Running title is up for grabs

Three women in contention for AUS cross-country championship
By Glenn MacDonald, The Chronicle Herald 

Flip a coin, choose a number or even draw straws.

Picking a winner in the women’s five-kilometre race at this Saturday’s Atlantic University Sport cross-country championships at Point Pleasant Park is anyone’s guess.

St. Francis Xavier’s Monika Priebischova, the 2007 champion and last year’s runner-up, should be considered the favourite in the biggest event on the AUS cross-country calendar.

But the Czech Republic native, who won the St. F.X. Invitational meet on Sept. 19, will have some stiff competition through the south-end Halifax park.

Dalhousie fourth-year runner Caroline Schlosser has two second-place finishes (the St. F.X. meet and the Dal Invitational a week earlier) and was fourth at the UNB Invitational on Oct. 17.

And Seabright’s Ashley Ryer, in her fourth year at Saint Mary’s, scored big by winning the Dal Invitational and was third two weeks ago in Fredericton.

"Ashley Ryer is certainly our best athlete," said Kevin Heisler, who’s in his 10th year as head coach of the SMU cross-country team.

"Ashley has done extremely well in the three races she has run. She has improved a lot. She won at Dal, was third at Maine (the Murray Keating Invitational at the University of Maine on Oct. 3) and third at UNB. She definitely belongs among the top three girls in the conference along with Monika and Caroline.

"I think any one of those three girls can win it on the day."

Ryer will be seeking SMU’s first gold medal since Kristen Woodruff turned the trick in 2002.

On the men’s side, two-time defending champion David Gerych of St. F.X. is 0-for-3 in this season’s AUS exhibition meets. But that shouldn’t faze the fourth-year athlete from the Czech Republic.

He captured only one meet last season before easily taking the 2008 Atlantic championship in Moncton.

Dalhousie’s Russell Christie, the 2006 champion, has been stellar this season, with wins at Dal and UNB and a runner-up finish at St. F.X.

Gerych leads a strong X-Men contingent, along with Lee McCarron, winner of the St. F.X. Invitational, veteran John Corbit and Petr Doubravsky, runner-up at last year’s conference championship.

The St. F.X. men’s and women’s teams, headed by reigning AUS coach of the year Bernie Chisholm, are the defending champions and will prove to be a difficult task to knock off the podium.

"Bernie obviously has the top two teams in the whole conference," Heisler said.

"But we can hold our own with the best of them."

The cross-country championships open at noon on Halloween with the women’s 5K race. The men’s 10K will follow 45 minutes after the women start.

The CIS championships are Saturday, Nov. 14 in Kingston, Ont.