figure prominently in the Senior races as well.

Nepean and Glebe had very strong showings at their respective Conference Meets, winning 4 races, with Nepean sweeping the Girl's races at the West, along with the Senior Boys, while Glebe captured the Junior & Senior Girl's and Boy's titles in the East.  Look for them to butt heads for the Overall Aggregate on the 28th over the trails of Green's Creek.

Novice Girls

Usually the Novice runners are the most unpredictable, but this year's Novice girls may be an exception.  Chiumera (St. Pius) and Streek (Merivale), perhaps the most aptly named runner since Ridgemont's Joe Fast, are clearly the class of the field.  Chiumera has had a comfortable margin of victory over their two battles this fall and will toe the line as the clear favorite.  East Champ Lyons (Glebe) had a strong showing against West bronze medalist McDonnell in their only head to head meeting this fall, but both were well back of the favoured Chiumera.

Nepean looks to be the class of the field, capturing the West with a comfortable 20 point margin over Merivale.   Nepean packed 6 runners within a minute at West, while Streek and Chen gave Merivale two low sticks to keep them in the hunt.  They will need a big run from their back end, who finished almost 2 minutes behind Nepean's 6th if they hope to pull off an upset.  East Champs Colonel By have too large a gap to seriously challenge either of these two, but, they are Novice runners, so anything can happen.  South Carleton's tight grouping might be enough to nab the final spot from the Cougars for a West sweep of the team podium.

NC Blogger's Picks:

1. Chiumera (St. Pius), 2. Streek (Merivale), 3, Lyons (Glebe)

1. Nepean (72), 2. Merivale (96), 3. Colonel By (111)

Junior Girls

The West featured a tight battle between four girls, Delaney (St. FX), Hegan (Nepean), Pascali (Nepean) and Sarai (West Carleton) that all finished within 8 seconds of each other, while East Champ Alexander (Glebe) had a comfortable 30 second margin of victory over teammate Waddington, but outside that, these girls have not faced each other this season, so there is much left to guesswork here.

Nepean packed four scores within 90 seconds at West and Glebe swept the podium in the East with a similar 1 - 4 gap.  Glebe's #4, Audet-Wilke had a comfortable victory over Nepean's #4 in their only head to head meeting this fall, the Capital XC Challenge and will need to keep that gap and more if Glebe hopes to prevail.  It might come down to who has the higher fourth place finisher, in which case Glebe may get the nod.  

NC Blogger's picks:

1. Alexander (Glebe), 2. Delaney (St. FX), Hegan (Nepean)

1. Glebe (35), 1. Nepean (35), 3. Ashbury (125)

Senior Girls

A lot has changed since the break in XC due to the pandemic at the Senior level.  Several strong runners graduated without a chance to show what they could do in their final year and a few Junior and Novice runners have put in some excellent work to improve their game heading into their Senior season.  

Van Brabant (Earl of March) has been dominant in her two outings this fall, capturing the West title by almost two full minutes over 6k, and the Capital XC Challenge by a minute over the shorter 5k distance.  Fellow first year Senior and newcomer to the XC scene, Baggley (Gloucester) also had a convincing victory in the East over a much improved Vroom (Sir Wilfrid Laurier), who had placed 6th in the Junior race back in 2019.  The other contender looking to mix things up missed the Conference Champs but looks to be back in form for the NC Meet.  Never to be counted out, Glebe's MacDonald can produce in the big races when it matters most.  The 2018 OFSAA silver medalist will look to put in a strong showing on the 28th.

Glebe has held the Senior Girl's Title since 2013 and it does not appear that they are ready to relinquish the crown. They have the upfront talent in MacDonald to counter Nepean's Hegan and then look to get their next three, 2019 Novice Champ Gormley, Hurst and Bennett in before Nepean's 3rd, West, and possibly before their #2 Gruson.  After that things get really interesting.  Both Colonel By and Franco Cite tied for 2nd at East, while Merivale was not far behind Nepean in the West.  

