A pride of 26 Lions are headed off to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association Cross Country Championships in Etobicoke after their performances at the National Capital and Eastern Ontario Championships last week. In Total, Lions athletes captured 9 of the available 18 individual medals, including 4 golds at the Ottawa Championships.
Lions senior athletes dominated the podiums of both the boys and girls races at the Hornet’s Nest in Gloucester last Thursday – sweeping both podiums.
On the boy’s side, Daniel Cova of Louis-Riel captured top spot over the six-kilometre course with a time of 20 minutes and 27.7 seconds. Defending OFSAA junior boy’s champion, Saul Taler was second across the line, 22.5 seconds behind Cova.
Taler led a tremendous team performance from Glebe that saw the Gryphons amass a meagre 15 points to take the team title. Derek Strachan, also of Glebe rounded out the podium at 21:26.8. Kiefer Melinz-Dupuis was Glebe’s fourth scorer in sixth place.
Glebe also took the senior girls team title led by Lauren Alexander and her gold medal winning effort of 24 minutes and 10.2 seconds. Holy Trinity’s Jocelyn Giannoti placed second in 24:19.3 while last year’s OFSAA junior girls bronze medalist Grace Streek was third across the line in 24:41.0. A step behind Streek in fourth was Ashbury’s Kate Johnston-Zemek who helped the Colts to a team silver and OFSAA berth.
Grade 10 students Kyra Lauter and Charlie Mortimer each took top spot in their respective junior races. Lauter enjoyed a comfortable 21.7 second margin victory in the girls race, finishing the five-kilometre course in 21:20.0. Mortimer found himself in a much tighter race, narrowly edging out Colonel By’s Owen Siderius by 3.4 seconds in 17:41.2.
Cameron Allard and Austin Walker of Colonel By teammed with Siderius for junior boy’s team gold.
Dahlia Loreti of Pierre Savard was second across the line in the novice girls four-kilometre race in 16:26.2, while Isla Bilcock took home team gold running for Nepean.
While just missing the novice boy’s podium in fourth, Luke Van Brabant led Earl of March to the team title with his 15:07.7 run.
At the EOSSAA Championships on Kingston’s Fort Henry hill, Quinn Coughlin placed fifth in the senior girls race with a time of 24 minutes and 38.06 seconds to earn her spot at OFSAA. Malachi Kenny just missed out on qualifying in the senior boys race with his sixth place finish with 20:29.18 clocking.
The full list of qualifiers for OFSAA XC are included below:
Novice Girls
Dahlia Loreti (Pierre Savard)
Riley Daniels (The Element)
Isla Bilcock (Nepean)
Novice Boys
Luke Van Brabant (Earl of March)
Yusuf Elmasry (John McCrae)
Junior Girls
Kyra Lauter (Franco Cité)
Sofia Lefaivre (Louis-Riel)
Maya Allibon (John McCrae)
Junior Boys
Charlie Mortimer (Hillcrest)
Conlin Burnett (Lisgar)
Austin Walker (Colonel By)
Cameron Allard (Colonel By)
Senior Girls
Lauren Alexander (Glebe)
Jocelyn Giannotti (Holy Trinity)
Grace Streek (Peak Academy)
Kate Johnston-Zemek (Ashbury)
Waverley Lyons (Glebe)
Quinn Coughlin (Opeongo)
Senior Boys
Daniel Cova (Louis-Riel)
Saul Taler (Glebe)
Derek Strachen (Glebe)
Noah Smith (Immaculata)
Kiefer Melinz-Dupuis (Glebe)
Barrett Goold (Sir Robert Borden)
Cohen Kaye (Louis-Riel)
Matteo Padoin-Castillo (Immaculata)
Full results from the NCSSAA XC Championships are available on our website.
Full results from the EOSSAA XC Championships are available at https://sites.google.com/limestone.on.ca/xctf/2023/eossaa-xc