Saturday, November 5, 2016

OFSAA Review

The Glebe Collegiate Girls Cross Country team won their 5th consecutive Overall Girls Title, tying with Loretto Abbey (Toronto).  Glebe won bronze in the Senior Girls race and placed 5th in the Junior Girls race.  The Glebe Boys out did their female counterparts, placing 3rd in the Senior Boys and 4th in the Junior Boys, but placed second in the Overall Aggregate to Holy Names (Windsor).


Midget Girls

Katie Newlove (St. Peter) played it patiently, started conservatively and moved up through the field to place 10th, the top finish for any NC athlete.  Emma Betty (Lisgar) was 19th, Lauren Reid (All Saints) 25th and Grace Veldkamp (AY Jackson) 26th, with the NC placing 4 athletes in the top 30.

NC Teams - 20. Lisgar, 27. Nepean

Midget Boys.

His name is FAST.  Joe Fast and he's living up to it.  The Ridgemont runner stalked early race leader Goguen (Sir William Mulock) until just past the halfway point before striking out on his own.  No one could cover his break.  Fast powered up the hill to run to a comfortable 11 second victory.  Meredith (De La Salle) made it 1 - 2 for NC athletes as he used his finishing speed to pull away over the final 200m to claim silver.  Sanger (Glebe) also had a top 30 finish, placing 23rd.

NC Teams - 13. Ridgemont, 25. Louis Riel

Junior Girls

Teagan Shapansky (Glebe) improved upon her 8th place finish of a year ago, placing 7th in the Junior Girls race.  Teammate Barrett also improved to 19th (34th in 2015), while Wilson (Woodroffe) was 22nd and Roy (Louis Riel) 30th as NC athletes again put four finishers in the top 30.

The Glebe Junior Girls placed 5th overall, with Macintosh and Moore rounding out the scoring for the Gryphons.

NC Teams - 5. Glebe, 13. All Saints

Junior Boys

Ryan Cunningham (Glebe) was the top NC finisher in the Junior Boys race.  Cunningham and Cox (Colonel By) overtook NC Champ Pensom (Glebe), just before the 4K mark and pushed each other over the final 2K.  Cunnigham's teammates ran well enough behind him to improve Glebe's performance over last year as Glebe finished 4th (up from 5th in 2015).

NC Teams - 4. Glebe, 12 Colonel By

Senior Girls

Shona McCulloch (Longfields-Davidson) ran stride for stride with Martha MacDonald (Havergal) until only 150m to go when McCulloch ran into some difficulties and stumbled.  McCulloch, was a living example of this year's OFSAA slogan, "Finish on Empty" as she staggered and stumbled her way down the homestretch, getting nipped for the silver just before the line by Johnston (Hammarskjold).  Shepherd (Glebe) placed 8th in leading her Gryphon teammates Grimes (51st), Millar (110th) and Welburn (116th) to the bronze medal.  Unfortunately for the Gryphons, their leader all season, Weston started strong, but had to withdraw from the race due to injury.

NC Teams - 3. Glebe, 16. Canterbury

Senior Boys

The Glebe Senior Boys were the pleasant surprise of the day.  Teagan Harris led the Gryphons and all NC finishers placing 26th and his teammates packed the next three scorers within 15 seconds of each other (Perrault - 96th, Grall - 111th, Nowlan - 115th) to capture the bronze medal. Nico Pedersen (Merivale) was the lone other NC finisher to place in the top 30, placing 30th.

NC Teams - 3. Glebe, 16. Franco Ouest

NC Blogger would once again like to thank all coaches and athletes for an outstanding season.  Looking forward to 2017 already.  Next years OFSAA Championships will be held close by in Petawawa.