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It was a good day for running on the shore of Spencer Creek in Dundas as more than 1500 athletes competed in the 2018 OFSAA Cross Country Championships, one of largest events of it’s kind in North America.
The Lions top performer was De La Salle’s Yannick Meredith who captured bronze in the midget boys category. The grade nine student completed the 4 kilometre course in 14 minutes 41.1 seconds, a mere second ahead of Riley Flemington from Oakville’s Appleby College. Meredith follows in the footsteps of his older brother Zachary who was a silver medalist in the same race two years ago.
In the senior boys event, grade 12 students Kevin Robertson of Bell and Will Cox of Colonel By finished 10th and 11th respectively to round out their high school cross country careers. Robertson crossed the line in  20 minutes 24.3 seconds, exactly two seconds ahead of Cox. Adam Sanger of Glebe, who had won the National Capital title was 22nd overall, helping his Gryphon team to a sixth place finish.
Despite being the only Lion in the junior girls competition, Zoe Gardiner of Glebe put forth an excellent effort, covering the 5 kilometre course in 20 minutes 21.7 seconds to finish 11th, ten spots up from her finish in 2017. In addition, Gardiner was the top scorer for a Gryphon team that won it’s second consecutive OFSAA team title.
In fact the Glebe Gryphons, led by Lions coach Kirk Dillabaugh swept both junior races. Their boys team, which included Owen Pensom (46th – 18:34.0), Keito Newman (52nd – 18:40.5), and Sebastian Cino (56th – 18:45.4) finished with 211 team points, 16 ahead of London’s Oakridge Secondary School.
A further congratulations goes out to Coach Dillabaugh’s teams as the girls captured the overall title while the boys were third.
For full results, see the list below.
Midget Girls:
Gillian Porter (Franco Cite) 42nd – 17:24.1
Isabelle Honegger (AY Jackson) 45th – 17:24.9
Rebecca Greer (St. Thomas Aquinas) 96th – 18:15.4
Freya Hurst (Glebe Collegiate) 177th – 19:29.7
Charlotte Murchison (Mother Teresa) DNS
Junior Girls:
Zoe Gardiner (Glebe) 11th – 20:21.7
Senior Girls:
Skye Pellerin (St. Francis Xavier) 19th – 24:12.2
Katie Newlove (St. Peter) 37th – 24:53.2
Olivia Macaskill (Earl of March) 77th – 25:55.1
Midget Boys:
Yannick Meredith (De La Salle) BRONZE – 14:41.1
Kyle Porter (Sir Robert Borden) 40th – 15:37.7
Toby Welburn (Glebe) 139th – 16:40.5
Manuel Fernandez (Paul-Desmarais) 190th – 17:23.9
Junior Boys:
Cameron Porter (Sir Robert Borden) 40th – 18:29.3
Owen Pensom (Glebe) 46th – 18:34.0
Keito Newman (Glebe) 52nd – 18:40.5
Sebastian Cino (Glebe) 56th – 18:45.4
Miguel Alvarez (Franco-Ouest) 69th – 18:50.9
Andrew Taylor (John McCrae) 160th – 20:11.8
Jack Hayden (Merivale) 238th – 21:56.1
Senior Boys:
Kevin Robertson (Bell) 10th – 20:24.3
Will Cox (Colonel By) 11th – 20:26.3
Adam Sanger (Glebe) 22nd – 20:46.8
Joe Fast (Ridgemont) 49th – 21:14.1
Zachary Meredith (De La Salle) 81st – 21:52.5
Harun Omar Ali (Ridgemont) 148th – 22:45.6

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)

