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Competing at Fireman’s Park in Niagara Falls, the Ottawa Lions equalled their medal haul of a year ago, claiming two individual awards and two team medals at Sunday’s Athletics Ontario Championships.
The Youth Girls team improved on their bronze medal performance from a year ago, claiming silver behind Claire Smith’s individual silver in the 4km race. The Lions other three scorers included Alexa Livingstone (14), Erinn Stenman-Fahey (22) and Talia Brennan (28).
In the midget boys 3km race, Reilly McCann won a silver medal in a very tight race. McCann finished a mere second out of the top position, and just ten seconds separated the top seven finishers. The midget boys team finished fourth overall based on the finish of Jonathan Rioux (26), Finn Perrault (30), and Adrian Fournier (48).
The final medal came from the junior team of Cameron Caughey (9), Jonathan Favero (12), Jeremie Venne (14) and Samuel Kinahan (20) came second with 55 points, 14 behind Windsor Legion’s gold medal performance.
The domestic cross country season will wrap up in less than two weeks with the Canadian Championships in Vancouver, BC on the 29th of November.

Head coach Andy McInnis is on his way to a speedy recovery following his second hip replacement surgery of the year. The 60 year old leader of the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club set an Ottawa Hospital physiotherapy test world record in a speed walking test for a day one post op patient. The test, part of a hospital study, may in fact be McInnis’ first recorded performance in the sport of track and field as he claims to have never been a participant despite entering the coaching profession in the 1970’s.
McInnis remarked, “I did not break the record of some patient who was in hospital testing for three days with physio rehab testing and practising each day; however, I did crush his day one and two performance times,” after completing testing which involved standing up from a chair and then using crutches to walk five metres with a 180 degree turn, walking back and sitting in the chair again.
Andy, renewed physically, is hoping to continue to lead the club and its varsity team programs at both the University of Ottawa and Carleton University for at least another decade.  “All that is left now is organ failure and that can happen to any of us at any time,” McInnis says.
“There is a lot of unfinished business as we continue to build upon Canada’s #1 track and field organization and a major athletics presence and success in Ottawa’s hosting of the 2017 and 2018 National Para, Junior and Senior Championships. Some organizations focus on just coaching a few events. Some just on event hosting. In Ottawa, we do it all, from building athletes from the playground to the Olympics, to building facilities and hosting nearly 30 competitions a year from local all the way up to the international.”
McInnis notes from the hospital bed that this is far from a one man show. “We have an incredibly passionate staff, dedicated and extremely knowledgeable in all aspects of sport and business, capped with a Board of Directors dedicated to accountability, and finally the best volunteers anywhere in Canada and that is why we are simply the best!”
“We openly welcome any other clubs in Canada to try to rival what we do in Ottawa.  The more clubs that attempt to mirror us, the stronger our sport will become,” quipped McInnis, who is expected to be released from the hospital later today.

It was another OFSAA Championship and another provincial gold medal for Shona McCulloch, a grade 10 student at Longfields Davidson Heights Secondary School in Barrhaven. McCulloch took home the title in the junior girls 4km race in a time of 14:43.5, nearly five seconds ahead of Christi Konstantopoulos from Toronto Prep. The result marked Shona’s third OFSAA gold after winning midget cross country a year ago in a photo finish and dominating the 3000m on the track this past spring. Shona will look for more OFSAA medals as she heads to Burlington this weekend as part of Longfields Davidson’s field hockey team.
The biggest OFSAA winner from the Ottawa Lions may just have been coach Kirk Dillabaugh, the head coach at Glebe Collegiate, who lead the Gryphons to their third consecutive overall girls OFSAA team title as well as a silver medal in the overall boys race, just two points out of first. Dillabaugh’s team at Glebe managed to pick up medals in 5 of the 6 categories, including taking home gold in the senior girls division. The team lead by Lions Claire Smith and Alexa Livingstone won gold with a measly 68 points, 207 ahead of their nearest competitor.
Full results for Lions athletes:

With the OFSAA Cross Country Championships getting set to kick off Saturday morning with the midget girls race at 10:15 am, two dozen Lions members will be representing their high schools at the provincial championships. Returning medalists from last year’s championship include gold medal winners Shona McCulloch of Longfields Davidson Heights and Owen Day of Holy Trinity as well as silver medalist Claire Smith of Glebe.
McCulloch would appear to be a favourite in the junior girls 4km race following a dominating summer season on the track which saw her win national gold in both the 1200m and 2000m. For Owen Day, he will be in tough to replicate last year’s golden performance in the junior category as moves up to the senior level. Meanwhile in the senior girls category, Claire Smith will undoubtedly re-engage her battle with Charlotte Prouse of London. While Prouse won last year in Sudbury, Smith dominated her on the track in June’s OFSAA 3000m final.
There will be more on the line than just individual glory for Smith as she leads a Glebe team looking to get a hand on the team title. She, along with club mate Alexa Livingston will look to improve upon their fourth place finish in the senior category last year. The ladies, along with junior runner Keili Shepherd will be looking to repeat as overall girls champions.
Also from Glebe and looking to make a runner for the podium will be Farah Abdul-Karim as he looks to improve upon his sixth place finish from a year ago. He certainly has the pedigree after claiming last year’s Athletics Ontario youth title and finishing third in the steeplechase at OFSAA Track and Field back in June.
For complete details, check out Trackie.ca’s OFSAA XC page
The complete list of Lions competitors are as follows:

It was an exciting Saturday morning atop the hills of Fort Henry in Kingston as the University of Ottawa Gee Gee women’s cross country team finished fifth overall at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Championships to earn a spot at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Championships.
Led by veteran Isabelle Kanz, the Gee Gee women placed four runners in the top 30 on their way to scoring 145 points. The total was 11 ahead of Laurentian for the final spot at nationals. Kanz, finishing 20th, completed the 6km course in a time of 22:10.69. She was followed closely across the line by Ruth Burrows, who finished in 22nd, crossing just 4 seconds later.
A spot at the national championships was not the highlight of the day for the women, as first year student Katie Phillips took home the honour of OUA Rookie of the Year based on her 29th place finish. Phillips, from Kleinburg, ON, was the top placing rookie in the event as she crossed the line in a time of 22:23.30. Finishing hot her heels for the top rookie award was Lions member Alex McGowan, running for the University of Waterloo.
On the men’s side, the Gee Gees finished 8th overall, posting a score of 237 points. Matthieu Vierula was the first across the line, finishing the 10km course in 33:25.12 to finish 33rd.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014
While Terry Fox Athletic Facility remains open for practice, the Youth Program (ages 6-12) is cancelled due to the on-going lockdown situation downtown today.
Throwing practice with coach Joe Burke is also cancelled for tonight.

To all current annual members of the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club, please be advised a special general meeting will be held the evening of November 19th. The meeting will take place at the Dome @ Louis-Riel at 7:15pm.
The meeting is to have one agenda item – a membership vote on a new proposed Articles of Continuance. The new Articles of Continuance is a required process for the club to continue to operate under the new Not-For-Profit Corporations (NFP) Act.
To access a memo containing more information about the purpose of the meeting and the proposed Articles of Continuance, please click here.

If past year’s are any indication, more than 500 school children are expected to descend on the running trails surrounding the Terry Fox Athletic Facility at Mooney’s Bay Saturday morning for the fifth annual Eastern Ontario Elementary Schools Cross Country Championship presented by Scotiabank. Athletes will compete across three age categories to earn the title of fastest kid in Eastern Ontario.
Athletes placing in the top ten in each category will receive a scholarship to train with the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club, while the top schools will all receive a $100 donation to to their sports program. For the school with the best combined finish across all the categories, a donation of $400 will be awarded.
The registration deadline for this year’s event is Thursday night at 9pm, so please follow instructions on the event webpage to get your team signed up.
Following the elementary schools competition will be the inaugural uOttawa Cross Country Invitational and Alumni Fun Run. For the current crop of Gee Gee athletes it will be their final test before heading down the 401 to Kingston the following weekend for the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) XC Championships on the famed Fort Henry course, while the fun run aims to bring together for Gee Gees for an enjoyable 5km tour of Mooney’s Bay. The event is slated to begin at 2:30pm.

The Ottawa Lions have just received notice from management at the Dome @ Louis Riel they will be replacing their turf fields immediately. The result of this is the Club has pushed back it’s move to the Dome until November 1.
The turf replacement process is expected to last 2-3 weeks. While the track will not be affected, the process will produce fumes making the facility temporarily unsafe to athletes.
Should members have any questions regarding this delay, please feel free to contact the club office or speak to your coach.