Cross country season in review

We started the season with high hopes, and I think we achieved some good things. As a training group, we qualified six people to the provincial team for xc nationals. The university teams both had their best seasons ever, at both the provincial and national level.

The Concordia men were in a tough battle between the top four Quebec schools, and we ended up in 3rd place, just behind Laval, and just ahead of McGill. While it's nice to beat our cross-town rivals, we were really aiming much higher than that. We lost out on second place to Laval on a big finishing kick by their 5th man--an 800m runner who was basically a depth guy for them in cross. Our depth guys were a skiier and a marathoner, and with 200m to go, it showed. I'm not blaming our guys one bit, or taking anything away from Mathieu Raymond, who probably had the best cross season of his career at Laval. He was strong at CIS for them, too. What is frustrating is that we don't even have a chance to recruit depth guys like that for our cross country team, because we don't have a track program. But that's another post... Stephane Colle had a good race and was able to take home the silver medal. Team Captain Ryan Noel-Hodge was very aggressive and tried to break the pack and run away with the win, but this change in strategy proved unsuccessful, as he faded to third, only to be caught at the line and relegated to fourth by McGill's top runner.

The Concordia women were short-handed at the QSSF (RSEQ now, new name for the league, very important for branding, you know), with our lead runner, Dominique Roy, not quite ready to return to competition. The ladies battled, though, and Coralina Tse was able to come away with a 4th place finish and was the second-fastest rookie in the conference. Not too shabby. Gabrielle Thompson ran extremely well coming off injury and recorded a personal best in the 5k of 20:02. She is also a rookie. The ladies finished 4th out of 5 as a team.

At CIS, it was the men's turn to be short-handed, as Eliot MacKinnon was unavailable to race. As a result, the team score was not as it was hoped, but the Stingers still managed their best every CIS showing, on the strength of Colle's 23rd place finish. Both he and Noel-Hodge were up in all-Canadian (top 14) territory early, but it was probably too much for both of them, as they faded in the later half of the race. A lack of big-race experience is probably to blame there.

The women, on the other-hand, welcomed Roy back to the fold, and she responded by running a very smart race, moving up from the mid-50s to finish in 33rd place, two spots behind her teammate, the always exuberant rookie Coralina Tse. Cora and Dom were the second and third Quebec conference runners across the line at CIS. Cora's race mirrored that of the top men, as she started in the top 10, and gradually moved back in the pack. All this despite the pre-race plan to be patient. It won't be long, however, before Tse is in the top ten to stay. The team score improved dramatically, as Thompson was solid again, as were Elizabeth Mokrusa and team captain Kelly Hewitt. The Stingers managed to beat the host team from Sherbrooke, the first time that has happened in our program's short history. The women beat Laval in 2007. With all the women back next year, they have vowed to move much further up the table.

At the ASGI Canadian Cross Country Championships in Guelph, Steph, Ryan and Coralina from Concordia were joined by training partners Brenna Walsh, Alizee Brien, Sebastien Monette, and Steve McElligot. Stephane ran a PB of 31:55 on the snow-covered course to finish 26th. Ryan ran a much smarter race and while he may have been a bit further back than he would have hoped, he moved up in the pack instead of back, and at 42nd, he beat some guys that are no slouches, in his first year of senior xc competition. Coralina suffered from a cold, more than from the cold, and while she started well, she could not overcome her illness, and dropped to 64th in the junior women's race. Brenna Walsh ran the senior women's course 4min faster than when she last ran it in 2008.

The men's team from Fleur-de-lys (Stephane, Ryan and Steve, as well as myself, unfortunately for the squad) were 8th. Now, only 8 teams scored in the senior men's division, but there were over 30 different clubs represented, so I think it says something that we managed a full squad. This is something we are going to be focusing on in the future, as this is, next to track nationals, the most important race on the domestic calendar.

All in all, a good fall season. Next up, some rest, some strength building, some volume, and some indoor track work. We are hoping to put together a really great training group here in Montreal, drawing from a couple different clubs. The athletes have asked that the coaches get together and plan some common workouts, as they are frustrated (and with good reason) with having three or four small (or individual) groups on the track, when everyone is really trying to get to the same place. We can be stronger together. I am behind them 100%, and I'm looking forward to an exciting 2011 for our group.