Thursday, October 23, 2014

National Capital Championships

Glebe Collegiate won the Boys, Girls and Overall Aggregates at the NC Cross Country Championships today sweeping all three Girls categories and winning the Junior Boys and Senior Boys races as well.

Midget Girls

Weston (Glebe) took off from the gun and ran unchallenged over the 3000m course, finishing 25 seconds up on her nearest competitor, teammate Rhead.  Glebe packed all four scorers in the top 9, with Kailey Young 6th and Mzia Lee Pottie finishing 9th to capture the team title with a meager 18 points, lowering their team score from 21 at the West Conference Meet.  Gibson (West Carleton) claimed the bronze medal to complete the West Conference sweep.

The battle for the second qualifying spot proved to be very tight, as Nepean edged East Champs Colonel By by 11 points to qualify for OFSAA. Nepean packed their top three in within 4 seconds (Freitag 11th, MacDougall 13th, and Wotherspoon 14th) with their 4th (Shute 23rd) only 25 seconds behind.

Midget Boys

Jonathan Rioux (Louis Riel) also established himself as the front runner very early and ran to a comfortable 45 second victory in the Midget Boys race followed by Graham (Ashbuy) and Fournier (Franco Cite).  Graham's teammates ran very strong behind him as Carere placed 13th and Hillier moved up from 23rd at the East, to place 18th, while Taylor finished 23rd to secure the victory for East Champs Ashbury (56 points).  West Champs Nepean did their thing, led by Walsh (5th) and then a tightly packed trio (Nicole 21st, Gaudet 22nd, and Thebaud 25th) to capture the second OFSAA qualifying spot with 73 points.

Junior Girls

Shona McCulloch did what she does best and simply ran away from the Junior Girls field, running to a 56 second victory, the largest margin of victory for the day.  McCulloch was followed by Glebe's Keili Shepherd, whose teammates place all four scorers in the top 9 (Grimes 7th, Saravanamutto 8th, Millar 9th) to win with 25 points.  East Champs Franco Cite held of a late charge from Colonel By to claim second in a tight battle (79-84).  Sir Wil's Marin Scotten captured the bronze medal.

Junior Boys

In the battle of the Franco's, Cite's McCann (21:00) made a strong move on the second 3K loop to pull away from Ouest's Mather (21:26) to win.  Glebe's Harris placed 3rd and was followed to the line by teammates Perreault (4th), Salvino (7th) and Grall-Johnson (11th) to claim a 25-43 victory over Franco Ouest.

Senior Girls

Glebe had 3 runners in the lead pack of 4 for the first half of the race at which point Glebe's Smith and Livingstone started to pull away.  Smith powered home over the final K, with Livingstone claiming silver and Adams (St. Joseph) breaking up the Gryphon medal sweep as Marshall finished 4th.  Wong finished 9th to give the Gryphon's  the lowest team score of the day of (16) for a 36 point victory over East Champs Canterbury (Stenman-Fahey 5th, Leckie 13th, Codrington 15th and Dolin 19th).

Senior Boys

Glebe's Abdulkarim and Bernst repeated their one-two finish of last week's West Conference Championships (and last year's NC Champs).  Last year's OFSAA Junior Boys Champion Day (Holy Trinity) almost nipped Bernst at the line as he came charging home but simply ran out of real estate.  Glebe won the team title with 21 points as Dillabaugh (5th) and Weston (13th)  rounding out the scoring for the Gryphons.  Lisgar had a slight scare as #4 man Alexander-Cook took a spill, but he managed to make it home in 25th place which was good enough to hold off Louis Riel by a comfortable 14 points (49-63) behind the strong running of their front three (Abanto-Enns 6th, Nussbaum, 8th and East Champ Kinahan 10th).

NC Blogger would like to thank everyone for a great season and wish our NC athletes success as they represent our region at the OFSAA Championships next weekend in Waterloo.

Results are available on the Glebe XC page

(more to come soon - once Parent Teacher Interviews are done)!!

Friday, October 17, 2014

NC Preview

The National Capital Cross Country Championships will be hosted at Mooney's Bay on Thursday, Oct., 23rd, 2014.  Glebe Collegiate looks to retain their hold on the Girls, Boys and Overall Aggregates on their home course, site of the annual Gryphon Open.

