Across the country cross-country results

Today is the first day of fall, and with that comes the official start of the season of muddy running. 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

RELATED: Rookie Cameron Ormond wins Western XC Invitiational

East

The St. FX Cross-Country Invitational was the meet of the week in on the east coast of Canada. There, Jane Hergett St. FX took the 6K race in 21:54 ahead of Madalyn Higgins of Acadia in 22:02 and Catherine Thompson of Dalhousie in 22:11. Hergett is a third-year student who’s coming off AUS track and field domination in 2018.

In the men’s results, Andrew Peverill of St. Mary’s took the win in 25:07 ahead of Jacob Benoit of St. FX in 25:16 and Paul MacLellan, also of St. FX, in 25:26. Peverill cracked the top 20 after a terrible start at the U Sports Championships in 2018. Through the first loop he was nearly in last place, but crawled his way to 19th by the end.

Full results can be found here.

Central

Cameron Ormond, four-time OFSAA cross-country gold medallist, won the Bill Slater Western XC Invitational on Saturday in 21:47, just ahead of Kara Blair of Queen’s, who finished in 21:48. Third place went to Makenna Fitzgerald, also of Queen’s.

In the men’s race, fourth-year Guelph student Mitch Ubene took the win in 25:29, ahead of Max Turek of McMaster and Royden Radowtis of Alberta.

In the team results, it was a race between the Gryphons and the Gaels on the women’s side, with the Gryphons just outrunning Queen’s at 42 to 48 points. However, both Guelph and Queen’s were missing a couple of their heavy hitters with Danielle Jossinet (Guelph) and the MacDougall sisters (Queen’s) sitting out Saturday’s race. Both teams were well ahead of Western who came in third.

On the men’s side it was McMaster ahead of Guelph (46 to 54 points) and both squads were significantly ahead of the University of Alberta, who finished third at 91 points. While it’s still very early in the season, it will be interesting to see how athletes hold up and how teams fare as the season progresses.

Full results can be found here.

West

The UBC Thunderbirds headed south of the border to Seattle for the Emerald City Open, where the men’s team finished second. On the women’s side, they only entered three women (not enough for a full squad) but Sienna Lalonde had a great first cross-country race as a Thunderbird, finishing third over 6K in 23:35. Lukas Jarron was the first man across the line for the TBirds in 26:54 over 8K.

Full results can be found here.

RELATED: The U Sports gender equity outcome: women 8K, men 10K