Sanger, Saravanamuttoo, Cino and Pensom win OFSAA silver

You’d be forgiven if you suffered some confusion walking to the start line of the OFSAA Cross Country Championships Saturday morning. All the precipitation that hit the Ottawa area late last week fell on Sudbury in the form of heavy snow which blanketed the course at Kivi Park leading you to believe that you’d be better off with your nordic skis than harrier spikes. However, the snow was no match for a quartet of Adam Sanger, Callum Saravanamutto, Sebastian Cino and Owen Pensom as they led Glebe Collegiate to silver in the senior boys race.

The four Lions runner’s were the top scorer’s for club and high school coach Kirk Dillabaugh’s Gryphons. Medalists at the NCSSAA meet last week, Sanger and Saravanamutto were again the top two runner’s for the Gryphons, finishing 8th and 14th respectively. Cino and Pensom rounded out the Glebe scorers in 85th and 107th overall for a team score of 214 points – 52 behind TS Northern of Toronto.

The senior boys race also saw the top individual performance by a Lion as Joe Fast completed the six kilometre course in 21 minutes and 39.5 seconds to finish fifth.

In the senior girls race, St. Peter’s Katie Newlove was the top finisher from the club, placing 15th in the field of 261. Just missing a top 30 finish was Skye Pellerin of St. Francis Xavier who was 33rd.

The junior girls race was a case of redemption for Mother Theresa’s Charlotte Murchison. The grade 10 student who failed to finish last year’s race after twisting her ankle and crashing, placed 14th over the 5 kilometre course in a time of 22 minutes and 10.54 seconds. Murchison told the Ottawa Sport Page  the disappointment from last year’s OFSAA was just fuel for this season noting, “I trained like crazy. I guess my training paid off.”

In one of the more interesting results from Sudbury, defending novice boys bronze medalists Yannick Meredith placed 51st in the junior boys category; however, the interesting story is how he got to the finish line. Club head coach Richard Johnston was positioned about two kilometres into the course and notices Meredith wearing only one shoe as he come through on the first of two laps. Turns out the De La Salle student lost the much needed footwear 200 metres in to the race. It managed to pick it back up on the second loop before finishing in 20 minutes and 13.9 seconds. Not to shabby for a national finalist at 300 metres last year.

For a full list of Lions results at OFSAA, check out the table below.