NC Blogger's picks: 

1. Van Brabant (Earl of March), 2. Baggley (Gloucester), 3. Hegan (Nepean)

1. Glebe (34), 2. Nepean (61), 3. Merivale (101)

Novice Boys

Cova (Louis Riel) was the top Novice finisher at the Capital XC Challenge, running against the Junior Boys, and he finished comfortably ahead of West bronze medalist Daniels (Nepean).  Daniels however was well behind West Champ and runner-up Sankey (Merivale) and Adamson (Earl of March).  Cova had a comfortable victory in the East and knows the terrain, running on Louis' home course which might help him in his quest for gold.

Next to the Junior Girls, the team battle in this race will likely be the tightest, with both Merivale and Immaculata running to solid victories in their respective Conference Championships.  Immaculata put all four scorers in the top 7 at East with only a 57 second gap between them.  Merivale will likely have three scorers in before Mac's #2, but their fourth (Tong) may be well over a minute back, which may open the door for Mac if he struggles.  The only team with a remote chance of unseating either of these teams is the home team, Louis Riel.  They will likely be even with Mac after three runners, but need a huge improvement from their #4 Domiati, if they hope to play spoiler.

NC Blogger's picks:

1. Sankey (Merivale), 2. Adamson (Earl of March), 3. Cova (Louis Riel)

1. Merivale (42), 2. Immaculata (45), Louis Riel (70)

Junior Boys

West Champ Sanders (Mother Teresa) was the top NC individual at the Capital XC Challenge, but was only trailed to the line by East runner-up Melinz Dupuis (Glebe) by 14 seconds.  East Champ Strachan (Glebe) bested his teammate by just over 20 seconds at Green's Creek over the slightly longer, more challenging course, so the battle between the two Conference Champs could prove very tight.  These three boys should be able to secure a podium spot, with the only outside threat coming from Woodroffe's Mohamud.

The Glebe Junior Boys put 6 in the top 12 at East and ran to a very comfortable victory, amassing a paltry 13 points.  West Champs Mother Teresa have a great 1-2 punch in Sanders and Grant, but a full three minute gap back to #3 and #4 will likely be too much to overcome.  The battle for them will likely be for the second podium spot with East runner up Lisgar.  While Lisgar only has a single low stick in Krnjevic, they will likely score all four before Mother Teresa's #3.  Mother Teresa's back end needs to make sure that gap stays small if they hope to finish second.

NC Blogger's picks:

1. Strachan (Glebe), Sanders (Mother Teresa), 3. Melinz Dupuis (Glebe)

1. Glebe (30), 2. Lisgar (105), 3. Mother Teresa (112)

Senior Boys

Sikka (St. Paul) was the West Champ and the top NC finisher at the Capital XC Challenge and heads to Green's Creek as a solid favorite.  Legare (John McCrae) was bested by East runner-up Fairhead (Glebe) at the Capital XC Challenge, but beat East Champ Waddington (Glebe) in the same race.  Legare had made a bold move, pushing the pace early in the race and it came back to haunt him.  Don't expect him to make the same mistake at the NC Meet.  Just over 15 seconds back of Sikka at the West, Legare has been his closest pursuer and looks to have a safe hold on the second podium spot.  West Bronze Medalist Del Rio Reategui (St. Joseph) will likely battle Waddington and Fairhead for the bronze.

Like their female counterparts, the Glebe Senior Boys have enjoyed a long string of success, finishing on top of the podium 9 times in the past 10 years.  In 2012, Glebe shared the top spot with Nepean, but lost on the tie-breaker (they higher fourth place finisher).  They once again have the upfront talent in Waddington and Fairhead, along with a much improved Barrett (4th at East) and Strachan not far behind.  Look for Glebe to put three in the top 10 and all four scorers in the top 15 to run to a comfortable victory.  Nepean may have been downplaying their strength at Conference, with there back 3 all crossing the line together mid-pack at West.  If they've got more in the tank, they could make it closer, but with Glebe likely packing three in front of Nepean's top finisher from the West, Mason, it will likely be too big a gap to overcome.  Either way, Nepean should have enough to stay comfortably ahead of East runner up Ridgemont.  

