Across the country cross-country results week two

Over the weekend lots of collegiate runners took to the golf course or regional park to see who was the fastest over 6 to 10K. Because it’s early in the season, lots of runners are still racing under-distance, with many women running 6K and men running 8K (they will run 8K and 10K at November’s U Sports Championship). Canadian Running will be publishing a weekly round up of cross-country results that can also be found through our latest newsletter, The Watchlist. Here’s a look at this week’s national results.

RELATED: Introducing The Watchlist, a Canadian Running U Sports newsletter

East

The Sherbrooke Vert et Or Invite was the big race in the RSEQ on Sunday. There, the Laval men continued their dominance while the McGill women surprised with a much stronger team than in years previous.

The Laval men claimed five of the top six spots and were led by Jean-Simon Desgagnes, who won in 27:34. Second place went to Charles Paquet in 27:42 and third place to Thomas Windisch of Sherbrooke in 27:52.

In the women’s race, third-year runner Jessy Lacourse won in 24:12, second place went to Elizabeth Hirsch of McGill in 24:16 and third to Elodie De Coene of University of Montreal in 24:20.

The 2018 team of Laval women became the first in their programme’s history to win a cross-country national title, and the first team from RSEQ to win a national title at the university collegiate level. The women described the win post-race as “like a dream.”

Full results can be found here.

RELATED: Laval makes history at U Sports XC 2018

Central

Lots of Ontario schools took their talents south of the border this weekend to the Loyola Lakefront Invitational in Chicago, Illinois, where the McMaster Marauders men took first place.

Max Turek, Andrew Davies and Alex Drover went two-three-four in the men’s race, helping McMaster to their impressively low score of 45 points to the Wisconsin Badgers 65 points for second. The Windsor Lancers finished fourth as a team and were led by Nick D’Alessandro and the Western Mustangs were sixth and led by rookie Marcel Scheele. Scheele was a multi-time OFSAA steeplechase champion before beginning his varsity career at Western.

Kate Current was the highest-placing Canadian woman in the race, finishing eighth and helping her team of Western women to a sixth-place finish overall, with 162 points. The McMaster Marauders were ninth and the Windsor Lancers 17th.

Full results can be found here.

West

The Vic Vikes open was the big meet of the week on the west-coast-best-coast. The four western powerhouse teams went head-to-head with the Calgary Dinos men (the 2018 U Sports champions) blowing the competition out of the water. The Dinos went one through four and then sixth through tenth in the race, with a shockingly low team score of 15 to take the win.

The Dinos are lead by Matthew Travaglini, who won the 8K in 25:26, second place went to Alexander James, also in 25:26, and third place to Russell Pennock, in (you guessed it), 25:26.  While the men’s team is extremely strong and certainly a contender for this year’s national title, it’s a more senior squad with both Pennock and Travaglini in their fifth year of eligibility.

In the women’s race, the Trinity Western Spartans were the clear winners over both the Dinos, who were second, and UVic, who were third. Joanna Williams was the winner in 22:20 from Trinity Western, second place went to Ally Ginther, who’s unattached, in 22:42 and third place went to Caitlin Vail of UVic in 23:07.

Full results can be found here.