The Varsity Blues men’s and women’s cross-country teams ended their seasons with highlights at both the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) and Canadian Intercollegiate Sport (CIS) championships. While the women’s team fared better out of the two teams, both demonstrated considerable improvement from last season’s results.
Finishing her fourth year racing with the Blues, team captain Colleen Hennessy is proud of her team’s performance this year. “I think the team had a great season! Of course there are some races we had hoped to be better at, but that’s all part of competing. These girls are such dedicated, hard working, motivated athletes, who really put the team first,” she said.
Hennessy, who came in ninth place individually, led the women’s team to their fifth place results at the CIS Championships on November 9 in London, Ontario. Finishing at 148 points, this was a marked improvement for the Blues, who came in ninth last year with 260 points.
Despite their CIS achievement, the high point for the women’s team took place at the OUA championships on October 26 in Hamilton. Fighting cold temperatures and pouring rain, the women’s team managed to snag a third place finish, upsetting the higher ranked Queen’s University team.
“It was a great day for us, with some great performances,” Hennessy noted. “We all really worked together in races by trying to run with each other and stay together which helped a lot.”
An individual and team effort, cross-country running takes place during the fall in open air over hills and a variety of natural terrain. As such, running in harsh weather conditions is not an unexpected part of competition.
Likewise, the men’s team also considered the OUA championships a success after a turbulent first month. “OUA’s was a mud bath and we showed up and surprised everyone, qualifying to the CIS championships in London,” recalled Ethan Davenport.
Davenport, who has been with the team for five years, was team captain for the second time this season. Although he credits finishing fifth at the OUAs as a valuable learning experience, Davenport is aware of its cost.
“With running there is a peaking process, meaning you have a window of opportunity to race optimally before you need to build up again for the next race,” he explained. “Unfortunately in order to qualify we had to peak for OUAs so for CIS we were not optimal.”
Yet, even with a less than satisfactory thirteenth place standing at CIS, the men’s team had a prior positive experience racing in New York that accounted for their success at the OUA championships.
“We came second as a team, but more importantly we all started getting the ‘fall fever’ [cross country motivation],” said Davenport. “Believing is half the battle, and even though the NY race was not the cream of the crop for competition, it got us thinking positively. We took the positives from that race and never looked back. We started to feel like a team with some credibility and it translated to an exceptional OUA performance!”
Considering their results this year, it is unsurprising that both teams are pleased.
As Davenport put it, “these are the sort of fond memories which will persist, these are the kinds of fleeting moments where you really get to know people.”
Hennessy herself was already looking ahead to next year’s season with excitement. “Our rookies were a great addition to the team; they trained very hard and put together a really good effort to help our team score. We hope to place even higher next year in the OUA and CIS championships as our team grows and more experience is gained.”