NC Blogger's picks:

1. Sikka (St. Paul), 2. Legare (John McCrae), 3. Waddington (Glebe)

1. Glebe (29), 2. Nepean (95), 3. Ridgemont (151)

Best of luck to all athletes competing at the Hornet's Nest / Green's Creek next week.  We look forward to some great competition. 

2021 XC Season Info - Coming Soon!

Welcome back for another exciting year of XC.  While the OCDSB has unfortunately put a hold on all extra-curriculars, it looks like the other school boards will allow XC, among other things, but honestly, is there really anything else?

OFSAA has announced their Fall Championships will run.  You can check out the announcement on their homepage.  

Not much information to share yet, but please check out the Glebe XC page for updates and information about the fall season.

COVID CRUSHES XC 2020

 Welcome NC Harriers and sorry for the delay in posting.  

OFSAA has Officially Canceled all fall Championships, including XC.  As a result, the NCSSAA has done the same.  

There are still a few scattered opportunities for those in the region to train virtually and even toe the line in some local races.  Sadly, there will be no NCSSAA XC Championships, although we still hold out hope for a virtual event.

Please Check out the Glebe XC page for details.

OFSAA Recap

NC Runners had outstanding performances at the 2019 OFSAA XC Championships, in cold, snowy and icy conditions at Kivi Park in Sudbury.  Glebe Collegiate was 2nd in the Girls Aggregate and 3rd in the Boys Aggregate to claim the unofficial crown of top XC program in the province, edging out St. Catherines' Sir Winston Chruchill by a single point (61-60).

Joe Fast (Ridgemont) turned in the top individual performance of the day for NC athletes placing 5th in the Senior Boys race.  Cara MacDonald was 7th (Junior Girl), Adam Sanger was 8th (Senior Boy),  and teammates Caitlin Gormley and Zoe Wojtyk (Glebe) were 8th and 9th in the Novice Girls, putting 5 NC athletes in the top 10 in their respective races.

Several NC teams found their way into the top 8 in the province with Lisgar Senior Girls(8th), Glebe Junior Boys (8th), Glebe Junior Girls (7th), Glebe Senior Girls (5th), Glebe Novice Girls (4th), and the Glebe Senior Boys team of Sanger, Callum Saravanamuttoo, Sebastien Cino, Owen Pensom and Ben Rundle, who captured the silver medal in the Senior Boys race.

Congratulations to all NC athletes on their performance at OFSAA and thank you once again for another great year of Cross Country!

Full results available at www.trackdatabase.com

NCSSAA Championships

Glebe Collegiate swept the Girl's races while taking the Junior and Senior Boys races as well en route to the Overall Aggregate at the 2019 NCSSAA XC Championships at the Hornet's Nest.  Footing was sloppy but despite a brief shower during the Novice Girls race, the weather held and was a beautiful fall day for Cross Country.  Isn't every day a beautiful day for XC?

The Novice Girls kicked things off with a tight three way battle between the pre-race favorites, teammates Gormley and Wojtyk (Glebe) and Nepean's Hegan.  Gormley and Hegan traded the lead throughout with Wojtyk content to let the other two push the pace as the trio separated themselves from the pack pretty quickly.  It as Gormley who struck first, just past half way, coming down off the ridge, but the gap never got big enough and she was caught shortly after.  Hegan tried to break things up through the back, twisty, muddy loop behind the Dome, but was unable to shake her pursuers.  Once back out onto the soccer fields Gormley and Wojtyk finally broke away, with Gormley just pulling away from her teammate in the final 50m.  The leading Gryphons were followed by Bennett (11th) and McColgan (16th) to take the team title with 30 points, well ahead of second, East Champs Beatrice Desloges (109) who were lead by 5th place individual Lortie.

