Top eight at
OFSAA cross country
Dorchester junior boys are seventh and St. Joseph's midget boys eighth
in team standings at the provincial high school championships
Saturday, November 4, 2018 (update: November 8)
By Rob J. Ross
DUNDAS, ON. - Two local schools had best ever results out on the running trails.
The Dorchester Beavers and St. Joseph's Rams placed teams in the top eight at the OFSAA cross country championships, at Christie Lake Conservation Area.
Owen Pink had the top individual result from the local area, finishing 19th in the junior boys' five kilometre race, leading Dorchester to seventh in the team standings. Behind Pink, Connor Erb was 61st, Aiden Currah, 115th, Joshua Smith, 122nd and Dilpreet Sandhu, 136th.
The top four runners on each team, adding their results together, count for team points.
Dorchester was the top team from a 1A school.
"Owen ran well. He ran a very solid race. I was pleased how he ran and very pleased on how Connor ran too," Dorchester coach James Tennant said.
Currah, Smith and Sandhu, got pack trapped in a race with 276 runners.
"The biggest thing is getting off the start line and continuing your speed for 300 metres or so. That's the hardest part about being in that type of race. The third, fourth and fifth guys are coming from back in the masses off that (starting) line. That's the difficult spot," explained Tennant. "When you're thinking you've gotten off well and running well, but you're really in that 100th to 120th spot. That's what happened to our guys. They said that was difficult. They had really solid runs, but in order to get a (team) medal, (in the 70s range were required). That's just experience."
Tennant knows from his own running career about being caught in the pack. In a race during his Grade nine year, he felt he was running around 65th, but finished 112th.
Currah, Smith and Sandhu, were only 30 to 50 seconds behind the 70th place runner.
The Beavers will certainly benefit from the provincial experience and the race only adds to their standout season.
"It was an awesome season overall. I was really happy with the Grade 10 boys," Tennant said. "OFSAA was one race and it was an average race for them. I think they ran better at pre-OFSAA, but the whole season was just awesome and finishing seventh in the province is awesome."
Ottawa Glebe handily won the midget boys' title, despite not one runner in the top 40. Their four counters all came in between 45th and 58th. London Oakridge was second.
Pink's performance joins some of Dorchester's best individual results at OFSAA from the past 25 years. Patrick Deane was 12th one year and 17th as a senior. Greg Wieczorek, William Ross, Rachel Ross and Mariel Fluttert, all had top 20 races.
Pink also finished ahead of WOSSAA champion, St Marys DCVI's Ethan Aarts, who finished 49th.
Dorchester's Ashley Legg finished 39th in the midget girls' four kilometre race featuring 269 runners, posting a time of 17:23.3.
"I was very pleased with Ashley's run. Anything in the top 60 for a grade nine girl is really great running," Tennant said. "She was nervous. Sometimes nerves pushes a runner back, but she accepted the nervousness and ran really well. You don't always get that performance from a Grade nine."
Legg was among a large pack of runners, 12th to 40th place, who all finished in a 30 second span. That group included Clinton St. Anne's Maya Robinson, the WOSSAA champion, who was 19th (17:02.). Six more runners were less than a second behind Legg. Aysia Maurice, of Bolton Humberview, won the race in 16:18.5. Ottawa Glebe's Cara MacDonald was second in 16:36.3.
Tennant's daughter, Mary, running for London CCH, placed 96th, in the senior girls' race. Arva Medway's Clarissa Sladek, the WOSSAA senior girls' champion, was 18th.
Rams eighth in midget boys
St. Joe's midget boys' team of Harrison Belanger, James Hill, Joel Bowden and the Coles brothers, Aiden and Tristan, placed eighth.
"Being the eighth best midget boys' team in the province is something to be proud of. It is the best team finish St. Joe's has ever had at OFSAA cross country," coach Annette Barry said. "We did have expectations to do a little better than that however."
Aiden and Tristan would likely admit to wanting to finish higher than 52nd and 63rd, respectively, in the four kilometre race. Perhaps the brothers were still recovering from the Minor Track Association (MTA) provincial championships five days earlier. Aiden won the senior boys' race, while Tristan was seventh, running for the London Legion club.
"James Hill who was our fifth runner at WOSSAA had an absolutely outstanding race," said Barry. "He was our third runner to cross the line at OFSAA. It's delightful to see how far he and Joel have progressed in two months as non-club runners."
Hill finished 94th, Belanger, 120th and Bowden was 167th.
"Harrison is the leader of our team. He seems to really have great balance of seriousness and enjoyment in running," Barry said.
This group of runners seems poised to continue to develop as a force for St. Joe's running, as they move up to the junior and senior levels.
"I stood back before and after the race and what struck me, is the camaraderie between them all. The entire team, including the boys who didn't race at OFSAA, are such amazing, kind, eclectic boys," said Barry. "Michelle Massaro, Erin Rosebrugh and Cindy Maifrini and I are excited about the privilege we have to watch them grow, in the next three years, as runners and people."
In the para race, St. Joes' Diego Alban-Gasca finished 27th.
"We are very proud to have had Diego compete in the para race," said Barry. "A first for our school as well."
Tough day for Knelsen
East Elgin Eagle Hallee Knelsen wasn't at her best in the junior girls' five kilometre race. Among the top 30 in the opening kilometre, Knelsen finished 131st.
"It was disappointing for sure. I was prepared for it mentally and physically I put the training in," said Knelsen. "Something went wrong and I’m not exactly sure just what. My chest was bothering me and I was finding it hard to breathe. Going up the hill I was gasping for air and then I fell. I took a few minutes there. When I got back up I really wanted to finish the race. At that point though, I was really far back. It was a tough day.”
Knelsen's top WOSSAA rivals, London Aquinas' Victoria Lamb was seventh, while Oakridge's Elysse Fleming and Jalen Marcel, finished eighth and 18th, respectively.
At WOSSAA, Knelsen was just three seconds behind Lamb, the race champion.
As a midget runner at OFSAA 2017, Knelsen placed 26th.
She hopes for a better outing at the Ontario Athletics cross country championships, November 11, at Seneca's King City campus.
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