Four of the six individual race winners at the SDSSAA (Sudbury District Secondary Schools Athletic Association) Cross-Country Championships at Kivi Park last week cruised to victory with a relatively comfortable cushion.
Loic Collison, somewhat less. Maxime Belzile, basically no cushion at all.
Running shoulder to shoulder for pretty much the entirety of their 6.1 kilometre race on Wednesday, Belzile and Lo-Ellen Park senior Julian Luoma both posted finishing times of 20:53, with the young man donning the singlet of the Macdonald-Cartier Panthères recording his victory by the narrowest of margins.
Ironically, the senior boys race for third place was something of a mirror image of the finish for the top two – only expanded slightly. The Lockerby Composite troika of Cam Young, Gord Farrell and Matteo Ceccon were all clocked at 22:00, with placement in the order above.
The closely packed trio combined with teammate Ewan Duncan to capture the team divisional banner on behalf of the Vikings, one of only two age brackets in which the Lo-Ellen Park Knights did not prevail.
Though Lo-Ellen multi-sport talent Dax Hester would lay claim to the junior boys crown, it was the Collège Notre-Dame Alouettes’ quartet of Cyrus Hodak (2nd), Landon Gorhan (7th), Cole Fidler (9th) and Hunter Adler (10th) that would edge out LEP in the team race.
For as much as Loic Collison of E.S.C. l’Horizon walked off with gold in the novice boys showdown, outkicking Lo-Ellen freshman Ryan Pineau down the stretch in finishing six seconds better, it was the Knights depth which shone through, thanks to top ten placements by Pineau, Yuvraj Singh (3rd), Nicholas Long (8th) and Brendan Kingshott (9th).
As for Collison, some course familiarity combined with a little extra fuel in the tank in the end proved helpful for the graduate of École catholique Notre-Place in Val Thérèse. “These trails, I remember them which makes it easier,” said Collison, a distance runner at heart. “There is a creek near the end and when I see that, I know that I need to sprint.”
“I was trying to build up speed at the end, but I was near the front at the beginning too.”
Also racing for a high-school title for the very first time was Aubree Slobodian of Marymount Academy, whose time of 19:22 relegated Emilia Breckon of Lo-Ellen to second place (19:39).
“I really just focused on trying to pace myself,” said Slobodian, who started competitive running in grade four via her school track and field program, integrating the fall cross-country circuit the very next year. “In other races, I would start really fast or go fast on certain parts and it would slow me down later.”
“This time, I wanted to maintain a steady pace the whole time.”
More of an 800m specialist, Air Blastoff member Mackenzie Roy showed that stretching things out by almost another five full kilometres was not overly problematic for the long-time figure skater. Roy enjoyed nearly a full minute margin of victory over Alice Westby of Lasalle while Lia Paille of Lo-Ellen showed the way for a Lo-Ellen senior girls foursome at the front of the pack, crossing the line in 25:34 to close off her 6.1 kms jaunt.
The final Lo-Ellen team crown came courtesy of the junior girls as Sofia Kalviainen (3rd), Julia Masters (7th), Violet Sutherland (8th) and McLaren Gieselman (10th) earned gold, with Mackenzie Roy and the Cardinals garnering silver.
Following are the top five finishers in each of the seven categories that were contested at Kivi Park:
Senior Boys (6.1 kms)1st - Maxime Belzile (ESMC) - 20:53
2nd - Julian Luoma (LEP) - 20:53
3rd - Cam Young (LCS) - 22:00
4th - Gord Farrell (LCS) - 22:00
5th - Matteo Ceccon (LCS) - 22:00
Senior Girls (6.1 kms)
1st - Lia Paille (LEP) - 25:34
2nd - Megan Pineau (LEP) - 26:22
3rd - Alessandra Melo (LEP) - 26:41
4th - Ewa Breckon (LEP) - 27:14
5th - Amélie Gervais (CND) - 27:15
Para Athletes (4.1 kms)
1st - Dante Ricketts (LAS) - 20:34
2nd - Ephraim Toko (CND) - 23:41
3rd - Sophia Carlson (MMT) - 24:35
4th - Summer Boyer (LAS) - 37:50
Junior Boys (5.5 kms)
1st - Dax Hester (LEP) - 20:22
2nd - Cyrus Hodak (CND) - 21:03
3rd - Louie Grillanda (LCS) - 21:45
4th - Carter Montgomery (STB) - 21:50
5th - Parker Westaway (LIV) - 22:31
Junior Girls (5.5 kms)
1st - Mackenzie Roy (SCC) - 22:55
2nd - Alice Westby (LAS) - 23:48
3rd - Sofia Kalviainen (LEP) - 24:02
4th - Julia D'Angelo (STB) - 25:11
5th - Mila Drozdowski (BAC) - 25:13
Novice Boys (4.1 kms)
1st - Loic Collison (HOR) - 15:53
2nd - Ryan Pineau (LEP) - 15:59
3rd - Yuvraj Singh (LEP) - 16:44
4th - Callum Duncan (LCS) - 16:45
5th - Austin Carrier (HOR) - 17:06
Novice Girls (4.1 kms)
1st - Aubree Slobodian (MMT) - 19:22
2nd - Emilia Breckon (LEP) - 19:39
3rd - Audrey Simard (LEP) - 19:49
4th - Adele Lamarche (LEP) - 19:54
5th - Daviy Dale (LEP) - 20:57
