StFX Cross Country to compete at Nationals
2008 CIS cross country championships
OTTAWA (CIS) – The Guelph Gryphons hope to write some history of their own Saturday when Laval University hosts the 2008 CIS cross country championships on the historical site of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City.
Championship web site: www.cisport.ca/e/championships/cross_country/2008
The Gryphons have been the dominant force in recent years in university cross country running, capturing the last three CIS banners in women’s competition, and the last two titles and six of the past nine on the men’s side.
With another team win this weekend, the Gryphon women would tie the all-time record for consecutive national championships. Since the inaugural CIS meet was held in 1980, only Western, from 1981 to 1984, and Victoria, from 1998 to 2001, have been able to put together streaks of four straight women’s titles.
Meanwhile, a victory by the Gryphon men would give them eight team banners since the inaugural men’s meet in 1963, moving them to within one of the all-time mark held by Toronto.
Both Guelph teams have resumed their domination this season, the men topping all seven national rankings published this fall while the women were No. 1 six of the seven weeks.
Guelph swept the team titles at the 2008 OUA championships held in Kingston on Oct. 25.
Other conference team champions this fall were the St. Francis Xavier X-Men and X-Women, who captured double gold in the AUS, and the Laval Rouge et Or women and Sherbrooke Vert & Or men in the QSSF. Laval edged McGill by only two points to claim the Quebec women’s banner.
Canada West doesn’t hold cross country championships. Top finishers among Canada West runners at the CIS meet are crowned conference champions.
Individual gold-medal winners at 2008 conference championships were Toronto’s Megan Brown and Guelph’s Allan Brett in the OUA, StFX teammates Gina Stewart and David Gerych in the AUS, and Laval’s Catherine Cormier and Sherbrooke’s James Poulin-Cadovius in the QSSF.
Sherbrooke’s Alex Genest, the reigning CIS champion and the CIS rookie of the year in 2006, settled for third at the QSSF meet. The native of Lac-aux-Sables, Que., has been gradually coming back to competition this season as he was recovering from health problems.
One of the most interesting battles to keep an eye on this weekend could be the fight for individual gold in the women’s race between Brown and Guelph’s Lindsay Carson, who claimed CIS gold as a rookie last year.
At the OUA championships two weeks ago, Brown, the 2006 CIS champion who started her varsity career at Guelph before transferring to Toronto, beat Carson by 34 seconds over five kilometres.
“Today was one of the strongest runs I’ve ever ran,” said Brown following the race. “I ran exactly to my fitness and I’m in the best shape of my life right now. I’m very pleased with where I’m at right now.”
The last runners to repeat as CIS champions are Nathalie Côté of the Ottawa Gee-Gees, who won three straight gold medals from 1996 to 1998, and Cristiano Mauricio of the Windsor Lancers, who claimed back-to-back individual titles in 2004 and 2005.
The five-kilometre CIS women’s race will get under way at 1 p.m. on Saturday, with the 10-kilometre men’s event following at 1:40 p.m.
Courtesy Canadian Interuniversity Sport