2025 XC Week, presented by Orienteering Ottawa

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‘Success breeds success’: Glebe surges to 15th XC city championship in a row

By Isabella Disley

The Glebe Gryphons once again showed that they are the biggest and the best high school cross-country running program in Ottawa as they won a 15th consecutive city title on a cold, wet and slippery national capital championships on Oct. 23 at the Hornets Nest in Blackburn Hamlet.

Glebe won half of the six team events, placed second in two more and had one third-place finish to score an unmatchable total of 52 out of 60 possible points in the grand aggregate standings, while the Colonel By Cougars edged the Nepean Knights 33-32 for second overall.

“I’ve said it before – success breeds success,” underlines Glebe coach Kirk Dillabaugh. “Because we’ve had success in the past, it’s something that athletes want to be a part of.”

With 58 runners in total across the senior, junior and novice girls’ and boys’ events, Glebe had the largest number of entries out of any school by 13.

In often-competitive internal races, five Gryphons on each of their five qualified teams earned places on the start line for the Nov. 1 OFSAA provincial championships in Heart Lake, Brampton.

“Well, it’s always a great feeling to get to show our talent against the best in the province, and so we’ll head down to Brampton next week and hope to perform as best as we can,” signals Dillabaugh, who loved seeing the energetic and supportive atmosphere across the board for the city finals.

“There’s so many spectators,” adds the meet co-convenor. “I think we get more spectators than just about any other event, and everything’s so positive. Everyone’s so hyped. It’s great to see.”

The Hornets Nest was swarmed by nearly 1,000 runners from 60 Ottawa high schools, buzzing to book their tickets to provincials.

The two schools with the lowest team score in each division (calculated by adding their top 4 runners’ placings) qualified five runners for OFSAA. The top 5 individual racers who were not already qualified as part of a team also earned OFSAA berths.

Senior boys and girls tackled a six-kilometre course, juniors ran 5 km and novice 4 km, plus seven more raced in the 4 km para event won by Immaculata’s Grayson LeBlanc.

Hillcrest senior Charlie Mortimer didn’t waste time taking the lead and kept building a wider and wider margin to win in a time of 19:08.5. The reigning OFSAA team bronze medallists from Louis-Riel repeated as city champions despite 2024 individual provincial champion Daniel Cova having graduated. Glebe landed the second team qualifying spot by just two points over Colonel By, which would have put in a very competitive entry for provincials themselves.

The Nepean Knights’ Grade 12 senior girls runners have tasted nothing but gold at city championships as they claimed a fourth consecutive team title. Franco-Ouest’s Kyra Lauter won the individual gold in the senior girls’ event with a time of 21:41.3, followed by racers who qualified for OFSAA with their teams – Colonel By’s Laila Lebel and Nepean’s Edie Petrescu-Comnene.

Glebe’s Theo Hurst placed 12th and 1:10 off the winner’s time in his city championships debut, but this time he jumped to the front and won the race by 19.5 seconds in 17 minutes on the dot. Immaculata edged Glebe by three points for the team title as the Saints made the most of every second and placement.

The national capital association will field an extremely strong junior girls lineup at OFSAA. Last year’s individual provincial bronze medallist Alexandra Harris found herself with the same colour medal from the 2025 cities as Ashbury’s Reem Alabed won the event by 1.8 seconds over Glebe’s Reve McInnes in 18:55.1. Harris clocked in at 19:00.6. Glebe’s junior girls scored the lowest point total out of all divisions at 32, while Nepean qualified second with 57.

Glebe and Colonel By earned matching 56-point totals atop the novice boys’ standings in the race won by the Cougars’ Graeme Siderius in 12:33.2. Glebe’s Gabe Thomas may not be headed to OFSAA, but the Gryphons’ seventh runner was nevertheless the key to the victory as he edged Colonel By’s final scoring runner for 46th place to earn the decisive city championship points, as Samuel Lewchuk’s 20th-place performance as Glebe’s no. 4 scoring runner broke the tie.

