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It was a week later than anticipated, but the 2018-19 indoor season kicked off this past weekend with no less than 17 victories as the majority of athletes took to the track in New York state.
The lion’s share of athletes made their way down the Highway 416 and across the bridge to St. Lawrence University in Canton, where Lions, Gee Gees and Ravens combined for 16 gold medal performances. This medal haul included sweeping men’s and women’s titles in the 60, 600, 1000, and 3000 metres as well as the 4×400 metre relay and pole vault.
Veteran Lionel Muteba cruised to victory in the men’s 60 metre event, winning in an impressive 6.92 seconds. The time surpassed the seven year old meet record of 6.99 seconds and was also a comfortable 14 hundreths ahead of his nearest competitor.
The women’s sprint title was capture by University of Ottawa student, Pernille Lund. The Norwegian exchange student equaled her lifetime best of 7.84 seconds in her first outing of the season.
Defending USports silver medalist at 600 metres, Stephen Evans stepped up in distance to open his season,taking the 1000 metre title. The Political Science student’s winning time of 2:29.55 was the second best of his career as he finished almost a full four seconds clear of fellow Lion Remy Binns.
Evans’ female counterpart, Holly Hicks was also dominating, completing her five lap run to victory in 3:04.50 – a full 7.5 seconds clear of St. Lawrence’s Leah Livernois.
It was a great start to the season for the pole vaulters, as they captured both the men’s and women’s titles. The University of Ottawa’s Claudine Nafaa set a new lifetime best of 3.20 metres to take victory over Plattsburgh’s Anike Roberts. Nafaa’s previous best of 3.10 metres was set this past summer. Meanwhile Jesus Bustillos came as close as possible to a lifetime best as his winning leap of 3.80 metres fell one centimetre short of his personal standard.
Also in New York, former Carleton Raven Telvin Tavernier captured the heptathlon title at the SUNY Brockport Green and Gold Invite. The 25 year old Tavernier claimed victory in the long jump, shot put and pole vault en route to his victory. His 5043 points were the third highest total of his career and 127 more than his nearest competitor.
In Massachusetts, Canadian Junior record holder Sharelle Samuel opened up her season with a fifth place finish at the BU Season Opener in Boston. The Harvard freshman clocked in at 39.49 seconds for 300 metres – the second fastest time in her young career.
Other winners from St. Lawrence included:
Mary Ollier – 1:40.22 (600m)
Zachary Meredith – 1:26.16 (600m)
Tyler Dacosta – 9.05 (60m Hurdles)
Bertwin Ben-Smith – 36.34 (300m)
Rebecca Brennan – 10:38.72 (3000m)
Nic Roberts – 9:01.34 (3000m)
Christina Hertner – 12.36m (Shot Put)
Rinila Haridas – 4.74m (Long Jump)
Ashley Nearing, Lindsay MacMillan, Pippa Kolking, Kierah Barton – 1:55.63 (4x200m)
Madison Clarke, Mary Ollier, Robyn Davis, Stephanie Leask – 4:11.64 (4x400m)
Tyler Dacosta, Stephen Evans, Alex Small, Jesse Fortier – 3:38.14 (4x400m)

