When the OFSAA Cross-Country Championships were last held in Sudbury in November of 2019, Jadyn Keeler of Barrie finished third in the senior girls race while Mathew Mason (London) laid claim to gold in the senior boys showdown and Erik Unger (Peterborough) did likewise in the novice boys bracket.
Fast forward seven years and Keeler has established a new Canadian indoor 5000m record and returned home with gold (10000 metres) and silver (5000) from the 2025 Junior Pan American Games in Paraguay, while Mason closed the books a couple of years back on a highly successful NCAA career at Boston University.
Unger, for his part, is in his senior year at the University of Massachusetts, a top-end runner for the Minutemen who has now lowered his personal best time in the 10km distance to 31:46. So yes, there will be some very impressive achievements to come from the group of nearly 2000 athletes who gathered on Monday for OFSAA 2026 at Kivi Park.
Names like Chase Capes, Sawyer Nicholson, Annika Kemp and so many more will be among those that track and running aficionados from north of the border will be following in the ensuing years as they make their way to outposts right across North America.
It was only two weeks or so before race day that Capes, a senior with the St Patrick Fighting Irish in Sarnia, formally announced his commitment to the University of Oregon Ducks for the fall of 2027. In Sudbury, he more than confirmed that their faith in the young man who earned silver at the 2025 OFSAA XC Championships while in grade 11 was well placed, climbing to the top rung this fall thanks to a six second win over Juan Bernal Salazar of Bishop Allen Academy in Etobicoke.
“I was starting to worry because I could hear everyone right behind me,” said Capes, a four time medal winner (three gold + silver) in the OFSAA Track & Field ranks. “I thought it was going to be really close but after the big downhill, I seemed to have a second or two gap.”
“I was confident in my training and really believed that I had done every single thing I could to prepare for this race.”
In joining a Ducks program that currently is ranked fifth in the entire NCAA and boasts training venues that are among the very best in the world, Capes noted that the fit just made sense. “They’ve got everything; they didn’t miss out on anything,” he said. “But it’s not just the facilities - it’s the environment. Everyone loves the sport there.”
“And I really like the head coach (Jerry Schumacher).”
Bill Crothers Secondary School (Unionville) standout Sawyer Nicholson was actually making her second sporting appearance of the year in Sudbury, having captured silver in the 2000m at Legion Provincials in July after placing second in the country in the 1500m steeplechase in 2025.
More special memories from the nickel city for the talented distance runner as she cruised to a 26-second win in the junior girls division at OFSAA, following up on her gold medal performance as a high-school freshman last fall.
Though she was clearly the pre-race favourite, Nicholson took it all in stride as she covered the 5km course in a time of 18:59.66, comfortably ahead of Katerina Mihaiescu (Maximilian Kolbe – Aurora). “Knowing that I had the training to back me up really relieves some of my nerves,” said Nicholson.
“I was going into it so confident, just wanting to see if my hard work has paid off – and it has, so I am really happy.”
Though the junior champ does not have a specific go-to trail back home when it comes to those more relaxing (and hopefully more scenic) tempo runs, she does have a go-to companion for at least some of those training sessions.
“I like when my dad bikes beside me – I love going running with him,” she said. “On the bike, he can keep up.”
If both Capes and Nicholson had enjoyed plenty of success leading up to the current season of competition, senior girls champion Annika Kemp of Northern Secondary School in Toronto was certainly more of an uncertainty coming in. Between injuries and setbacks, the young woman who earned bronze in the junior girls 1500m at OFSAA Track last June was anything but a slam-dunk for the race that she won by 17 seconds on Monday.
“I have definitely gone through a lot of ups and downs,” said Kemp. “Because of that, I am just so grateful to be competing now and have the opportunity to run. For a long time, I didn’t think I was going to get the chance to do that.”
“It means a lot to me to be able to show my competitiveness, to show that I am an athlete and can run with this field.”
Sharing thanks with both her mother (and coach – Jill Mallon) and friend and training partner Addisyn Posthumus (14th), Kemp battled her way to the front of the pack, covering the 6km double loop in a time of 21:33.46.
“I got off to a really bad start,” said Kemp. “I was pushing my way through the crowd, just trying to find some open space and smoothly working though, making sure no one else is getting hurt or messing up their race.”
“By the time I got to the second downhill, I was really feeling it and though: I just need to go.”
On a local front, first year senior Maxime Belzile of the Macdonald-Cartier Panthères posted the best individual performance of the day, placing 8th in the Senior Boys race with a time of 19:24.55 (6 kms).
Meanwhile, the Lo-Ellen Park Knights novice Boys tapped into their depth to garner a bronze medal in the team competition as the quintet of Yuvraj Singh (51st), Ryan Pineau (58th), Nick Long (76th), Brendan Kingshott (109th) and Emmett Prodan (194th) found themselves behind only Toronto’s St Michael’s College and Neil McNeil Secondary School (also GTA) when the dust settled.