Midget Girls

The Glebe Midget girls are undefeated this season, winning the Trinity Invitational, Gryphon Open, Turkey Trot and West Conference Champs and are therefore heavy favorites to win the City Title.  Things promise to be very tight in the battle for the second qualifying spot, with Bell, Nepean, Colonel By and Canterbury all having a legitimate shot at claiming second.  The Cougars won the East over Canterbury, but both teams posted very respectable scores (21  - 29).  The larger field should play into the hands of Colonel By, but if Canterbury can get big runs from Dudding and Mullan they could turn the tables.  Both however may have to pick up the pace to challenge West runner-up Nepean and Bell, who narrowly missed 2nd by a mere 3 point margin (53-56).  Nepean's top 4 (MacDougall, Freitag, Wotherspoon and Schute) are all tightly packed within 30 seconds, whereas Bell, like Canterbury will have two up front (Sheridan, Banks) and then a 1:30 plus gap to Klein and Cameron.

Individually, the pre-race favorite has to be Glebe's Mei Mei Weston.  Weston finished 2nd to MacDougall (Regiopolis - Kingston) at the Trinity Invite, was 6th and the top freshman in a Varisty field of over 400 at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minnesota, and easily won the Turkey Trot and West Conference Meets.  Amongst NC competitors, only her teammate Beth Rhead has been able to stay close.  Emily Gibson (West Carleton) will look to give the West a podium sweep, with Sheridan close behind.  East Champ Wong (Canterbury) will have some catch up to do if she hopes to crack the top 3.  The final spot for a qualifying position at OFSAA will likely be a battle between Day (Holy Trinity)  and one of either Sheridan, Soroczan-Wright (Colonel By) and Wong, depending on which team qualifies.

NC Bloggers Pick:
1.  Glebe  27
2.  Nepean  67
3.  Bell  72
Outside chance: Canterbury and Colonel By

1.  Weston (Glebe)
2.  Rhead (Glebe)
3.  Gibson (West Carleton)

Junior Girls

Glebe has shown incredible depth this season, placing first and second at the Trinity Invitational, winning the Gryphon Open and Turkey Trot and placing 7 girls in the top 10 at the West (and 10 in the top 14).  Last years OFSAA silver medalists hope to repeat the task this year and come in as heavy favorites for the NC title.  East Champs, Franco Cite, last year's runner up, look to have the strength to punch their ticket with the second qualifying spot, but need solid runs from all their top 4 to hold off Colonel By as they did in the East.

Defending OFSAA Champion McCulloch has once again been untouchable all season.  Following a summer season that saw her crowned National Champion in the 1200m and 2000m, McCulloch has won both her races this fall, including a win on the NC course at the Gryphon Open.  Sir Wil's Marin Scotten has been the closest to McCulloch all season finishing 52 seconds back at the Gryphon Open. Dickson (Earl of March) had an impressive run at the West, beating Trinty and Turkey Trot Champion and last year's runner up Shepherd (Glebe), while Gibson (Merivale) looks to round out the top 5.  As only Shepherd is likely to qualify on a team, that should take care of the OFSAA qualifying spots, although Rossi (Gisele Lalonde)  is close to cracking the top 5 as well.

NC Blogger's Pick:
1.  Glebe  32
2.  Franco Cite  69
3.  Colonel By  81
Outside chance:  All Saints

1.  McCulloch (Longfields)
2.  Scotten (Sir Wil)
3.  Dickson (Earl of March)

Senior Girls

Glebe vs. Canterbury - Part II.  Last year Canterbury went 1 - 2 - 3 in the East and then went on to narrowly defeat Glebe by 2 points at NC's and then again by 6 points to claim the bronze medal at OFSAA, while Glebe settled for fourth.  This year the Gryphons will look for revenge as they went 1 - 2 - 3 in the West and hope to improve their fortunes at OFSAA as well.  Last year's OFSAA silver medalist Claire Smith leads the Gryphons and is joined by Katherine Marshall (who was 6th as a Junior at OFSAA last year) and Alexa Livingstone.  Natasha Wong (6th at West) rounds out a Gryphon Squad that scored a meager 12 points in the West.  Not to be outdone, Canterbury also posted a team score of 12, with Stenman-Fahey, Codrington, Leckie and Dolin going 1 - 2 - 4 - 5 in the East. No other team really has the strength or depth to knock off one of these two, but Earl of March has always run well at the NC Meet and will try to make things interesting.

