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OUA cross country championship: Gryphons sweep team titles
Photo credit Michael P. Hall
GUELPH - The Guelph Gryphon men’s and women’s cross country teams once again dominated the OUA Championships. The Gryphon women’s squad won its seventh straight team title, while the men earned their sixth consecutive banner Saturday afternoon in Guelph in front of an excited hometown crowd.
The Gryphons have once again proved they’re in a class of its own.
“It was a good day for us. The women ran a little harder than planned, they got excited with the hometown crowd. Our guys went out on a progression, so early on they didn’t open it up as hard as they could and then they pushed off the backend, and that was the plan. So the guys stuck right to the plan and it played out well,” said Guelph head coach Dave Scott Thomas.
On the men’s side, the Gryphons swept the medal podium and had five of the top six runners. Alex Genest (Lac Aux Sables, QC), led the Gryphons after finishing the 10 kilometre course in a time of 30:30.5 and was named the men’s OUA MVP. Genest transferred to Guelph this year from the Universite De Sherbrooke. He is the 2007 CIS champion and the 2006 CIS rookie of the year.
“It feels really good to be here in Ontario now and
training with this amazing group. It was a great day for the
Gryphons. I didn’t know if I would win, I was going for the
win that’s for sure, but you never know. The guys here
are really fit and anybody could have won this race. I guess it was
my turn today, and I’m really happy I won here in
Guelph,” said Genest.
Finishing nine seconds behind Genest was teammate Kyle Boorsma
(Guelph, Ont.) who won back-to-back OUA silvers with a time of
30:39.5. Allan Brett (Ottawa), the two-time defending OUA champion
finished third with a time of 31:00.5. Finishing fourth for the
Gryphons was first year Ross Proudfoot (Sudbury) with a time
31:19.0, Proudfoot was named the OUA men’s rookie of the year
for his performance.
Only Anthony Berkis of the Windsor Lancers was able to
infiltrate the lead Guelph pack, finishing in fifth at
31:25.5. Rounding out the top seven were Gryphon Andrew Nixon
and Dave Weston from the Windsor Lancers who were sixth and seventh
respectively.
The Gryphons earned 16 points for the OUA team title, their sixth
straight and tenth since 1999. The Windsor Lancers finished
second with 42 points while the Western Mustangs were third with 86
points.
On the women’s side, the Gryphons may have claimed the overall team banner but it was McMaster’s Jessica Pearo (Richmond Hill, Ont.) who captured the overall individual gold medal. The fourth-year, three-time All-Canadian has gone undefeated this season, and finished today with a time of 17:00.04.
The Gryphons completed the next two spots on the podium. After leading for most of the race, Rachel Cliff (Vancouver) was passed by Pearo in the last minutes of the race to capture the silver medal with a time of 17:13.5. This is Cliff’s best OUA finish after earning third place last year. Rounding out the top three was Guelph’s Courtney Laurie (Toronto) with a time of 17:43.6. McMaster’s Victoria Coates finished fourth, while Gryphon’s Emily Driedger (Georgetown, Ont.) and Genevieve Lalonde (Moncton, Ont.) were fifth and sixth respectively. Driedger was named the OUA rookie of the Year.
The Gryphons earned 24 points for the OUA title, their seventh consecutive OUA women’s title, winning ten of the last 12. The McMaster Marauders gave the Gryphons a good challenge and finished with the silver medal with 24 points while the Queens Gaels grabbed third with 110 points.
The top seven runners in the men’s and women’s race earn OUA first team all-star status. Finishers eight through 14 are second team all-stars.
Overall the Gryphon women and men’s teams claimed six OUA
all-star honours apiece.
The Gryphons will now get ready for the CIS Championships which are
being hosted by Sherbrooke on November 13, 2010.
“Things look good for CI’s at Sherbrooke and we’ll be sharper there. We haven’t really started finessing yet and turning on our speed, so we’ll do that over the next couple weeks. So we’ll be faster than we were today,” commented Scott Thomas.
Full results with times are listed below.
Women's Individual
http://gryphons.ca/documents/2010/10/30/OUAWOMENINDIV.HTM?id=91
Women's Team
http://gryphons.ca/documents/2010/10/30/OUAWOMENTEAM.HTM?id=92
Men's Individual
http://gryphons.ca/documents/2010/10/30/OUA_MEN_S_INDIVIDUALS.HTM?id=93
Men's Team
http://gryphons.ca/documents/2010/10/30/OUA_MEN_S_TEAM.HTM?id=94
OUA Women’s Awards
Women’s MVP: Jessica Pearo, McMaster Marauders
Women’s Rookie of the Year: Emily Driedger, Guelph Gryphons
First Team All-Stars
1 - Jessica Pearo, McMaster
Marauders
2 - Rachel Cliff, Guelph
Gryphons
3 - Courtney Laurie, Guelph
Gryphons
4 - Victoria Coates, McMaster
Marauders
5 - Emily Driedger, Guelph
Gryphons
6 - Genevieve Lalonde, Guelph
Gryphons
7 - Stephanie MacNeill, McMaster Marauders
Second Team All-Stars
8 - Jess Vanhie, Guelph
Gryphons
9 - Becky Pieterson, Western
Mustangs
10 - Lindsay Furtado, Guelph
Gryphons
11 - Katie Anderson, McMaster Marauders
12 - Jen Corrick, Windsor
Lancers
13 - Stephanie Hulse, Queen's
Gaels
14 - Laura Desjardins, Western Mustangs
OUA Men’s
Awards
Men’s MVP: Alex Genest, Guelph Gryphons
Men’s Rookie of the Year: Ross Proudfoot, Guelph Gryphons
First Team All-Stars
1 - Alex Genest, Guelph Gryphons
2 - Kyle Boorsma, Guelph
Gryphons
3 - Allan Brett, Guelph
Gryphons
4 - Ross Proudfoot, Guelph
Gryphons
5 - Anthony Berkis, Windsor
Lancers
6 - Andrew Nixon, Guelph
Gryphons
7 Dave Weston, Windsor Lancers
Second Team All-Stars
8 - Adam Kellar, Windsor
Lancers
9 - Andrew Yorke, McMaster Marauders
10 - Matt Walters, Windsor
Lancers
11 - Ryan Huff, Western Mustangs
12 - Stephen Hosier, Ryerson
Rams
13 - Paul Janikowski, Windsor
Lancers
14 - Tommy Mosher, Guelph
Gryphons
Source: Guelph sports Info