The top finishers in all seven categories were:
Senior Boys Division (6 kms)1st - Chase Capes - St Patrick (Sarnia) - 18:38.39
2nd - Juan Bernal Salazar - Bishop Allen Academy (Etobicoke) - 18:44.47
3rd - Owen Anselm - Ursula Franklin (Toronto) - 18:45.68
4th - William McDonald - Oakwood CI (Toronto) - 19:08.63
5th - Aidan Chan-Smith - Michael Power / St Joseph (Etobicoke) - 19:13.49
Senior Girls Division (6 kms)
1st - Annika Kemp - Northern SS (Toronto) - 21:33.46
2nd - Airlie Downie-Back - Henry Street (Whitby) - 21:50.59
3rd - Chloe Walker - Uxbridge - 21:54.07
4th - Kate Nagy - Newmarket - 21:54.81
5th - Ella Garron - Uxbridge - 22:00.70
Junior Boys Division (5 kms)
1st - Nash Okkerse - Parkside CI (St Thomas) - 16:59.46
2nd - Henry James - Collingwood - 17:06.39
3rd - Lucas Dos Santos - Chaminade College (Toronto) - 17:09.62
4th - Ryker Slusarczyk - Huron Park (Woodstock) - 17:16.55
5th - Austin Summerhays - Hamiltonj District CHS - 17:18.03
Junior Girls Division (5 kms)
1st - Sawyer Nicholson - Bill Crothers SS (Unionville) - 18:59.66
2nd - Katerina Mihaiescu - Maximilian Kolbe (Aurora) - 19:25.52
3rd - Hannah Lehmann - Collingwood - 19:37.31
4th - Lilah Kinch - Thousand Islands SS (Brockville) - 19:45.32
5th - Emme Dorgan - Father John Redmond (Etobicoke) - 19:53.18
Novice Boys Division (4 kms)
1st - Gabriel Hill - Huron Heights (Newmarket) - 14:14.63
2nd - Peter Orrell - Guelph CVI - 14:28.37
3rd - Ryker McGregor - Holy Cross (Kingston) - 14:34.57
4th - Max Woods - Dennis Morris SS (St Catharines) - 14:48.11
5th - Denny MacDonald - St Anne's CSS (Clinton) - 14:55.75
Novice Girls Division (4 kms)
1st - Mia Dorego - Bill Crothers SS (Unionville) - 16:43.05
2nd - Melissa Zhou - St Theresa of Lisieux (Richmond Hill) - 16:43.31
3rd - Ella Hahn - Sandwich SS (Windsor) - 16:48.03
4th - Emily Shuell - Collingwood - 16:52.97
5th - Kacee VandenBroek - Catholic Central SS (London) - 17:12.20
Para Men (4 kms)
1st - Tristan McGuire - Hawkesbury - 16:00.43
2nd - Eli Foebel - Lakeshore CHS (Port Colborne) - 17:09.79
3rd - Sebastian Dos Santos - St Joseph's (Barrie) - 17:59.15
4th - Malakhai Vertulia - Sir Wilfrid Laurier (London) - 18:10.57
5th - Arian Gashi - Philip Pocock (Mississauga) - 18:29.00
Para Women (4 kms)
1st - Abby Dupuis - AN Myer (Niagara Falls) - 21:32.85
2nd - Ella Heeler - Regiopolis-Notre Dame (Kingston) - 22:29.44
3rd - Zoe Hogard - Superior (Thunder Bay) - 23:01.90
SDSSAA Athletes - Top 100
SB - 8th - Maxime Belzile (Macdonald-Cartier) - 19:24.55
PARA - 18th - Dante Ricketts (Lasalle) - 22:14.18
PARA - 27th - Ephraim Toko (College Notre-Dame) - 23:05.68
SB - 33rd - Julian Luoma (Lo-Ellen Park) - 20:15.54
PARA - 37th - Sophia Carlson (Marymount Academy) - 23:43.66
NB - 51st - Yuvraj Singh (Lo-Ellen Park) - 16:15.88
NB - 54th - Loic Collison (Horizon) - 16:19.03
NB - 58th - Ryan Pineau (Lo-Ellen Park) - 16:23.27
SG - 64th - Lia Paille (Lo-Ellen Park) - 24:30.53
PARA - 68th - Summer Boyer (Lasalle) - 35:10.00
NB - 76th - Nick Long (Lo-Ellen Park) - 16:38.33
JB - 80th - Dax Hester (Lo-Ellen Park) - 19:10.69
SB - 95th - Gord Farrell (Lockerby) - 21:15.83
