Among the more than 1500 high school athletes toeing the line at the Shady Acres Pinic Grounds in Dundas tomorrow morning for the OFSAA Cross Country Championships you will find 25 Lions representing their schools at the provincial high school event. In addition to the terrain, the group will also do battle against the elements as forecasts for the event include blustery conditions which will push the barely positive temperatures back towards the freezing mark.
Among the list of qualifiers are two National Capital champions Yannick Meredith of De La Salle in the midget boys category and senior boys winner Adam Sanger of Glebe Collegiate. Meredith will be making his OFSAA debut Saturday and could be looking to out do his older brother, Zachary, who was a silver medalist in the same event two years ago.
In the senior category, Sanger leads a strong stable of grade 11 students pushing for a top 10 finish. Among the group is two time OFSAA Cross Country champion Joe Fast of Ridgemont as well as the aforementioned Zachary Meredith. Kevin Robertson and Will Cox rounded out the podium at the city championships and will also be looking to round out their grade 12 season with a top performance.
Among the women, St. Peter’s Katie Newlove and St. Francis Xavier’s Skye Pellerin are the highest individual finishers from last year’s championship where they finished fifth and sixth respectively in the junior girls event. They will both be racing in the senior girls event this year, joined by Earl of March’s Olivia Macaskill.
Zoe Gardiner is the lone junior girls qualifier after her third place finish at the city championship. As a grade nine student she placed 21st overall, helping her Glebe Gryphons to an OFSAA title.
Action tomorrow gets started at 10:00 am with the midget girls race and concludes with the senior boys at 2:30 pm. You can watch the live stream on AthleticsCanada.tv.
Full list of qualifiers
Midget Girls: Gillian Porter (Franco Cite), Isabelle Honegger (AY Jackson), Charlotte Murchison (Mother Teresa), Freya Hurst (Glebe Collegiate), and Rebecca Greer (St. Thomas Aquinas)
Junior Girls: Zoe Gardiner (Glebe)
Senior Girls: Skye Pellerin (St. Francis Xavier), Katie Newlove (St. Peter), and Olivia Macaskill (Earl of March)
Midget Boys: Yannick Meredith (De La Salle), Kyle Porter (Sir Robert Borden), Manuel Fernandez (Paul-Desmarais), and Toby Welburn (Glebe)
Junior Boys: Sebastian Cino (Glebe), Cameron Porter (Sir Robert Borden), Owen Pensom (Glebe), Keito Newman (Glebe), Andrew Taylor (John McCrae), Miguel Alvarez (Franco-Ouest), and Jack Hayden (Merivale)
Senior Boys: Adam Sanger (Glebe), Kevin Robertson (Bell), Will Cox (Colonel By), Joe Fast (Ridgemont), Zachary Meredith (De La Salle), and Harun Omar Ali (Ridgemont)
