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By Anne Duggan
National capital high school cross-country runners collected 5 medals and a couple pieces of history at the 2016 OFSAA XC Championships on Nov. 5 in Port Hope.
De La Salle’s Zach Meredith finished 25 seconds back of Ridgemont’s Joe Fast at the city finals, but managed to stay within 10 seconds at the provincials. The result was a remarkable repeat 1-2 finish for the Ottawa runners against the best in Ontario.
“We have never had that happen since I have been involved with high school cross-country running,” highlights veteran coach Kirk Dillabaugh, an XC convenor for the national capital association.
Fast overpowered the legendary Mount Trinity and used it as a weapon to knock out the leader at the midway point from Windsor.
“At 3 km he didn’t have it,” recounts Fast, who’s accustomed to regularly climbing one of the tougher hills in the province, the Green’s Creek toboggan in Blackburn Hamlet. “It felt really good to pass him and then I attacked that last hill.”
Fast became the first OFSAA XC champion in school history, while his city-champion midget boys teammates also made their mark by claiming the Ridgemont Spartans’ first OFSAA XC team berth in over half a century.
“It was great to have my team there with me,” adds the winner of the 5 km race in a time of 16:23. “(Coaches) Mr. Collins and Ms. McColeman, too. We did really well.”
Fast has been teammates and classmates with three of his fellow Spartans since elementary school, playing hockey for the same South End Gators team with Brian Anvari, Andrew Sahadeo and Peter Laggis as well. The final member of the team was Harun Omar Ali, a new Canadian from Botswana, who slotted in at #2 runner position at OFSAA.
”These kids are great kids, students and athletes,” underlines coach Jesse Collins. “Getting to OFSAA after all this time, it is the thing that they will always remember.”
On the strength of a bronze medal win by their seniors and a 5th-place showing in junior, the Glebe Gryphons extended their unprecedented run of repeat overall girls’ titles to five in a row (finishing in a tie for 1st with Toronto’s Loretto Abbey).
Teagan Shapansky (7th in jr.) and Keili Shepherd (8th in sr.) both earned top-10 results, but Rosalyn Barrett stands out to Dillabaugh as a perfect example of the depth that fuels the Gryphons’ success.
“She is a school-trained athlete with no club experience and she competes in multiple sports,” the Glebe coach says of the junior girls’ competitor who moved up from 34th at last year’s OFSAA to 19th this year. “It is really impressive that she has improved her results this much.”
An XC prediction master, Dillabaugh admits he was caught off guard by his Glebe senior boys’ medal win.
“When I was told they came in 3rd, I could not believe it,” smiles Dillabaugh, whose athletes had all placed between 10th and 19th at the national capital meet. “There were other teams that were much stronger on paper. But these were the guys that were 3rd in Waterloo four years ago by doing just what they did this time – running their own races and as tightly as possible.”
The next 3 schools behind Glebe all finished within 10 placement points of the Gryphons’ total of 348. Along with a 4th-place junior boys’ result, Glebe was 2nd in the overall boys’ standings.
The final local medal belonged to none other than Shona McCulloch, who capped her high school XC career with a senior girls’ bronze.
The 3,000 metres track-and-field youth national record holder and 2016 IAAF World Under-20 Championships competitor is destined for greater stages (including an NCAA scholarship, though the destination has not yet been announced), but she feels truly blessed to have enjoyed the type of experiences she has in high school and local sport.
McCulloch played soccer with Ottawa South United, ringette with the Nepean Ravens, and field hockey with the Nepean Nighthawks.
Just a few hours after completing an undefeated career in XC city finals, McCulloch suited up for the Longfields-Davidson Heights field hockey team in their city championship game (which they lost 1-0 to Nepean).
“It’s a really great group of girls. I love them so much,” McCulloch says of her Ravens field hockey mates. “The team atmosphere is so present. Everyone talks to everyone. We pump each other up. It’s so exciting to be on a team with those girls. It just makes you want to play the sport and makes you want to be a part of that.”
McCulloch’s positive attitude and enthusiasm has a similar impact on others as well. From hardly even fielding a team early in her career, 10 Longfields senior girls ran at this year’s XC finals.
“Being able to be here with my team for this last time and being able to come with my school, that’s definitely one of the best parts,” signals McCulloch. “I’m really thankful that I’ve had such a great high school career.”