Despite those efforts, Charlotte Blondin still takes the cake as Glebe’s hero of the day. The Gryphons’ fourth novice girls’ runner lost her shoe just 100 m into the race when another racer stepped on her heel, but the east conference bronze medallist still completed the 4 km course and found the gear she needed to make OFSAA by 1.7 seconds in 17th place. Led by race champ Roan Gerth in 14:09.2, Glebe’s deep 15-runner team won the city title by a whopping 112 points over Nepean. A hypothetical team of Glebe’s seventh through 10th-best runners would have also been city champs.

“Our teams have just grown and grown,” Dillabaugh highlights. “The number of Grade 9 athletes coming out for cross-country this year just exploded, and that just really bodes well for the future.”

Four new national capital medals are back at the Siderius and Lebel households as two sets of Colonel By siblings all hit the individual podium.

Full race results can be found here.

The Ottawa Sports Pages is posting recaps and photo galleries race-by-race each weekday from Oct. 23-31 leading into the 2025 OFSAA XC Championships on Nov. 1 in Brampton.

No shoe, no problem for novice girls OFSAA qualifier Charlotte Blondin

If an MVP award were given out at the national capital high school cross-country running championships, without a doubt it would have to be given to Glebe’s Charlotte Blondin this year. Just 100 metres into her novice girls’ four-kilometre race, someone stepped on Blondin’s heel, causing her left shoe to fall off. Competing in the final race of the day, Blondin ran through the beat-up, muddy, wet course in the cold, leaving the conditions painted over her entire left sock. READ MORE…

Siderius brothers will experience OFSAA together in their only shared year of high school

Graeme Siderius has been running his whole life with his family, ski club, and cross-country skiing team. This year, he finally got to experience being on the same team as his older brother, Owen. It is the only high school year the Siderius brothers will share, since Owen is in Grade 12. Owen competed in the first race of the day, placing second in the senior boys’ six-kilometre to qualify for OFSAA. READ MORE…

National capital sends triple threat to chase OFSAA XC junior girls’ podium

The junior girls’ race produced the closest finish of the day at the national capital high school cross-country running championships on Oct. 23 at the Hornets Nest, and all three of the local medallists who finished within 5.5 seconds of one another promise to challenge for the provincial podium at the 2025 OFSAA XC Championships on Nov. 1 in Brampton. READ MORE…

Grade 9 call-up clinches city title, OFSAA berth for Immaculata junior boys

The Immaculata Saints junior boys’ cross-country running team wouldn’t be heading to OFSAA if it weren’t for their 24th-place finisher, Joshua Roseman. The Grade 9 runner competed against athletes a year older than him, and ultimately became the difference-maker in the Saints’ charge to the championship at the high school city finals on Oct. 23 at the Hornets Nest. READ MORE…

Nepean Grade 12 girls finish with 4 city championships in 4 years

Some of the faces have changed over the years, but the Nepean Knights’ Grade 12 senior girls have tasted nothing but victory at the national capital high school cross-country running championships. On Oct. 23 at the Hornets Nest, the senior Knights captured their fourth consecutive team title with another unbeatable performance in the 20-team senior girls’ event. READ MORE…

Stray tractor can’t stop Hillcrest Hawks’ Charlie Mortimer from soaring to senior boys’ title

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. READ MORE…

Senior boys’ 5th-place finisher Carter de Veer set to join world powerhouse cycling team

Carter de Veer was the top Grade 11 runner in the senior boys’ field at the national capital high school cross-country running championships on Oct. 23 at the Hornets Nest, but as the fifth-place finisher, he somewhat discreetly disguises the reality that he’s likely the best athlete of the bunch. Make no mistake, de Veer is an excellent runner, but the Merivale High School student is an even better cyclist, and he recently signed with one of the best teams in the world. READ MORE…

Glebe, Nepean ready to clash again in NCSSAA cross-country running championships

There’s an intriguing, double-barrelled question hanging over the National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association cross-country running championships, which are Oct. 23 at the Hornets Nest. Will the Glebe Collegiate Institute Gryphons stretch their boys and girls’ team aggregate dominance to 15 straight titles or will the Nepean High School Knights put a stop to it and match their 2009 performance, which was the last time a non-Glebe school was the overall champion? READ MORE…

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