Get to know Canada’s team for the NACAC Cross-Country Championships
Team Canada is in Florida for the 2017 NACAC Cross-Country Championships on Saturday. Here's who will represent the red and white this weekend.
Get excited because cross-country is beginning to ramp up again. Well, maybe just for the next month.
The NACAC Cross-Country Championships are Saturday in Boca Raton, Fla. and features four Canadian teams including multiple national cross-country champions. The event the first of two major cross-country competitions for Canada in March. The IAAF World Cross-Country Championships are the pinnacle on March 27 in Kampala, Uganda.
Runners qualified based on placing at the 2016 Canadian Cross-Country Championships in Kingston, Ont. back in November.
The ?? xc crew is down in Florida and ready for tomorrow’s Pan Am XC Cup. pic.twitter.com/AREauHrt4n
— Athletics Canada (@AthleticsCanada) March 3, 2017
Canada’s junior (U20) team are the defending Pan American Cross-Country Cup champions after a 1-2 finish from Branna MacDougall and Madelaine Ghazarian in 2016. The younger MacDougall, Brogan, CR‘s high school runner of the year, replaces her sister on this year’s team as the top two junior cross-country runners headline the women’s team. (Hannah Bennison, the 2016 national U20 champion, is too on the team.)
Sasha Gollish, who finished second at the Pan Am Cross-Country Cup last year, leads a strong senior women’s team which also includes 2016 national university cross-country champion Claire Sumner and 2015 Pan Am Games bronze medallist Rachel Hannah. Trevor Hofbauer, who recently relocated to Guelph, Ont. from Calgary, is the top runner on the senior men’s team based on results from the 2016 Canadian Cross-Country Championships. (He finished third while Ross Proudfoot and Luc Bruchet declined their spots on the team.)
Mitchel Ubene is the top runner from the national cross-country championships in November for Saturday’s race. Ehab El-Sandali, who attends Iona in New York, is older than the required age cut-off and was not eligible to compete. He’s the 2016 national champion.
The race is open to North American, Central American and Carribean nations. The event was billed as the Pan American Cross-Country Cup in year’s past. The junior women contest 5K, the junior men race 6K and both the senior men and women will run 8K.
Schedule
9 a.m. – Junior women 5K
9:40 a.m. – Junior men 6K
10:20 a.m. – Senior women 8K
11 a.m. – Senior men 8K
Team (information via Athletics Canada)
Junior Women
Hannah Bennison, Vernon, B.C. (Coach: Malinda Elmore)
Catherine Beauchemin, Québec City (Coach: Sylvain Cloutier)
Hanna Johnston, Thunder Bay, Ont. (Coach: Kip Sigsworth)
Martha MacDonald, Toronto (Coach: Taras Radchenko)
Brogan MacDougall, Kingston, Ont. (Coach: Steve Boyd)
Shona McCulloch, Nepean, Ont. (Coach: Kirk Dillabaugh)
Junior Men
Andrew Alexander, Toronto, ON, (Coach: Taras Radchenko)
Graham Baird, Pickering, ON, (Coach: Edward LaRocque)
Jean-Simon Desgagnés, Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges, QC, (Coach: Félix-Antoine Lapointe)
Kieran Lumb, Vancouver, BC, (Coach: Chris Johnson)
Mitchell Ubene, Tecumseh, Ont. (Coach: Dave Scott-Thomas)
Senior Women
Lisa Brooking, Orillia, Ont. (Coach: Mark Bomba)
Victoria Coates, Hamilton (Coach: Patrick MacKinnon)
Sasha Gollish, Toronto (Coach: Ross Ristuccia)
Rachel Hannah, Barrie (Coach: Dave Korell)
Kathryn Harrison, Toronto (Coach: Sean Cleary)
Claire Sumner, Calgary (Coach: Steve Boyd)
Senior Men
Evan Esselink, Guelph, Ont. (Coach: Dave Scott-Thomas)
Nicholas Falk, Windsor, Ont. (Coach: Gary Malloy)
Trevor Hofbauer, Burnaby, B.C. (Coach: Dave Scott-Thomas)
Sami Jibril, Toronto (Coach: Hugh Cameron)
Rory Linkletter, Calgary (Coach: Ed Eyestone)
Thomas Toth, Lakefield, Ont. (Coach: Zach Johnson)
Support
Ingrid Ruys, Team Manager, Sherwood Park, Alta.
John Lofranco, Team Head Coach, Montreal
Bruce Deacon, Team Coach, Victoria
Devon Truscott, Massage Therapist, Guelph, Ont.
Mark Gottfried, Physiotherapist, Victoria
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