Defending NC Champion and OFSAA 3000m gold medalist Claire Smith is the class of the field.  After not racing during the early part of the season, Smith showed she is ready as she ran to a comfortable victory in the West and is the heavy favorite to win at Mooney's Bay. Look for a repeat performance from the West with Marshall and Livingstone running for silver and bronze.  Marshall and Livingstone have taken turns beating each other this year and work well together, the race for second could go either way.  East champ Stenman-Fahey has a fearsome kick and will make things interesting if she can stay close, while Gryphon Open champ Meagan Adams, who won on the Gryphon Open course early this year looks for a better performance than she had at the West meet.  With four of the top 5 and as many as 5 of the top 7 likely on the two qualifying teams, that makes a top 9 finish a likely possibility to punch a ticket to Waterloo.  Look for Rodenburg (Earl of March) and Brennan (Franco Ouest) to nab the next two spots, leaving the final spot a tight race between Green (St. Pius), Gibson (West Carleton) and Hamtiaux (Franco Cite).

NC Bloggers Pick
1.  Glebe   17
2.  Canterbury  40
3.  Earl of March  80
Outside chance:  Nepean

1.  Smith (Glebe)
2.  Marshall (Glebe)
3.  Livingstone (Glebe)

Midget Boys

Nepean won the Gryphon Open, Pirates Invite and Turkey Trot leading up to their West Conference victory and look to be the stronger of the two Champs heading into the NC Champs.  Ashbury got strong runs from Graham and Carere to win the East, but will need big runs from Taylor and Hillier if they hope to counter the tightly bunched 2 - 3 - 4 of  Nepean (Gaudet, Thebaud and Nicole) who has been lead all season by strong performances by Walsh.  Lisgar needs a better performance from Ferguson if they hope to challenge for a spot, while John McCrae likely has the best front 3, but will need a big improvement from Zhai to upset Nepean or Ashbury.  The surprise however, might come from Bell who should be able to challenge for a top 3 spot.

Jonathan Rioux (Louis Riel) had a huge win at the East, but West Champ Hayman (West Carleton) looked very comfortable as well in winning the West.  Rioux was also the top midget at the Cookie Run and the Louis Riel Invite and placed a close 2nd, over 40 seconds up on 3rd at the Pirate Invitational in Brockville.  West runner up Steele had a comfortable win over Graham (Ashbury) earlier at the Gryphon Open and will look for the final podium spot.  With only Graham likely to qualify on a team, only one spot remains a possibility and that will likely fall to Franco Cite's Fournier.

NC Blogger's Pick
1.  Nepean  83
2.  Ashbury  105
3.  Bell 115
Longshot:  John McCrae

1.  Rioux (Louis Riel)
2.  Hayman (West Carleton)
3.  Steele (West Carleton)

Junior Boys

The NC Champs will likely be a rematch of the West Conference battle between Glebe and Franco Ouest, which saw the two schools claim 10 of the top 12 spots in the race.  Although very close at the halfway point, Glebe prevailed by getting 5 runners in ahead of Franco's #2 man (Bouma).  Led by Mather, the Vikings finished 1 - 8 - 10 - 11 - 12 at the West to fall 17 - 30 to the Gryphons who went 2 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7, led by Teagan Harris.  East Champs Osgoode and East runner up Ashbury will need more than a couple of Vikings or Gryphons to stumble if they hope to steal one of the two qualifying spots.

The individual title will likely be a battle between Franco Ouest's Mather and Franco Cite's McCann. Only one of these boys will be able to keep their undefeated streak this season alive, which includes McCann not only winning the Louis Riel Invitational, but beating all the Senior Boys in the race as well.  Mather has had two comfortable victories this season, so it will be interesting to see how he responds to a battle to the line with McCann.  Harris (Glebe) and Turcanu (Bell) will likely round out the top 4, but with half of these boys qualifying on a team (and the next 6 runners in the West likely coming from Glebe and Franco Ouest) Thomas (St. Patrick), Alie-Lamarch (Gloucester) and Caves (Mother Teresa) will battle it out for the final two spots.

