Source: Andy Campbell, UNB Athletics
(FREDERICTON, NB) The U SPORTS No. 3 ranked Laval Rouge et Or dominated the third meet on the 2021 Atlantic University Sport women's cross country schedule.
Laval's Jessy Lacourse (Quebec City, QC) won the eight-kilometre race, run at Fredericton's Kingswood Park, in a time of 28:06.
Siona Chisholm (Antigonish, NS), of the St FX X-Women, was second.
Laval runners finished 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th.
"It was a very tough race," said Chisholm. "I just wanted to hang in there and I think I did. I tried to keep my eyes on her shoulders and not let the gap get too big. I'm happy with the race, and the team did awesome."
UPEI's Paige Chisholm (Port Williams, NS) was the second AUS runner across the line, in 8th place overall, while Dalhousie's Kelsey Hogan (Halifax, NS) was third among AUS competitors and 9th overall.
Ivy Bialowis (Ottawa, ON) led the host UNB REDS contingent, finishing 24th overall and 13th among AUS competitors.
The event was run under a constant drizzle and cool temperatures.
"When it starts to rain and gets a little bit cooler everybody starts to shrink a little bit and you saw that across the board, from a lot of people," said REDS head coach Chris Belof. "But conditions are the conditions we have to deal with regardless."
Unmoved by the Laval dominance, Belof says their visit allows the Atlantic conference to see a real measuring stick.
"Whenever we get to see Laval, we get to measure ourselves against one of the best, and that's a cool thing," he said. "Politely, we expected to be right where we were in the conference and we expected Laval to be at the front of the pack all day, and that's exactly how it played out."
Dal Finishiers - 3rd place Team Finish
9. Kelsey Hogan
15. Jayne Borrens
17. Danielle Keefe
21. Lauren Lowther
29. Renata Kingston
31. Frances Wright
35. Abigale MacLellan
54. Zoe Fullarton
The U SPORTS No. 2 ranked Laval Rouge et Or swept the top three spots in the men's race.
Laval's Thomas Fafard (Repentigny, QC) won the eight-kilometre race in a time of 24:38.
He beat teammates Jean-Simon Desgagnes (Quebec City, QC) and Jonathan Tedeschi (Montreal, QC) across the line.
Andrew Peverill (Lower Sackville, NS), of the Saint Mary's Huskies, was the top AUS runner, finishing fourth, just behind the Laval trio.
"I knew it was going to be a bit of a faster race and Thomas decided to push out from the start of the race, and I decided I might as well go with him," said Peverill, who led or ran second through much of the first half of the race. "I thought it was going well, but on the third lap, I started to feel it a little bit and ended up falling back, but it was a fun race."
Six visiting Rouge et Or runners finished in the top ten.
Jacob Benoit (Windsor, NS), of the St FX X-Men, was the second AUS runner across the line, finishing 7th overall, while Jared Howse (Red Deer, AB), of the host UNB REDS was ninth overall and 3rd among AUS competitors.
"I'm really happy with this result, especially after my workouts going into this week," said Howse. "I was a bit fatigued during the week, but I thought this went well and I had quite a bit of energy, even over the last lap."
UNB's William Boyle ran 11th overall and was fifth overall among the AUS runners.
"I liked the course," said Howse. "A lot of rolling hills, not many switchbacks, which was kind of nice. I liked the long stretches of hills, down into a flat. You could really get going on those."
The event was run under an almost constant rain and in cool temperatures.
Next up, the AUS Championship, in Moncton, on October 30th.
Dal Finishiers - 2nd place Team Finish
12. Will Cox
16. Hudson Grimshaw-Surette
17. Aidan Goslett
19. Nick Robertson
23. Daniel Rosen
32. Harmon Grimshaw-Surette
34. Alec Freeman
40. Joseph Fiander
48. Lukas Rudaitis
52. Blair Miller