It was a close, but no cigar kind of day for the University of Ottawa Gee Gees men’s cross country team at the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) Championships. Running through Parc Maisonneuve at the footsteps of the Olympic Stadium, the Gee Gee men finished an agonizing four points out of a bronze medal position as they came in fourth.
Nicholas Roberts, a third year Human Kinetics student, led the horsemen with his 13th place finish, completing the 10 km course in 32 minutes 38.2 seconds. Roberts was followed by freshman Nico Pedersen in 23rd. Also scoring for the team were Adrian Fournier, Andre Alie-Lamarche, and Stephen Robinson.
While Carleton University did not have enough men to field a full team their top finisher, Daniel Ribs, was 25th across the line in a time of 33 minutes 36.5 seconds.
While neither women’s program field a full team either, it did not lessen the quality of their performances with all women finishing among the top 21 competitors. Carleton’s Jenna Van Vliet led the ground, crossing the line in 7th. The environmental engineering graduate student completed the 8km course in 30 minutes 39.5 seconds. The Gee Gees top finisher was veteran Rebecca Brennan in 10th. The social science student finished in 30 minutes 56.9 seconds.
Advancing to the USports Championships in two weeks time are Roberts, Pedersen, Van Vliet, Brennan, and Magalie Babineau.
Elsewhere in cross country conference championships, Farah Abdulkarim and his Ole Miss teammates won the school’s first ever men’s Southeastern Conference Championship. Abdulkarim, who transferred to Mississippi this fall, was the team’s fourth scorer, finishing 8th and garnering Second Team All-SEC status.
Across the continent at the PAC 12 Championships, Shona McCulloch finished 40th to help her University of Washington Huskies team to a 4th place finsih.
Lastly, Jeremie Venne recorded a 10th place finish at the Northeast Conference Championship to help his St. Francis University team to a second place finish.
 

The pride gathered Saturday night to honour another successful season for the Lions on the track and in the field as we handed out awards in 22 categories.
Shot putter Tim Nedow was by far the headline club performer in 2018 with two international medals and his sixth straight Canadian title. For his efforts, Nedow was awarded with his fourth straight Gilbert award for Most Outstanding Male Field Performer. The Brockville native got his season off to a glowing start after his sixth round effort at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia garnered him his second straight bronze medal. He then capped things off at the NACAC Championships with silver and his first outdoor heave in excess of 21 metres.
On the women’s side, it was another thrower who garnered the Gilbert Award in the field. After her 12 year winning streak was ended last year, hammer thrower Sultana Frizell got back in the winner’s circle following her bronze medal performance at nationals and a fourth place finish at the Commonwealth Games.
It was a story of first time winners for both men’s and women’s victors of the Gilbert Awards on the track. Farah Jacques became just the third women to win since 2003 following a strangle hold on the award from both Esther Akinsulie (2004-2011) and Melissa Bishop (2012-2017). The Olympian was in transition this past year switching from the sprints to the 100 metre hurdles which culminated in a bronze medal at the Canadian Championships and equal third all-time in club history with a 13.31 second clocking at a meet in Belgium.
On the men’s side, Saj Alhaddad garnered his first Gilbert following a breakout season that included his first national championship medal. Alhaddad rocketed out of the blocks this spring with a trio of successive wins in the 400 metre hurdles south of the border including a personal best effort of 51.34 seconds which moved him to fourth in club history.
One of the most hotly contested awards was that for most outstanding junior female athlete, with newly minted Canadian Junior Record holder Keira Christie-Galloway garnering her fourth straight age class award. The University of Ottawa sophmore broke Karen Nelson’s 36 year old 100 metre hurdle record with a time of 13.31 seconds in June on her way to running into the semi-finals at the U20 World Championships in Finland. Battling Christie-Galloway for the award were no less than three fellow competitors at the U20 World Championships – Sharelle Samuel, Maeliss Trapeau and Lauren Gale. Each lady would have been a near shoe-in for the award in any other year.
Other award winner’s from Saturday’s festivities included:

Most Outstanding Junior

Male: Brandon Ovington

Most Outstanding Youth

Female: Erin Sweeney
Male: Joe Fast

Most Outstanding Midget  

Female: Vienna Courteau
Male: Sam Frankowski

Most Outstanding Bantam 

Female: Not awarded
Male: Logan Ladurantaye

Denis Landry Award (Most Outstanding  University of Ottawa)

Female: Keira Christie-Galloway
Male: Stephen Evans

Most Outstanding Carleton University

Female: Alexandra Telford
Male: Sebastian Saville

Sam Estwick Award (Most Outstanding Para Athlete)

Joshua Cassidy

Most Outstanding Cross Country 

Female: Shona McCulloch
Male: Jonathan Rioux

Most Outstanding Masters

Kim Ethier

Most Outstanding Road Racing

Tommy Des Brisay

Most Outstanding Combined Events

John Claude van Biljon

Sean Cole Memorial Award (Dedication to Club Service)

