By Troy Langstaff
This Saturday the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City will play host to the U SPORTS cross country championships. Laval University last hosted nationals in 2016 which saw their men’s team claim the gold medal.
MEN'S PREVIEW
Heading into the U SPORTS championships this weekend we’ll take a look at each conference winner which includes the host Rouge et Or (RSEQ), the Guelph Gryphons (OUA), the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds (Canada West) and, of course, the Dalhousie Tigers (AUS). The U SPORTS rankings have seen Laval and Guelph flip flop between first and second all year with UBC claiming the fourth spot after a convincing win at the Canada West Championships. The Tigers have been steadily ranked in the 9th spot all year.
The No. 9 ranked Dalhousie Tigers will head to La Belle Province as the AUS champions. It’s the Tigers second-straight AUS banner and third in the last four years. The team features AUS all-stars Will Cox, Nick Robertson, and Hudson Grimshaw-Surette. Their only team medal at nationals was a bronze back in 1978 and even though they may not be a medal favourite, a strong team performance could easily see them finish among the top 10 in the country at the end of Saturday’s race.
Laval won their 10th-straight RSEQ banner a couple weeks ago with Rouge et Or runners finishing second through ninth. They have a very deep line-up that sees their runners consistently finish in the top five. Jean-Simon Desgagnes leads the way with a gold and two silvers so far this season. Felix Lapointe-Pilote and Jonathan Tedeschi have also finished in the top five in all their races this year. Thomas Fafard is another runner that is also capable of a medal finish with one gold medal this season.
Guelph is always dominant when it comes to cross country and track and field. This year is no exception. The Gryphons had at least five runners finish in the top 10 in all four meets this season. Those performances rewarded them with four first-place team finishes, including the OUA championship. Mitchell Ubene was the first Gryphon to cross the line in three of his four races (two golds, one silver). Nicholas Bannon, Alec Purnell, and Kyle Madden have also produced very consistent results that make this team just as dangerous as Laval.
UBC won the Canada West men’s cross country title for the first time since 1993, the same year the team won their only national title. The team placed first at all three of their meets and had four runners finish in the top five at the Canada West championships to put an exclamation mark on the season. Thomas Nobbs has been perfect this season with three gold medals around his neck so far and he’ll look to add another this weekend. Tyler Dozzi has two silvers and a bronze to his name while Spencer Hardy has placed fifth at all three meets.
Other teams to keep an eye on include No. 3 ranked McMaster, No. 5 Western and the No. 7 ranked two-time defending national champions, the Calgary Dinos.
WOMEN’S PREVIEW
The Dalhousie Tigers women’s cross country team finished second at the AUS championships a couple weekends ago with Kelsey Hogan claiming the silver medal. Rookies Jayne Borrens and Mackenzie Kitchen also had impressive finishes of 9th and 11th respectively. Hogan and Borrens will be the only women’s runners competing for the Tigers at the national championship so a national team medal is not be in the cards for the Tigers this season, but some invaluable experience will be gained this weekend in Quebec City.
The U SPORTS rankings have seen the top three stay the same all year long with Guelph in first, host Laval in second and the Western Mustangs in third. The Gryphons and Rouge et Or seem to be locks for the first two spots but the battle for bronze will be tight.
The Gryphons got back on track this year with an OUA championship for the first time since 2016. The team also hasn’t won a national championship since 2016 when they claimed their 12th straight national banner. Led by Kiana Gibson who has three gold medals and a silver in her four races, this deep Gryphons roster seems poised to get back to the pinnacle of U SPORTS cross country. Sadie-Jane Hickson has finished inside the top four in all her races while Annika Ariano and Olivia Roussel have three top-10 finishes in their last three meets.
The host Rouge et Or won their fifth RSEQ title in the last seven years and are trying to win nationals just three years removed from their most recent national title in 2018. Their season was capped off with an almost perfect meet at the RSEQ championships where they had runners sweep the top four spots. Jessy Lacourse, Catherine Beauchemin, and Jade Berube are the pillars of this Laval team with Lacourse leading the way with three golds. Beauchemin and Berube have been almost as impressive finishing in the top-4 in all their races.
The Western Mustangs have finished second place at all their meets this year but consistent performances from Anna Carruthers, Heidi Ohrling, Zoe Burke, and Chloe Hewitt have done enough to make this team a medal favourite this weekend. The team hasn’t claimed many individual medals this season, but the runners consistently find themselves inside the top ten. The Mustangs last national title came back in 1990.
Other teams to look out for include No. 4 ranked McMaster, No. 5 UBC and the defending U SPORTS champion Queen’s Gaels.
You can stream all the action on the CBC Sports website at 1pm ET on Saturday.