It was a great day for cross country racing atop historic Fort Henry as the City of Kingston played host to the Canadian Championships and a record 1110 entries on Saturday. Among the masses, a total of 33 Lions toed the line, combining for one individual top ten finish and two top five team finishes.
The 2018 Championships were again a story of success at the youth level with just a reversal in the team results. The U18 girls team of Rosalyn Barrett, Skye Pellerin, Cara MacDonald, Zoe Gardiner, Isabelle Honegger, Olivia Mackasill, Pippa Norman and Elana Tyman avenged the narrow fourth place finish of a year ago with a bronze medal performance.
The duo of Barrett and Pellerin led the squad, finishing 24th and 26th respectively. Rounding out the scorers were Cara MacDonald (41st) and Zoe Gardiner (67th). The ladies were just eight points behind the Edmonton Harriers who captured silver on the strength of Sadie Sigfstead’s individual win.
While the girls moved up a spot in 2018, the U18 boys dropped a spot after finishing third a year ago. Adam Sanger led the team with a tenth place overall finish, making him the club’s top finisher on the day and rebounding well from his 22nd place finish at OFSAA. Teammates Kevin Robertson (16th) and William Cox (24th) both cracked the top 25 while Colby Frost rounded out the scorers with his 101st overall placing.
While there were no scoring teams in either of the U20 categories, University of Ottawa freshman Nico Pedersen was the top male, placing 35th while Gee Gee sophmore Keili Shepherd was 33rd overall on the women’s side.
In the senior men’s 10 km event, Nic Roberts posted the top time, completing the course in 33 minutues 9.0 seconds to finish 75th overall. Despite finishing 128th overall, Jay Sneddon had a pretty noteworthy performance Saturday. The 25-year old Sneddon lost his shoe just three kilometres into the course. However, he didn’t let it faze him powering his way through the mud and up the hills to cross the line in 37 minutes 0.7 seconds with one bare foot.
On the women’s side, Shona McCulloch was 18th overall in 35 minutes 47.0 seconds.
Rounding out the performances, Liz Maguire finished third in the women’s 50-55 category. The 52 year old Maguire completed the 8km course in 33 minutes 0.1 seconds and was the 14th fastest female masters athlete on the day.
For photos from the nationals, check out the photo album on our Facebook page.

Dear Athletes, Parents, and Coaches,
Please be advised the Louis Riel Dome will remain CLOSED for the weekend of November 24th-25th.
The LR Dome and Lions plan to return to action on Monday, November 26 with regularly scheduled programs. However, please stay tuned to our website and social media few for updates on the matter.
Please be advised that plans are being prepared to arrange makeup sessions for our youth, foundation, and aspire programs.
As well, Saturday’s planned Varsity Intersquad competition has been postponed (Details to be shared soon).

 
Another weekend of championship cross country running produced some exciting action including two NCAA qualifying performances south of the border. Farah Abdulkarim and Shona McCulloch are both off to Madison, Wisconsin this coming Saturday, but their pathways were very different.
Farah Abdulkarim, a junior transfer at the University of Mississippi, executed a marvelous race plan to qualify for his first NCAA Championship on the strength of his third place finish and team gold. The Glebe Collegiate graduate bided his time, holding strong in the lead pack through 5km, crossing the race’s midpoint in 15 minutes 48.2 seconds to sit in 28th.
Abdulkarim would then spend the final 5km turning up the heat on his competition, moving to 15th, 7th, 5th, 4th and finally into the bronze medal position in each of the successive kilometres. He would negative split the race, finishing in a time of 31 minutes 18.6 seconds. While the top five individual performance assured Farah a spot in Wisconsin, he will be joined by his Rebel teammates as he led them to a dominating victory, 45 points, ahead of Florida State’s 92 points.
Across the continent in Sacramento, California, Shona McCulloch was busy finding a less direct route to Wisconsin. The red-shirt freshman at the University of Washington turned in arguably the best performance of her young Husky career with a 28th place finish, just three spots out of all region honours. “The biggest surprise was Shona, just a huge improvement and the best race she’s run in a Husky uniform from her. She is starting to show some of her high school form and came up big for us today,” said Washington head coach Maurica Powell.
As her school’s third scorer, the Longfields Davidson graduate helped Washington to a fourth place finish. While only the top two teams receive an automatic bid, the Huskies were awarded one of 13 at large bids yesterday by the NCAA.
Also competing at the NCAA regional championships, Jeremie Venne placed 110th at the Mid-Atlantic Championships, completing the 10km course in 33 minutes 46.2 seconds.
Closer to home at the USports Championships, Carleton University’s Jenna Van Vliet produced the top performance. The environmental engineering graduate student finished 40th overall, completing the 8km Fort Henry course in 30 minutes 24.0 seconds. The University of Ottawa duo of Rebecca Brennan and Magale Babineau finished 79th and 85th respectively.
On the men’s side, Nic Roberts and Nico Pedersen represented the Gee Gees, finishing 89th and 93rd respectively. Roberts crossed the line in 33 minutes 41.1 seconds while Pedersen followed 3.6 seconds later.
Finally, at the Athletics Ontario Cross Country Championships, the Lions were represented by a small contingent of Elana Tyman and Keaton McGrath. Both athletes finished 60th overall in their respective midget categories.
 

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: [email protected] (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“