XC | Women 8th, Men 13th at Western
The Laurentian Voyageurs Cross-Country Running team competed at the 47th annual Western Invitational in London, ON this past weekend. Laurentian squared off against sixteen different universities from Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia over an eight kilometre distance at the Thames Valley Golf Course.
The Laurentian women placed eighth in team scoring with a total of 202 points. The Vees were once again led by fifth-year education student Pascale Gendron (Toronto), who placed 17th overall in the 96-women field, with a time of 30 minutes and 45 seconds. Gendron's performance was also the tenth best on the day by an Ontario University athlete. Gendron was followed by second-year nursing student Kristen Mrozewski (Sudbury), who placed 56th in 33:23. Fifth-year education student Sarah Thackeray (Cavan), placed 62nd in 33:53. Fourth-year Health Promotion student, Angela Mozzon (Sudbury) placed 63rd in 33:59. Laurentian's final scorer was third-year Biomedical Biology student Meredith Kusnierczyk (Sudbury), who placed 76th in 33:55. Also competing for Laurentian were Abbey Maillet (Dundas), who placed 87th in 36:55 and Ashley Valentini (Oshawa) who placed 93rd in 38:43.
The Laurentian men placed 13th in the team scoring with a final tally of 399 points. The men were again led by rookie SPAD student Seamus Doherty (Georgetown) who placed 98th in a time of 28 minutes and 36 seconds. Also scoring for Laurentian were Nicholas Lambert (Elliot Lake), 106th in 29:03; Brandon Radey (Sudbury), 119th, 30:11; Patrick Leroux (Wingham), 122nd, 30:26 and Travis Annett (Sudbury), 126th, 30:37. Other Laurentian finishers included Kevin Yuan (China), 128th, 30:59; Keegan Lockley (Pettawawa), 129th, 31:08 and Hayden Ring (Oshawa), 132nd, 31:56.
"The women's team is definitely stronger this year and Pascale is demonstrating she can run with the best in the OUA" noted Head Coach, Darren Jermyn. "This race is always a great reminder of how deep the competition is in the OUA conference. Having teams from the Quebec and Atlantic conferences compete today was also a good experience for our team. We will return here for our provincial championships at the end of October and we'll definitely be looking to improve upon our results from today."
The Laurentian cross-country teams will next compete at the Waterloo University Open in Waterloo, ON on October 1st.