Colonel By was considered the pre-race favorites in the Novice Boys and they did not disappoint, placing 5 runners in the top 21, behind their leading duo of Loganathan (4th) and Lacasse (5th), but the battle for the second spot behind them was very heated.  As expected it was the workhorses that often toil in obscurity in the middle of the pack that made the difference in the end.  Four teams, John McCrae, Mother Teresa, Immaculata and Paul Desmarias all finished within 7 points (89-96).  Immaculata placed 2 in the top 10, individual silver medalist Vrankovic and Padoin-Castillo (9th), while McCrae had individual Champ, Legare and Mother Teresa had bronze medallist Kennedy.  While Demarais' top duo was 13th and 14th, Vivas-Moncado and Ledain, their 3rd and 4th, Jalbu (29) and Watt (33) were able to help them capture the team title with a score of 89 points, with Mother Teresa and Immaculata tied for 3rd (94) and John McCrae 5th (96).

Legare pushed hard from the gun and only Kennedy was able to stay close until about 1k, when up the first steep accent to the top of the ridge, he lost his footing and went down.  From then on, Legare was alone out front.  Vrankovic managed to keep him in sight, but Legare was never seriously threatened throughout the race.

The Junior Girl's race saw a tight battle between West Champ Murchison (Mother Teresa) and MacDonald (Glebe) who separated themselves pretty early from their only real pursuers Porter (Franco Cite) and May (Immaculata).  Murchison made several attempts to shake MacDonald but was unable to do so throughout the early going. With only 400m to go, MacDonald went to the front in a bid to steal the race, but Murchison refused to let her go and charged back past MacDonald in the final 100m to take the win.  Porter was able to pull away from May to claim the bronze.

Behind MacDonald, her teammates ran well and secured the victory for the Gryphons ahead of Colonel By, who was once again led by East Champ Ginther, who placed 7th.

Glebe captured the Junior Boys race in expected fashion, with only 37 seconds separating their 1st through 5th runners.  Led by Welburn's 4th place finish, the Gryphon's tallied 40 points, while John McCrae, 3rd at West, had strong runs behind their top finisher, Sendybyl (5th), to turn the tables on Nepean and Sir Robert Borden to nab the second qualifying spot.  Borden's Porter did his part, pushing hard from the front for almost the entire race.  A rather large lead pack stayed closely bunched behind out to the Hill and back, but Porter started to pull away before heading up to the ridge, with only Meredith (De La Salle) able to cover his move.  Meredith waited patiently until the finishing stretch before unleashing his kick to sprint to a small three second victory, but the duo where well ahead of the chase pack in which Beatrice Desloges' Trudel won the race for bronze.

The Senior Girls race saw a lead trio establish themselves quite early in the race with Betty (Lisgar), Pellerin (St. Francis Xavier) and Newlove (St. Peter) setting a quick pace and putting early daylight between themselves and the field.  Heading into the mud maze behind the Dome the three stayed tightly bunched, but when they emerged it was just Betty and Newlove left to duke it out over the final 600m.  Newlove made the first move as they passed the start line area, but Betty found another gear and pulled away over the final loop around the fields.  Pellerin ran solo the final k to capture the bronze.  Bialowas (Glebe) ran solo for much of the entire race, behind the lead trio but ahead of the rest to lead her Gryphons to a comfortable victory.  Just over a minute separated her from Glebe's 4th, Heffernan-Wilker (10th) and Glebe was able to take the win with 29 points over East Champs Lisgar (39), despite Wojtyk's strong performance that put two Lisgar runners in the top 5.

Gryphon teammates Saravanamutto and Sanger set a blistering pace from the gun and opened a 10 second lead over the first kilometre of the race.  Fast (Ridgemont) was patient and waited until the Hill to move his way back into contention.  Cresting the Hill, he and Sanger started to pull away.  Coming down off the ridge a mile later, Fast moved again and from then on, it was him against the clock and Sanger was left in no man's land for the remainder of the race.  Allan (Ashbury) hauled in Saravanamuttoo through the maze but the early quick pace didn't take too much out of the Gryphon as he was able to hold off Allan down the stretch to claim the bronze.  Behind the two medalists, the Gryphon's ran well with Cino (7th) and Pensom (14th) to post the lowest team score of the day (26).  Louis Riel showed off their stuff on their home course putting together a strong team performance to edge out Ridgemont (76-79) for the second OFSAA qualifying spot.  Led by Fillion (5th), the Rebelles 2-4 stayed within 30 seconds of each other with Lejeunesse (20th), Ducharme (24th) and Pollock (26th), which was enough to steal the race from Ridgemont, despite Ridgemont having three (Fast, Omar Ali and Luqman) in before the Rebelles second scorer.

Thank you to NC hosts Ken and Sebastien from Louis Riel for an excellent day of racing and best of luck to the NC athletes heading up to Sudbury to represent their respective schools and our region at the OFSAA XC Championships.

Full Results can be found on the Glebe XC site or louisrielathxc.com








Teresa

NC Preview v.2019

The Conference Meets are over (finally) and athletes are primed and ready to vie for entry to the 2019 OFSAA XC Championships the first weekend of November.  The top 2 teams in each race, plus the next five individuals not on a qualifying team will earn a spot on the start line at Kivi Park in Sudbury.  With the East Conference Meet being delayed until Oct 21st, not a lot of teams / individuals gave it their all on Monday, ensuring they will be rested for Thursday, but the meet gave us a good picture of how dominant some of the teams will be.

Novice Girls

The Glebe Novice Girls have only raced twice as a team this season but have bested all their competition, winning the Gryphon Open handily over West Champs Pius X, even without their top gun in the line-up.  They will head to the start line at the Nest as heavy favorites, with both upfront talent in Gormley and Wojtyk, who could both land on the podium, and a solid pack of four not far behind.  West Champs Pius X have bested all their rivals, except the Gryphons in their two outings this fall and the second OFSAA qualifying spot is theirs to lose. While they will not have a real low stick in the tally, a 43 second spread 1 - 4 should be enough to keep them low enough to earn runner up honours.

Individually, the top two have not faced each other yet this season so we could see the best of both brought to the forefront.  Gormley (Glebe) is undefeated against NC Novice competition, beating all but one of the Juniors (Murchison) at the Capital XC Challenge.  Hegan (Nepean) is in the same boat, outkicking Wojtyk (Glebe) to win the Gryphon Open by a second, and running to a slightly more comfortable 7 second victory over Brabant (Earl of March) at West.  With Gormley and Wojtyk likely to qualify as part of a team, that leaves the individual spots up to 7 deep.  Expect Lortie (Beatrice Desloges), Saravanamuttoo (Colonel By), Brayman (Osgoode), Benz (St. Joseph) and Young (Mother Teresa) to fight it out for those spots and a ticket to the big dance.

NC Blogger's Picks
Teams - 1. Glebe (35), 2. St. Pius X (83), 3. Nepean (91)
Individuals - 1. Gormley (Glebe), 2. Hegan (Nepean), 3. Wojtyk (Glebe)

Novice Boys

Mother Teresa and John McCrae had a very tight neck and neck battle at West, with each scorer finishing within 1-3 places of his counterpart. Mother Teresa eeked out a 1 point victory.  Expect them to do battle again at the Nest, but this time, fighting it out for the second OFSAA qualifying spot.  The top spot should go to Colonel By who ran to a massive victory at East, putting all four scores in front of every other teams second.  The small spread between their 1 - 4 runners will make beating them a tall order.   The only other teams that have a shot at striking for second would be Paul Desmarais and South Carleton who were both within range of Mother Teresa and John McCrae at West.  The fate of these teams all rest with the 3 - 4 runners.  Whoever can get the biggest runs from their back end will win the all expenses paid (by Bank of Mom & Dad) trip to the Big Nickel.

West Champ Legare (John McCrae) has bested all NC competitors this year and East Champ Vrankovic (Immaculata) has been the only one that has been within 10 seconds (at the Capital XC Challenge) of him all year.  Kennedy (Mother Teresa) and Loganathan (Colonel By) will fight it out for the remaining spot on the podium.  Raz (West Carleton), Wilson (Woodroffe), Del Rio Reategui (St. Joseph) from the West will duke it out with Gillian (Ashbury) and Fortin (Franco Cite) from the East for the remaining spots on the Kivi Park start line.  Lacasse (Colonel By) might break things up, but he will almost assuredly be heading to Sudbury with his Cougar teammates.

NC Blogger's Picks
Teams - 1. Colonel By (44), 2. Mother Teresa (105), 3. John McCrae (107)
Individuals - 1. Legare (John McCrae), 2. Vrankovic (Immaculata), 3. Kennedy (Mother Teresa)

Junior Girls

Last year, Colonel By came into the NCSSAA Championships as favorites, but unfortunately, one of their top runners failed to show up on race day and cost the Cougars valuable points and they placed 3rd, missing the final qualifying spot.  Never forget - XC is a team sport!  Colonel By hopes to put that in the past on a course much closer to home.  The Cougars were utterly dominant at the East meet, sweeping the podium, with their fourth scorer placing 5th.  With just over 1 minute between their first and fourth, the Cougars have the the depth and talent to challenge the defending Champions Glebe even without a solid individual threat upfront.  Glebe is led by individual favorite Cara MacDonald (Glebe), and then a tight pack of 4 runners, who can take turns stepping up and delivering on race day.  The only team with a chance of upsetting the natural order of things is West Champs John McCrae.  Ivay (John McCrae) will do her part to throw in a low score, but her teammates will need to step up and track the Cougar and Gryphon girls closely if they hope to knock either team off the bus.

There are no undefeated athletes heading to NC's this year as everyone has taken a turn at besting each other so far.  Defending Champion MacDonald gets the nod based on a strong run at Turkey Trot, even though both May (Immaculata) and Murchison (Mother Teresa) got the best of her at the Capital XC Challenge.  She is also the OFSAA Novice Silver Medalist from 2018, so she is a big game hunter, and shows up when it really matters.  Patience will certainly play a role as whomever has taken the lead early in races tends to get tracked down in the later stages.  This might make the race a little tighter upfront, for a while at least.  With only MacDonald likely to qualify on a team, three more sports are up for grabs and the favorites for those spots are Bradley (Longfields-Davidson), McCulligh (West Carleton), Porter (Franco Cite) and Ivay.  If John McCrae ends up unseating Glebe or Colonel By, then MacDonald, or teammates Saravanamutto and Ginther (Colonel By) will have to fight each other for the final spot.

NC Blogger's Picks
Teams - 1.  Glebe (42), 2. Colonel By (54), 3. John McCrae (71)
Individuals - 1. MacDonald (Glebe), 2. Murchison (Mother Teresa), 3. May (Immaculata)

Junior Boys

The Junior Boys race will be the final example of how you can win as a team.  Just like the Pius X  and Colonel By girls, the Gryphons do not have an individual threat for the podium, or perhaps even a top 5 spot, so it may be easy to overlook the them, but they will pack very tightly with as many as 6 or 7 runners within 45 seconds of each other.  While other teams may have a very low stick to score, no one can match the Gryphons for depth.  West Champs Nepean and West Runner Up Sir Robert Borden have similar teams, each with an individual podium threat (Porter - Borden and Woodford - Nepean) with a tight bunch for their next three scorers.  The Knights advantage is that they have 6 very tightly bunched, whereas the Bengals only have the three.  The only team with an outside shot at besting these two for the second spot would be John McCrae, led by Sendybyl and Brooks (the best 1-2 combo next to Glebe), but will need big runs from their back two to knock off Borden or Nepean.

2018 OFSAA Medalist Meredith (De La Salle) is the class of the field.  He's got the strength and the speed to finish off anyone who manages to stay with him long enough, although he has raced sparingly this fall.  His opponents best bet is to catch him rusty, but it's unlikely.  In his one outing earlier this season he put 13 seconds into West Champ Porter over 4k on the fields of the Nest.  With only Porter or Woodford likely to be on a qualifying team, it will likely take a top 6 finish to earn one of the 5 individual qualifying spots.  The remaining three spots will likey go to Niedre (South Carleton), Sendybyl and either East Champ Williams (Garneau) or Sikka (St. Paul).

NC Blogger's Picks
Teams-  1. Glebe (42), 2. Nepean (60), 3. Borden (64)
Individuals - 1. Meredith (De La Salle), 2. Porter (Sir Robert Borden), 3. Niedre (South Carleton)

The Glebe Senior Girls have been on and around the podium at OFSAA for the past several years, earning bronze in 2018 and 2016 and gold in 2015 and 2014.  They hope to find themselves in the hunt again this year and need to put a good one together at NC's to set them off on the right foot.  The Gryphons started the year off with a win at the prestigious Trinity Invitational in Port Hope, putting all four scorers in the top 7.  At their Gryphon Open they took the top two spots with A and B teams, went 3 - 6 at the Capital XC Challenge  and then posted the lowest score of any team at the Turkey Trot before Conference Week rolled around.  They doubled up on their closest rival, Lisgar, at the Capital XC Challenge and Lisgar appears to have a strong hold on the second qualifying spot led by individual favorite Betty.  Only West Champs Nepean have a shot and upsetting Lisgar or Glebe and it's a long shot at best, but the Knights will do their best to make it interesting on Thursday.

Although Newlove (St. Peter) got the best of  Betty at Conference, Betty beat Newlove at the Capital XC Challenge.  The rubber match won't mean too much as they will likely both get another shot at each other at OFSAA.  In her only race against the two, Pellerin (St. FX) pulled out very early after rolling her ankle, so the three of them together should put on a good show for the fans at the Nest on Thursday.  I'll go with Betty - Pellerin - Newlove as that is the way they finished last year and they all look to be in similar form this year.  After this front trio, expect a slew of Gryphons, which along with Betty could mean a top 10 spot might be enough for a trip to the Big Nickel.  The Gryphon order changes from race to race, but expect Gardiner, Bialowas, Lyons and Heffernan-Wilker to be in the mix followed by Semeniuk (Pius X) and Tyman (Mother Teresa) with Roy (Louis Riel), Tremblay (Beatrice Desloges), Thebaud (Canterbury) and Gruson (Nepean) fighting it out for that last spot.

NC Blogger's Picks
Teams -  1. Glebe (24), 2. Lisgar (49), 3. Nepean (63)
Individuals - 1. Betty (Lisgar), 2. Pellerin (St. FX), 3. Newlove (St. Peter)

Senior Boys

It's not often you get a team with three boys capable of running 9:10 or better over 3,000m on the same high school XC team, but that is exactly what Glebe has ready to tow the line at the Nest.  Sanger, Saravanamutto and Cino have run 9:10 or better (with Sanger running 8:50).  Track times don't always translate to XC success, but when you consider these three athletes punch above their weight in XC compared to the track, things are looking up.  Behind these three are a host of Gryphons that, along with Cino, brought home Junior Boys gold at OFSAA last year which gives you  a strong recipe for success and leaves the rest fighting for that second spot.  This may be a tight,  battle between Ridgemont (who has placed 2nd to the Gryphons for the last three consecutive years) and West Champs Longfields-Davidson who posted very similar scores at their respective Conference Meets.  Ridgemont has the upfront talent and with three likely ahead of Longfield's #2 man, they should carry the day.

They call him Fast.  Joe Fast.  And that he is.  In his final XC race in the NCSSAA Fast comes in as the heavy favorite.  Behind him, things are fairly predictable as we can expect Sanger in second with 2018 Junior Champ Allan (Ashbury), Saravanamutto and Cino battling for the bronze.  With four of these boys likely on qualifying teams (and Omar Ali not far behind) anything in the top 10 might earn you a dance ticket.  West Champ Frost (AY Jackson), runner-up Roy, Porter (Sir Robert Borden), Woodford (Nepean) and Demers (Mother Teresa) will vie for those positions.

NC Blogger's Picks
Teams - 1. Glebe (26), 2. Ridgemont (54), 3. Longfields (86)
Individuals - 1. Fast (Ridgemont), 2. Sanger (Glebe), 3. Saravanamuttoo (Glebe)

Best of luck to all Harriers and if I've left you off this list, please get out there on the trails Thursday and make me look bad!