Photo by Normand Leger
AUS (Moncton Invitational)
(MONCTON, N.B.) - The 34th annual Université de Moncton Cross Country Classic was held Saturday on the Moncton campus. The Dalhousie Tigers earned a first-place team finish on the women's side, while the X-Men placed first on the men's side.
Three athletes from each of the winning teams finished first, second and third in the 6km women's and 8km men's races.
Dalhousie's Colleen Wilson won the women's race with a time of 22:43.70. Tigers Sarah Myatt (23:30.60) and Jenna MacDonald (23:39.30) followed in second and third place to earn silver and bronze medals.
The StFX X-women earned a second-place team finish while the Acadia Axewomen claimed third. UNB, Moncton, Saint Mary's and St. Thomas followed in fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.
On the men's side, StFX's Scott Donald won gold with a time of 26:08.30. Teammates Alex Cyr (26:10.10) and Alex Neuffer (26:16.70) claimed silver and bronze.
The Dalhousie Tigers earned a second-place team finish and the Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus earned third. UNB came in fourth and UPEI placed fifth.
The next AUS invitational cross country meet will be hosted in Halifax by Saint Mary's and Dalhousie Saturday, Oct. 8.
Source: AUS
OUA (Western Invitational)
LONDON, Ont. - Both the men's and women's cross country teams claimed podium finishes on home turf at the Western Invitational on Saturday as the meet grew to the largest number of competators in program history.
The men's team had an outstanding performance as team captains Jack Sheffar and Ben Carson took home second and third place respectively. Sheffar crossed the finish line just behind Windsor's Corey Bellemore to claim the silver medal with a time of 24:47.9. Carson followed Sheffar by just seconds and finished in third with a time of 24:54.7.
In addition to the two podium finishes, Chris Balestrini clinched a spot in the top-ten as he earned seventh place with a time of 25.08.5.
"We're feeling like the best team that Western's had in almost a decade, so this is a really, really big day for us," said Carson.
Collectively, the Mustangs men's team took home the gold medal as the squad finished with a score of 54 and a total time of 2:06:23.
McMaster earned the silver medal with a score of 63 and total time of 2:06.58, and Windsor walked away with a bronze medal with a score of 67 and a total time of 2:06:59.
The Mustang's women's cross country team also posted impressive results on Saturday as they took home the bronze medal as a team. Kristina Popadich was the top finisher of the the race for Western as she crossed the finish line in fourth place with a time of 17:12.3. Popadich's time is a new course record for the team that had been set back in the 1980s.
"It was good to see Kristina come out of her shell," said Mustangs head coach Guy Schultz. "She's always had that ability to run that fast so now she just has the confidence and hopefully that carries on throughout the season."
Katherine Lampard also had an impressive race on Saturday as she earned the final spot in the top-ten with a time of 17:52.0.
Both Mustangs teams will be back in action next week as they travel south of the boarder to Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday, October 1st to compete in the Louisville Classic.
Source: Western Sports Info
RSEQ (Sherbrooke Invitational)