By Troy Langstaff
The first meet of the 2022 men’s cross country season is just days away but this campaign may feel a little different. This November the U SPORTS cross country championships are coming to Halifax. Dalhousie and Saint Mary’s Universities will split hosting duties at this year’s championships taking place at the Links at Brunello. This will be the fourth time the Tigers have hosted the national championships with the most recent occasion coming in 2005.
Last season Dalhousie entered the year with hopes of defending their AUS championship for the first time since they won four in a row from 2002-2005. They secured team finishes of second, fourth, and second at the invitational meets leading up to the 2021 event. Hosted by l’Universite de Moncton, the Tigers had four runners finish in the top eight which was more than enough to secure them back-to-back AUS titles. Leading the way was team MVP Will Cox who claimed an individual bronze medal with a time of 25:53. Nick Robertson (6th), Hudson Grimshaw-Surette (7th), and Daniel Rosen (8th) were the other Tigers runners who finished inside the top 10.
Two weeks later at the U SPORTS championships in Quebec, the team once again stepped up their performances. Will Cox, Hudson Grimshaw-Surette, Aidan Goslett, and Harmon Grimshaw-Surette all improved upon their times from the conference championships to help give the Tigers a seventh-place finish.
At the conclusion of the 2021 season, it was unclear which members of the team would be returning for another season. Coach Rich Lehman explained that if the majority of the team returned for another year, the Tigers would be “extremely nationally competitive”. Well not only is the majority of the team returning, every single member will be back for another year of Dalhousie Tigers cross country.
“Thanks to their efforts in the classroom and in the community, all three of them (Nick Robertson, Hudson Grimshaw-Surette and Harmon Grimshaw-Surette) got into Dal's physiotherapy program,” explains Lehman.
The Tigers are fielding a very deep, experienced, and confident group that Lehman believes has a very good opportunity of running the table again.
“I'm extremely confident in our guys,” says Lehman. “We're way ahead of where we were a year ago. There are some solid teams in our conference, but I believe that our guys have the ability to defend our title in any kind of race. This is an extremely experienced group, so I have no questions about whether they can handle the target on their backs.”
The Tigers kick off their schedule this weekend when they travel to Antigonish to participate in the first invitational of the year. Two weeks later sees the team head to Moncton to take part in invitational #2. October 15th is the AUS/RSEQ Interlock which will give the Tigers a chance to compare themselves to the defending national champion Laval Rouge et Or. The AUS championship will be on October 29th at the University of Prince Edward Island where Dalhousie will look to complete the three-peat.
The team will then come back home to prepare for the U SPORTS championships on November 12th at the Links at Brunello. Dalhousie only has one podium team finish at the national championship (bronze, 1978), but with a very strong group of returning runners and home field advantage, the Tigers certainly have the potential to add to that count.
“We're thrilled to be hosting nationals with Saint Mary's,” says Lehman. “Our goal is to improve on our seventh place finish [from] last year and land inside the top five. Anything can happen on the day and I don't think you can count us completely out of the medal conversation, but we'll need to make a pretty significant jump to get that done.”