Rick Watkins and Cecilia Brand & Mark Hayes

Up the hill, down the beach, over the hay bale and around the track they ran as more than 1000 athletes competed in the annual Capital Cross Country Challenge this past weekend at Mooney’s Bay park. The two day competition was the third iteration of the run around the park which brings together competitors of all ages.
The competition kicked off Friday with the high school competition which was dominated by Ontario cross country power, Glebe Collegiate. The Gryphons swept all four team scored categories, winning by an average of nearly 17 points. The closest battle was in the varsity boys category, which Glebe won by a mere six points over Ridgemont thanks in part to Adam Sanger’s victory over defending OFSAA champion Joe Fast of Ridgemont.
In the 9th annual Eastern Ontario Elementary Cross Country Championship, Elmdale Public School was the king of the course as they captured three of the six age category titles in addition to picking up a silver. The Iona Street school was victorious in the 8-9 boys as well as sweeping the boys and girls titles for the 10-11 year olds.
In the Jim Howe Memorial races for the open category athletes, the team titles were a battle between the University of Ottawa and Montreal’s McGill University with each school taking home one title. The Martlett’s dominated the women’s race finishing an impressive 1-2-4-5 to win by 12 over the Gee Gees. The performance was highlight by Elizabeth Hirsch’s 16 second victory over teammate Maggie Dargis.
The men’s race was a much tighter affair with the Gee Gees and Redmen separated by a mere three points. The University of Ottawa team of Andre Alie-Lamarche, Nic Roberts, Nico Pedersen, Adrian Fournier and Robbie Mitchell did prevail with a total of 44 points, led by rookie Alie-Lamarche’s fourth place finish.

• Buffet Style Dinner,
• Speeches,
• Awards,
• Presentations,
• Games,
• and of course: the Opportunity to see your favourite Coaches and Athletes in a different type of Twilight setting.

Registration:
WWW.TRACKIEREG.COM/BANQUET-2018

• during registration VIA Credit Card,
• e-transfer to: payments@ottawalions.com (be sure to include your name and e-transfer password),
• cheque: made payable to Ottawa Lions Track & Field Club Inc.
• cash: bring with you before practice in an envelope with your name on it marked “banquet“

He has been one of the more recognizable faces at Ottawa area track meets for more than a decade. You’ll usually find him over at the high jump and sometimes on the long jump runway. However, this Saturday night at the Chelsea Hotel in downtown Toronto, you’ll find Rick Watkins on centre stage receiving his award for Official of the Year in Ontario.
This past year has been a rather busy one for Watkins as he took on the role of officials coordinator for this past summer’s Canadian Track and Field Championships and Panamerican Combined Events Cup here in Ottawa. It’s no easy task coordinating more than 60 officials from multiple provinces to officiate over six long days of competition, but Watkins handled it all with grace and composure.
Of course his role as coordinator did not preclude him from lending a helping hand through the championship in his more familiar role as high jump official. This is a role Watkins came into more than a decade ago spurred by the success of his son in the same event. His son Derek is a former Canadian champion in the event, representing Canada on multiple occasions internationally and sits third in the Lions all-time rankings.
In addition to his hard work on the delivery of the Canadian Championships, evidence of his dedication to the sport and the local athletes can be seen at the indoor competitions at the Louis Riel Dome in the winter and his week in and week out appearances at our Summer Twilight Series. Even still the 74 year old retiree even makes an effort to help out at the local high school meets to ensure they too have the proper setup to compete to their best.
We’ve known what a special and important individual Rick Watkins is to the sport for quite some time, and we could not be more proud to see him be rightfully honoured for his success at the provincial level.
Congratulations Rick!

The change to cooler temperatures this weekend was great signal for the start of another cross country season. The Lions crew kicked things off with a doubleheader featuring the Hoffman Invitational at St. Lawrence University on Saturday and this morning’s Canada Army Run through the streets of downtown Ottawa.
While it was just a small crew of eight athletes which made the trek south of the border to Canton, New York the performances were large. The four woman crew managed to all post top 12 finishes led by Carleton University’s Jenna Van Vliet and the University of Ottawa’s Rebecca Brennan who went 1-2. The pair finished the 6km course in 19:46.91 and 19:49.63 respectively. Ottawa’s Renee Maisonneuve was fourth while Keili Shepherd, also of Ottawa, was 12th. The men’s contingent was led by Ottawa’s Nicholas Roberts and his 10th place finish.
At today’s annual Canada Army Run a total of two Lions athletes managed to find their way on to the podium in the extremely popular 5 kilometre event. While more known for his exploits over 800 metres, Sebastian Saville showed he has some range, picking up a silver medal in a time of 15:23. Joining Saville in the top 10 were Alex Maxwell, who was just off the podium in fourth, and Jay Sneddon in ninth.
On the women’s side, new Gee Gee runner Magalie Babineau was victorious in her debut, finishing the 5km course in 18:26. Other Gee Gees to place among the top ten were Holly Hicks in sixth and Jenna Rossi in eighth.
In the half marathon, Tommy Des Brisay was unable to make it a three-peat at the Army Run. The 27 year old Des Brisay finished seventh overall in the men’s race, crossing the line in one hour, 14 minutes and 12.4 seconds.
The cross country season continues next weekend with a trip to Sherbrooke for the Vert & Or Invitational.

The World Masters Athletics Championships wrapped up today in the Spanish city of Malaga with Lions athletes garnering five top-8 finishes over the 12 day event.
The leader of the pack was undoubtedly Kim Ethier, who posted two top-8 finishes. The 50 year old Ethier kicked things off with a fifth place finish in the grueling two day heptathlon. After winning the both the shot put and javelin portions of the competition, Ethier entered the final event in fourth place, but her 800m performance dropped her back a spot as she finished with a total of 4710 points.
While most athletes typically like to rest following a combined events competition, Ethier was right back in to action just four days later as she placed 13th in the high jump. She would return a day later with a seventh place finish in the javelin. Her best throw of 31.11 metres came in the first round. However, she could be forgiven for being a little tired as she had placed 19th in the long jump only minutes before the competition began.
Also making two finals was Ethier’s training partner Leslie Estwick. The former international high jumper was sixth overall in the women’s 55 high jump with a best clearance of 1.32 metres – exactly one centimetre higher than the last worlds. The IT executive also managed a seventh place finish in the 80 metre hurdle final with a time of 14.48 seconds. She also finished 14th in the long jump.
Serge Faucher waited till the final day to nab his top eight finish. A Major in the Royal Canadian Air Force, Faucher teamed up with Markus Skeete, Paul Osland, and Michael Sherrar today to place fifth in the M50 4 x 400 metre relay. The quartet finished third in their heat of the timed final with a clocking of 3:44.79. It was questionable as to whether Faucher would compete today after he qualified second out of his 400 metre heat, but did not start the semi-final.
Also of note at the championship, Wendy Alexis had to pull out of the event prior to her 100m semi-final due to the re-emergence of a hamstring injury. A multiple medalist at the World Masters Championships, Alexis was again a favourite to be on the podium in both the 100 and 200 metre events.

The 2018 World Masters Athletics Championships kick off early tomorrow morning in Malaga, a port city in the south of Spain. The event, which features a full slate of events for athletes 35 and above over the course of 12 days of competition, will include an octet of Lions. The group is headlined by past world champions Wendy Alexis, Kim Ethier and Lawrence Williams.
Alexis, a multiple world medalist indoors and out will battle for gold in both the 100m and 200m events. Although she missed the global outdoor championships two years ago in Australia, Alexis is the reigning world silver medalist indoors over 60 and 200 metres. As well, seasonal bests of 13.92 and 29.22 seconds  over 100 and 200 metres respectively should put another gold well within the grasp of the 63 year old teacher.
Looking to defend her golden performance from two years ago will be Kim Ethier. The 50 year old massage therapist has moved up an age category after claiming victory in the  women’s 45 javelin competition in Australia. In addition to the javelin, Ethier will be displaying her heptathlon heritage as she also competes in the 80 metre hurdles, long jump and high jump in Malaga. She was a finalist in each event two years ago.
Former world champion Lawrence Williams will be looking to improve upon his pair of top eight finishes from two years ago as he lines up in his specialties – the 200 and 400 metres. While the 48 year old Williams skipped the Canadian Masters Championships, he is the top ranked Canadian in the men’s 45 200 metres with a time of 24.31 seconds. He has raced sparingly over 400 metres, entering with a seasonal best of 54.34 seconds.
Also competing from the Lions is Serge Faucher, a relay medalist at last year’s indoor championship, will contest the sprinting trebel in the men’s 50 category. Leslie Estwick posted three top eight performances in Australia and will be in the hunt for a medal as she competes in the women’s 55 long jump, high jump, 80 metre hurdles.
Natasha Dupuis and Hazel Harding will also contest three events each. Dupuis is scheduled to run in the women’s 35 100m, 200m and 400m while Harding will run the 200m, 400m and 800m. Rounding out the squad is Rob Muir who will only contest the 1500m.
For a full schedule of events (all times local):