Gaels teams win the Queen's Invitational

Source: OUA Communications / Photo credit Bryan Lambert

KINGSTON, Ont. - The Ontario University Athletics cross country season rolled on as Kingston’s Fort Henry Hill played host to the Queen’s Invitational on Saturday. The sunny, warm day saw over 80 athletes representing five Ontario Universities  compete, with the host Queen’s Gaels narrowly edging out Guelph for both the men’s and women’s team gold.

In the women’s team competition, Queen’s scored 29 points in earning the top spot.  Guelph took second with 34 points, while York’s 80 points was good enough for third position.

For the men, a single point was the difference as the Gaels 27 points was just enough to earn the win, with Guelph’s 28 points taking second.  York was again in third place with 89 points.

Individually, it was Guelph’s Carise Thompson taking the gold in a time a 17:43.9 over the 5-kilometre course, with her teammate Nadine Frost taking the silver in 17:56.0. Julie-Anne Staelhi  (18.11.4) of Queen’s rounded out the top three.

Like the women’s race, the men’s 10-kilometre run saw Guelph runners finish in the top two spots. Ross Proudfoot crossed the finish line just three one-hundredths of a second ahead of his Gryphons teammate Yves Sikubwabo (31:45.8 and 31:46.1, their respective times). Jeffry Archer of Queen’s took third with a time of 31:53.6.

In addition to the top three teams in each race; Queen’s, Guelph, and York; Royal Military College sent a team of athletes in the men’s and women’s races, finishing fourth in both. Peterborough’s Trent University sent four runner to compete in the women’s race, but did not have enough participants to qualify for a team result.