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Thank you very much to Orienteering Ottawa for presenting the Ottawa Sports Pages’ XC Week! Orienteering is like cross-country running, with a few extra exciting twists and turns. Find out about the adventure that awaits you here.
By Isabella Disley
Nothing could stop Hillcrest’s Charlie Mortimer from claiming the national capital high school senior boys’ cross-country running title on Oct. 23 at the Hornets Nest, not even a tractor.
The Grade 12 student wasted no time building a healthy lead in the six-kilometre race, and while the rain, cold and mud were affecting some runners’ performances, a stray tractor was the only thing that brought the (wingless) Hillcrest Hawk to a screeching halt.
While the unexpected obstacle stopped Mortimer and the lead bike guide in their tracks and cost the leader about 20 or 30 seconds, he figures, he still finished with a sizeable 17.7-second gap ahead of second-place Owen Siderius of Colonel By.
“I’ve never run like that before, so it was really nice. It was a bit bananas, but it was super fun,” Mortimer underlined. “Everybody’s so supportive, and I’m so happy to be done now. It feels like a weight off my shoulders.”
Siderius had edged Mortimer by one second a week earlier at the east conference championships, but Mortimer knocked a full minute off his time at city finals, despite the impediment, to win in 19:08.5.
To say the least, Mortimer was not expecting the roadblock he found in the first event of the day, but he was happy with his performance overall. He said he just wanted to give it his all in what could’ve been his final race.
The 2024 national capital XC senior boys’ bronze medallist was one of just three Hawks who competed at last year’s city finals. He was pleased to be able to enter a team with a minimum of four runners in his division for the first time in his career.
“We finally have a team this year, and I’m just super happy to run with everybody,” explained Mortimer. “I’m definitely very happy to represent my school. We’re the smallest public school in Ottawa, and it’s really nice to just go and run.”
His Hawks placed 17th of 28 senior boys’ teams.
“Unfortunately, with a school with less than 500 kids, it’s really hard to compete as a team against, like, you have Colonel By or Glebe, just really strong, solid teams,” noted Mortimer, who also enjoys playing for the Hawks’ ultimate frisbee team.
“We have good spirit on this team. I just love to throw the whole spirit everywhere, just to kind of combat all these bigger teams,” he added, shouting out to some of his rivals beside him at the finish line.
Mortimer trains alongside the city’s other top runners with the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club under Glebe coach Kirk Dillabaugh, who “definitely taught me a lot” once he joined the club after taking up running during COVID.
As the lone Hawk competing at the Nov. 1 provincials in Brampton, Mortimer hopes to soar high to a top-five OFSAA finish, which would be a career-best.
Minus graduated 2024 OFSAA XC champion Daniel Cova, the Louis-Riel Rebelles nonetheless repeated as city champions in a highly competitive senior boys’ team event.
Winners of the OFSAA team bronze medal in 2024, Louis-Riel recorded three top-10 finishes at the city finals, led by Evan James Rebane in the bronze medal position, Mikel Fortier in eighth and Olivier Young in 10th, while Callum Dunbrack completed the scoring in 44th and Matisse Joly will join them on the OFSAA start line.
Glebe claimed the second team spot with a lineup of 12th-place finisher Charlie Woolf, Oscar Gorall (15th), Erich Schreiner (19th), Lluc Bou (26th) and Jack Johnston.
Likely the best team not to qualify for OFSAA, the Colonel By senior boys had to settle for a national capital podium after missing out by two placement points behind Glebe 72-74.
A top-six finish was required to earn one of the national capital’s five individual OFSAA berths available to runners not already qualified on a team.
Running alongside Mortimer and Siderius will be Paul-Desmarais’s Aidan Snow (who was fourth), Merivale’s Carter de Veer (fifth) and John McCrae’s Jackson McKercher, who edged Sacred Heart’s Jamie Charlebois by 1.3 seconds for the final qualifying spot.
The most accomplished athlete in the field was Grade 11 student de Veer, who’s won numerous junior national cycling titles. (Look for more Ottawa Sports Pages coverage on de Veer’s exploits on two wheels in the coming days.)
The Ottawa Sports Pages will be posting race-by-race recaps and photo galleries each weekday leading into the Nov. 1 OFSAA XC Championships. Find them all on our XC Week webpage, presented by Orienteering Ottawa.
NCXC25 Senior Boys’ Photo Gallery
