Eagles, Spartans each run to two individual titles
GUELPH – Emmanuel Christian Eagles and Centennial Spartans each had two athletes claim individual titles as Tuesday’s District 4/10 high school cross-country championships at Centennial Park while Orangeville Bears claimed two team titles.
Emmanuel Christian athletes won the first and last races of the six-race championship meet as Julie Deboer led a 1-2 finish for the Eagles in the 4,000-metre novice girls’ race and Jeremy Helder took the 6,000m senior boys’ race.
Centennial’s Connor Laskowski won the 4,000m novice boys’ race while schoolmate Sam Caputo won the 6,000m senior girls’ race.
Individual winners in the 5,000m junior races were Beauna Sanecki of Lourdes in the girls’ race and Craig Stevenson of Orangeville in the boys’ race.
The Bears won team titles in novice girls and junior boys.
Other team titles went to St. James in novice boys, Ross in junior girls, Centennial in senior girls and Guelph CVI in senior boys.
The meet featured 236 runners with the senior boys’ field of 68 being the largest and the novice girls’ field of 26 being the smallest. By category, there were 72 novices, 62 juniors and 102 seniors. There were 88 girls and 148 boys competing.
Last year’s meet, one of the first events after the easing of pandemic restrictions, attracted 305 competitors while there were 287 in 2019. There was no meet in 2020 due to the pandemic.
This year’s participation was akin to what it was in 2015 when the meet was held at the Centre Wellington Sportsplex in Fergus and it attracted 232 participants.
Individual Results
Deboer won the novice girls’ race in a time of 16:16.2 to finish almost five seconds ahead of teammate Kara Jonker. Chelsea Thalenhorst of Centre Dufferin was third in 17:09.5 while Alixandra Cuthbertson of Erin was fourth and Lorelai Gade of Wellington Heights was fifth.
Laskowski took the junior boys’ race in 14:39.6 while Wesley Mills of Orangeville was the runner-up in 14:43.1 and Yared Morton of Ross was third in 14:53.5. Isaac Lodder of Emmanuel Christian was fourth and teammate Reuben Sikkema was fifth.
Sanecki ran away with the junior girls’ race as she posted a time of 19:48.8 and won by 55.5 seconds. Ava Hunyady of Ross was second in 20:44.3 and Gabrielle Daly of Centre Dufferin was third in 20:55.5. Ross teammates Olwyn Reed and Alex Belluz were fourth and fifth respectively.
Stevenson led an Orangeville sweep of the top three places in the junior boys’ race as he won in 17:37.0 to finish 0.8 seconds ahead of Owen Bailey-Braun while Thomas Beukeboom was third in 17:44.5. Noah Bradwin of GCVI was fourth and Westside’s Alex Lamb fifth.
Caputo had a lonely run to the senior girls’ victory as she registered a time of 23:54.7 to finish a minute and eight seconds ahead of second-placed Thea Linde of Emmanuel Christian who was almost 18 seconds ahead of third-placed Arowyn Fitzpatrick of Orangeville. Avery Goodchild of Centennial was fourth and teammate Brennan Walton was fifth.
Helder claimed the senior boys’ race win by six seconds over Sam Patrick of Centennial. Helder’s winning time was 20:03.6 while Patrick finished in 20:09.6. Gabe Bennett of GCVI was third in 20:26.6 while Henryk Szymczak of St. James was fourth and Tristian Brindley of Orangeville was fifth.
Team Results
Orangeville won in novice girls with 38 points as their four scoring runners finished eighth to 11th. Ross was second at 50 and GCVI third at 80.
St. James had a slim win in novice boys as the Lions claimed 38 points to finish three ahead of Orangeville. Centre Wellington was third at 53.
Ross was clear winner in junior girls with 19 points as their top four were in the top eight. Lourdes was second at 49 and St. James third at 57.
Orangeville had an even more dominant performance in junior boys as the top four Bears were in the top seven to give Orangeville 13 points. Emmanuel Christian was second at 66 and Westside third at 75.
Centennial had its four runners in the top nine to win senior girls with 19 points. Emmanuel Christian was second at 40 and Orangeville third at 47.
GCVI nipped Orangeville to the senior boys’ title as the Gaels had 32 points and Orangeville had 34. Centennial was third at 47.
- Guelph Sports Journal