ACXC 2019: Senior women’s preview

The Athletics Canada Cross-Country Championships are looming and runners have been named. On Saturday November 30, Canada’s best youth, junior, senior and masters runners will line up in Abbotsford, B.C. for the national championship. With such strong fields across the board, we’re splitting the preview into four parts. Here’s a look at the senior women who will throw down in just over one week’s time.

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Predicted top five women

Gen Lalonde
Sarah Inglis (not Canadian, won’t count for national points)
Victoria Coates
Natasha Wodak
Sasha Gollish

Race time

The senior women’s 10K will run at 2 p.m. PDT.

Steeple people

Steeplechasers tend to be really good at cross-country, and there are a number of them who have a shot at a great finish next Saturday.

Gen Lalonde is the 2018 champion and Canadian steeplechase record holder who’s certainly a favourite to win. The runner had a great 2019-2019: she was a World Championship finallist on the track, she had one of the highest-ever World Cross-Country finishes by a Canadian last March and she broke her own Canadian steeple record.

Regan Yee also had a great 2019, qualifying for her first outdoor World Championships. She’s got lots of cross-country experience as she ran for the Trinity Western Spartans and knows the B.C. conditions (wet and muddy) well.

Maria Galea-Bernard is our final steeple person who was also a member of the 2019 Athletics Canada World Championship team. These three are not to be underestimated on Saturday.

Distance Queens

These are the women who do it all. They run cross-country, track and on the roads (Gollish even ran the World Championship marathon in October.)

Natasha Wodak is the Canadian 10,000m record holder, a former ACXC champion and a 1:10 half-marathoner. This is a runner who loves cross-country but due to her very long track season (she competed at Worlds in October) might not be in her ideal cross shape. But if she is, watch out.

Sasha Gollish has had a marathon (literally) season. She competed at the 2019 World Championships and hasn’t slowed down since. She ran the New York 5K and is continuing her season into cross-country.

Sarah Inglis is an honourary Canadian (she’s a British citizen living in B.C.) who’s the all-comers 5K record holder and is coming off of a half-marathon personal best just 10 days ago at Monterey Bay, where she ran 1:12:23.

Victoria Coates is another road super star who also just ran a half-marathon personal best (1:12:39) in Indianapolis. She’s a cross-country crusher and someone to watch on Saturday.

University crushers

These are the women who recently competed in their collegiate cross-country championship and are coming back to run nationals–they’ve got more recent cross-country experience than the other women but also tired legs.

Hannah Woodhouse is a runner for the Guelph Gryphons who took home second alongside her team two weeks ago at U Sports. She’s primarily a distance runner who performs well in championship circumstances.

Shona McCulloh is a student at the University of Washington in Seattle. She’s running the NCAA cross-country championships tomorrow and bouncing back one week later to run the national championship in Canada. 

Stay tuned for predictions and previews for the senior men and junior fields. Full entries can be found here.