Virus devastates team with nationals only days away
By Willy Palov, The Chronicle Herald

St. Francis Xavier’s cross-country runners were hoping this would be the year they recorded their best national results ever, until the flu stopped them dead in their tracks.

X head coach Bernie Chisholm said five male runners and three females were bed-ridden last week with various forms of the illness, including three with the H1N1 virus. Most of them were back on their feet by Tuesday, but barely. The CIS national cross-country championships are at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., on Saturday.

"One girl was basically in bed for eight days and just returned for her first day of practice today so that’s the kind of thing we’ve been dealing with," said Chisholm, in his 24th year as X coach.

"It’s certainly taken its toll, especially on the men’s team. Our top five (male) runners are down with the flu. Hopefully they’ll pull through by Saturday or at least be able to run. A few of the girls aren’t feeling well as well.

"You miss training and certainly the confidence level as well (takes a hit). We were fortunate to have last week off and we were looking to have a 10 good days of training but obviously that didn’t happen. I guess we have to play the cards we’re dealt."

The X-Men and X-Women captured the AUS banners last week at Halifax’s Point Pleasant Park and several individuals recorded high finishes. David Gerych was second in the men’s race, Peter Doubravsky was third, Lee McCarron fourth, Brent Addison sixth and John Corbit seventh. The X-Men finished second at nationals last year.

The only competitor to beat all the X runners was Dalhousie’s Russell Christie, whom Chisholm said "is having a great year and should have an excellent chance at nationals." Tigers teammates Jason Wilson (sixth), Dan Gorman (eighth) and Ryan Kiros (ninth) also had strong showings at the conference meet.

On the women’s side, former AUS champion and 2007 All-Canadian Monica Preibeschova finished third at the AUS championship for X. Also registering top 10 finishes for the X-Women were: Kelly MacDonald, fifth; Petra Fouskova, sixth; Bree Bates, seventh; Natalie Kannenberg, ninth and Heather Mosher, 10th. The X-Women’s highest national finish was in 2007 when they placed third.

"We’d had a very good year up to this point," Chisholm said. "I was very pleased with it. Our team is undefeated this year and running really strong and running as a group. We were looking forward to the challenge of the CIS (championships) but we’re still not going to make any excuses. We’re going to go and hopefully go head to head with the best in Canada. We’ll see what happens from there.

"We’re still hoping for the best."

St. F.X. will send a full team of seven runners, plus two alternates for the men’s and women’s competitions. Dalhousie will also send a full complement of runners, led by women’s AUS runner-up Caroline Schlosser, fourth-place finisher Cara Groves and ninth-place finisher Stephanie Bennett. Saint Mary’s will be represented by AUS women’s champion Ashley Ryer and men’s 10th-place finisher Brad Orchard.

The women’s race is five kilometres and the men run a 10K.