The senior middle-distance group must have been the precursors of the winter season! While we woke to a dusting of snow on Saturday morning, Sunday November 16th brought us a consistent snowy downfall.

The intrepid group set off for Niagara Falls to compete in the Athletics Ontario cross-country championship meet. Weather was cool, of course, and the ground was hard, but conditions were much better, in general, than they had been for the OFSAA meet two weeks earlier.

MIDGET GIRLS

Kaitlyn Lynch led the way, competing in her second AO cross-country competition, finishing a very strong 18th in a field of 120. Marlena Mazza, making her debut in AO competition, was nine seconds behind Kaitlyn, finishing in 29th.

MIDGET BOYS

A young midget team placed ninth of 14 teams in a field of 109 competitors.

Alec Purnell led the group through a strong first lap, with Owen Opie and Finn Mills close behind. Drew Ruigrok and Eric Justason were working hard to achieve the best possible final scoring position. The order at the finish saw Owen, Finn and Alec finish within 10 seconds of each other in 35th, 36th and 45th place. Drew and Eric rounded out the field in 71st and 79th. This was a good performance and we are already anticipating next year when four of the five return as second-year midgets.

YOUTH GIRLS

The youth girls’ team also placed ninth out of 15 teams competing. It was great to see the girls who have trained so hard together all year finally have the opportunity to compete on the same team. Again, five in this group return as second year youth next year.

20Rachel Barich

44Chloe Hewitt

58Jasmine Buckridge

66Camille Dehghan

78Anya de Beer

81Rachel Langelaan

93Mikayla Hewitt

YOUTH BOYS

HOC rookie, Addison Nixon, was the only finisher for the Club. Congratulations to Addy on his AO debut, a very strong 64th place finish in a very strong youth field of 139 competitors.