ACXC 2019: Junior preview

The Athletics Canada Cross-Country Championships go this Saturday at Clearbrook Park in Abbotsford, BC. Like the senior men and women, for the junior runners, the chance to represent their country on home soil at is stake this Saturday, since the team for the 2020 Pan Am Cross-Country Championship will be chosen based on the results from Saturday’s race. Runners who place in the top 10 and who have declared will be eligible for team selection. Athletics Canada will send four teams (senior men, senior women, U20 men and U20 women).

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Junior women (U20)

Taryn O’Neill – O’Neill is a 19-year-old Okanagan Valley, B.C. native who graduated high school two years ago and began her collegiate career at Villanova University in Philadelphia, but ultimately she found that it wasn’t a good fit for her. “I left for a number of reasons. I really liked the team and my friends out there, but the culture of the school wasn’t for me. It’s a private Catholic school and I’m not religious. It didn’t end up being what I wanted from my college experience.”

O’Neill has found her groove at NAU, and says the team philosophy is very similar to what she was used to in high school: runners are seen as whole people and not just as their sport. In high school, the young Canadian was coached by Malindi Elmore, 2004 Olympian in the 1,500m and now Olympic hopeful in the marathon. She raced the NCAA Championships last weekend and she’s certainly a favourite to win Canadian nationals.

RELATED: ACXC 2019: Senior men’s preview

Abbey Yuhasz – Yuhasz is the 2019 OFSAA Cross-Country champion who won the event handily. Yuhaz, who’s from Waterloo, has been a strong cross-country runner throughout her entire high school career, but she was never able to secure an OFSAA medal until this year. In grade 10 she raced up a category (competing in the senior division instead of the junior division) to help her team, in grade 11 she dealt with injury which left her underprepared, and this year, grade 12, she closed the deal by winning her first OFSAA cross-country championship. She’s been so dominant on the high school scene it’ll be exciting to see what she can do in Abbotsford this weekend.

Petal Palmer – Palmer was second at OFSAA in difficult conditions. On the right day this runner could certainly find herself in the mix.

Sadie Sigfstead – Sigfstead won the national U18 title as a 14-year-old back in 2017. Two years later, she’s 16 years old and racing in the U20 race. This B.C. native is a distance running force and despite her young age (she could be racing down a category in U18) she could certainly make the podium.

Junior men (U20)

Joe Fast – Fast is a grade 12 student at Ridgemont High School in Ottawa, ON. When Fast is your last name, it’s hard not to become a runner. And Fast, as it turns out, is quick. He’s a multi-time OFSAA champion and was fifth at the cross-country championships last month.

Matt Mason – Mason was the 2019 OFSAA champion. Mason said OFSAA was some of the toughest conditions he has ever run in. “About 1K in I ended up in the lead and I just decided to roll with it. I figured if no one wants to lead, I will. I felt really good at the halfway point. I knew it was going to go well. I guess all of the years playing hockey before I ran really got me used to the ice.”

Jonah Brost – Brost was the 2019 B.C. junior champion who’s had a great season. The Victoria, B.C. native knows the course and west coast conditions well. He’s certainly a podium contender this weekend.

Callum Campbell – Campbell was second at B.C. championships, closely behind Brost, and another home-course runner to watch on Saturday.

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