NC Blogger's Pick
1.  Glebe  25
2.  Franco Ouest  40
3.  Osgoode 108

1.  McCann (Franco Cite)
2.  Mather (Franco Ouest)
3.  Harris (Glebe)

Senior Boys

Ottawa Collegiate Institute Showdown - the Sequel.  Last year the two old Ottawa Collegiate Institute Campus' (Glebe and Lisgar) battled for supremacy at the Hornet's Nest and both will look to take the battle up again this year at Mooney's Bay.  This year however, the Gryphons are bolstered by the addition of most of last year's OFSAA silver medalists Junior Boys team (Dillabaugh, Weston and Burney) along with transfer Farah Abdulkarim (6th at OFSAA as a Senior last year).  The Gryphons did not run a full team until the Turkey Trot last week, but had convincing victories there and at the West.  East Champs Lisgar comfortably beat the Gryphons at the Grpyhon Open even without East #2 Nussbaum, but Glebe was without any of their top 4 scorers Abdulkarim, Bernst, Dillabaugh or Weston (1 - 2 - 6 - 8 @West).   Only Louis Riel has a chance of upsetting one of these two teams, but it seems unlikely.

We can expect a repeat performance from last year's race in the individual competition as well, with Abdulkarim (Glebe) looking to defend his NC title from teammate Bernst.  Defending OFSAA Junior Boys Champion Day (Holy Trinity) will likely have enough to hold off a challenge from the Lisgar trio of Kinahan, Nussbaum and Abanto-Enns, the latter who had a dreadful run at the East meet.  With only Day running for the individual spots, once again a top 9 finish might be enough to earn a spot on the starting line at OFSAA.  Robillard (Louis Riel), Motuma (Woodroffe), Caughey (Bell) and Saville (Carine Wilson) will duke it out for the last three spots.

NC Blogger's Pick
1.  Glebe 28
2.  Lisgar  41
3.  Louis Riel  58

1.  Adbulkarim (Glebe)
2.  Bernst (Glebe)
3.  Day (Holy Trinity)

Information about the NC Championship Meet, along with results from the season can be found on the Glebe XC page.


Thursday, October 16, 2014

West Conference Championships

The Glebe Gryphons dominated the West Conference Championships at Walter Baker Park in Kanata, winning the Boys, Girls and Overall Aggregates in convincing fashion.

Glebe won all three girls races, sweeping the medals in the Senior Girls race (Smith, Marshall and Livingstone), the top 2 spots in the Midget Girls race (Weston, Rhead), while the Junior Girls team placed 7 runners in the top 10 (and 10 in the top 14).  Glebe also captured the Junior and Senior Boys team titles.

For full results visit the Glebe XC page

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

East Conference Championships

The Canterbury girls sent a message that they are out in force to defend their NC Championship team title in 2014.  After finishing 1 - 2 - 3 at last years East Conference Championships, this year the Chargers went 1 - 2 - 4 - 5 (Stenman-Fahey, Codrington, Leckie and Dolan) for a near perfect score of 12 points.

Lisgar won the Overall Aggregate by just a single point over runner up Ashbury, along with the Boys Aggregate, while Colonel By won the Girls Aggregate by a single point over Canterbury.

Full results are available on the Louis Riel XC website.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Glebe wins Turkey Trot

The Glebe Gryphons put on a strong performance at the 7th edition of the Turkey Trot winning 5 of 6 races, every race except the Midget Boys, taking both the team titles and individual honours (and the Turkey) in each race.  Glebe's Junior Boys and Junior Girls put up the most impressive numbers, with Teagan Harris, Finn Perreault, Pierre Grall and Evan Kealey finishing 1 - 3 - 4 - 5 for a meager 13 points, while Keili Shepherd won the Junior Girls race with her teammates taking places 4th - 8th (Grimes, Millar, Larkin, C. Wright and E. Wright) with only 12 seconds separating the group of 5 chasing Gryphons.  Nepean won the Midget Boys race, giving NC schools a clean sweep of the events.

Results are available on the Glebe XC page.

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Pirates Invitational

The Nepean Knights placed fourth overall at the Pirates Invitational in Brockville on Friday, Oct 3rd.  The Knights had strong runs from their Midget teams as the Midget Boys won and the Midget girls captured silver, while their Junior Boys team placed 4th.

Louis Riel's Jonathan Rioux had the top individual finish for NC athletes, placing second in the Midget Boys.  The Day family had a pair of 4th place finishes with Natalie placing 4th in the Midget Girls race while her brother Owen, the defending OFSAA Junior Boys XC Champion, was 4th in the Senior Boys race.

Expect many more NC schools in action this week as Louis Riel hosts their annual Invite on the East Conference Course at the Hornet's Nest on Tuesday, while St. Michael's (Kemptville) host the Turkey Trot on Thursday.  Information about these events is available on the Glebe XC page.

Pirates results are available on the Pirates XC website