By Dan Plouffe
There was a very intriguing race within the race during the junior girls’ five-kilometre event at the 2026 national capital high school cross-country running championships on Oct. 28 at Mooney’s Bay.
The question was which team members would earn the OFSAA racing positions for the Glebe Gryphons?
The Gryphons were the indisputable favourites to win the team title, but among their six strongest runners, only five would get the chance to run at the OFSAA provincial championships on Nov. 9 in Sudbury, while the other would be a (very strong) alternate in case of injury or illness.
Aside from that subplot, Glebe was also at the forefront of the main race, with Roan Gerth coasting to victory with more than a dozen seconds to spare in a time of 19:29.57.
Then came the interesting internal competition as the Gryphons packed all five of their next runners in a row from 11th to 15th place.
Hannah Potter and Lottie Honeywell-Dobbin showcased the value of having teammates with similar fitness levels as they hammered one another stride for stride to the finish line, much like they push each other in team workouts, Potter gaining the edge by a tenth of a second.
Then Nyla Luit-Hiridjee came in to officially clinch the city title with a total of 37 points, although Colonel By put together a solid second-place team score of 48 points to punch their ticket to OFSAA by a 114-point advantage over third place.
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So then it all came down to Sara Jolliffe and Charlotte Blondin for the last qualifying spot. Jolliffe heard, or thought she heard, Blondin’s footsteps, and never looked back, giving it her all right through the finish line to safely qualify.
It wasn’t exactly instantaneous relief for Jolliffe – she crumpled to the ground exhausted in the finishing area, then once asked to move to make room for more racers, she took a few steps to the other side of the fence and collapsed again, totally beat, yet fully satisfied.
“I’m so tired,” Jolliffe laughed once she’d at last returned to her feet. “It was so cold during the race. I felt all my muscles cramping up, so as soon as I crossed, I felt like I couldn’t walk, I just had to fall over.
“I was just thinking I don’t want to be the alternate, so I just pushed as hard as I could, but everyone did so good.”
And in the last bit of reflection, the gassed Gryphon captured the challenge and the beauty of cross-country running competition.
“It’s such a great sport where it’s individual, yet it’s still a team sport,” she highlighted. “You’re competing for yourself, but you’re also competing for a team, so it’s just so motivational to know that if you do well, the team also does well.”
Jolliffe knew it would be no easy task to get to race in her second straight OFSAA XC.
“Especially through the summer, I knew I really had to try my best and really work hard because we have such a strong team and everyone here is just so good at running,” explained the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club athlete, noting that her team’s strong connection also helps fuel success.
“Everyone’s so nice,” she added. “Everyone’s super supportive and we all congratulate each other after our races.”
Glebe’s junior girls were fifth in the team event last year as novices, led by Gerth in 13th place.
“OFSAA was a great, great experience. I really loved it,” recalled Gerth. “I’m planning on doing a lot better this year at OFSAA than last year, but our team qualified, so we’re all going together again and I’m really excited about that.”
The Lions’ U16 track nationals steeplechase silver medallist knows her team will have a strong game-plan going into provincials, like the Gryphons do for every race. That’s a product of having an experienced coach in Kirk Dillabaugh at their disposal to study and craft a strategy, Gerth indicated.
At the start of the season, it may be to have a group of Gryphons run the same pace for much of the race, knowing that having back-end runners gain an extra bit of fitness could pay off with a few crucial points come season’s end. Glebe runners will know exactly where they’ll realistically want to position themselves to reach their maximum potential.
“[Dillabaugh] understands the levels that people are at, how they train, so when they race, he really knows what they can push themselves to,” Gerth outlined. “And he’s very supportive. Having a coach who’s like, ‘OK, you can do this,’ and then I set my limit to there instead of myself thinking that I can only push up to a certain limit. I feel like he really knows his athletes and knows how well you can really do.”
OFSAA will be Dillabaugh’s last race at the helm of the Gryphons’ program before he retires at the end of the first semester.
Read More: Retiring Glebe coach Kirk Dillabaugh leaves with sweet 16th straight cross-country city title
“It definitely adds motivation just to make him proud for his last year,” Gerth underlined. “I’m really upset about it (being his last meet). We have other amazing coaches, all the coaches we have are amazing, but Dilly really organizes a lot of things, and I think it’s definitely going to be a big change once he leaves.”
The Colonel By Cougars give the national capital association a strong 1-2 punch for OFSAA, led by city championships individual bronze medallist Zoe Allina, along with Giselle Côté Hughes (who placed seventh at cities), Beth Hall (16th), Julie Cabasson (22nd) and Raina Smith (36th).
National capital silver medallist Tessa Rea of Paul-Desmarais leads the local individual OFSAA qualifiers, joined by Riverside South’s Sophie Houle (fourth at cities), Earl of March’s Chloe Dustin (fifth), Maplewood’s Keira Ganton (sixth) and Longfields-Davidson Heights’ Saoirse Hoogenraad.
