Cross Country Misses Podium at OCAA’s
King City, ON – The St. Clair College Cross Country team were unable to reach the podium for the first time since 2015 at the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association Provincial Championships which were hosted Saturday by Seneca Polytechnic at their King Campus in King City, ON that saw 16 OCAA schools compete in the meet. The Saints were 4th as a team in the Women's event amongst 10 schools that had 60 runners while the St. Clair Men finished 5th against 12 other teams with 75 total racers. St. Clair was fortunate to have three individual athletes finish as members of the OCAA All-Ontario Teams.
Victoria Horrobin (Wallaceburg, ON) earned First-Team All-Ontario recognition for the Saints finishing 6th in a time of 25:31 over the 6km course. St. Clair's Melody Knight (Tecumseh, ON/Tecumseh Vista) came across in 19th (28:53) with Camryn Crawford (Kemptville, ON) close behind in 21st position in a time of 28:57. Kendra Bell (Windsor, ON/Holy Names) was 32nd in 30:45 while Emersyn Grondin (Tecumseh, ON/Tecumseh Vista) was right behind in 33rd with a time of 30:53 for the Saints.
Carter Free (Napanee, ON) put together a First-Team All-Ontario performance in the Men's event for St. Clair placing 6th in 28:26 over the 8km trail. Melein Keflay (Windsor, ON/Assumption) was 11th in 30:41 which earned him inclusion with the Second-Team All-Ontario group for the Saints. Noah Nicoletti (Windsor, ON/Holy Names) was 21st with a time of 30:10 and Russell Niedre (Ottawa, ON) rounded out the counting finishers for St. Clair in 32nd place at 31:52. Other finishers for the Saints were Wesley Hearn (Windsor, ON/Sandwich) who was in 36th position with a time of 32:26 and Daniel Herrera (Windsor, ON/Kennedy) in 66th place with a time of 37:50.
St. Clair will now make their final preparations to host the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association National Championships as the last qualifications have taken place this weekend. The event will be staged at Windsor's Malden Park on November 9th with individual and team participants from the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association, Alberta Colleges Athletic Association, Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association and Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec.