Amelia Van Brabant extended her unbeaten streak to four as she took home gold in the U18 girls race at the Ontario Cross Country in Kingston on Sunday. The grade 11 student finished the six kilometre course atop Fort Henry in 21 minutes and 37.2 seconds to capture her second provincial title of 2021 after taking gold in the U20 3000 metres on the track.
Van Brabant, who easily captured the Capital XC and National Capital high school titles earlier in the fall was just as dominating at the provincial level. The Earl of March student’s margin of victory was an impressive 28 seconds over hometown runner Alexandra Campbell of Physi-Kult. The pair had been in tight until about 800 metres to go when Van Brabant found another gear and sped to the finish line.
Joining Amelia in the top-10 were Olivia Baggley (5th) and Cara MacDonald (9th) as the U18 team amassed a measly 37 points to take the team title over the Newmarket Huskies (56 pts). The fourth scorer for the Lions was Gillian Porter in 22nd with a time of 23 minutes and 36.9 seconds.
The Lions also featured two other winners on the day – Ronan Lebel in the U8 boys race while Sinead Gomes took top spot in the U10 girls event. Both of the younger events were raced over a single kilometre. Lebel enjoyed a 20 second margin of victory, finishing in 3 minutes and 52.1 seconds. Gomes crossed the finish line in 3 minutes and 30.7 seconds, 18 seconds ahead of second.
The other top Lions on the day were as follows:
U10 Boys – Eric Combasson 11th
U12 Girls – Catalina Estevez 22nd
U12 Boys – Kai Lebel 4th
U14 Girls – Laila Lebel 14th
U14 Boys – Dominique Church 66th
U16 Girls – Lauren Alexander 26th
U16 Boys – William Sanders 20th
U18 Boys – Zachary Sikka 34th
U20 Women – Skye Pellerin 4th
Open Women – Jessica McRae 15th
Open Men – Nicholas Pedersen 14th
Masters – Gilles Frenette 41st16