Cobourg, Port Hope Runners Ready to Race at COSSA

Pete Fisher
3 years ago
• Categories: News

Junior girls, including Natalie Cerna (488) from St. Mary and Ella Buzminski (430) from Cobourg Collegiate Institute, compete at the Kawartha cross-country meet at Lakefield College School. Photo courtesy of St. Mary Twitter: @SMthunderstruck)

By Jeff Gard/Today’s Northumberland

The Kawartha high school cross-country championships were a great warm-up for local runners last week.

Held at Lakefield College School, which is also the site of the OFSAA championships Nov. 7, the Kawartha meet provided athletes a final big run before the Central Ontario Secondary School Athletics championships – the provincial qualifier – this Wednesday in Brighton.

All runners from the Kawartha region, including those from Cobourg Collegiate Institute, St. Mary Catholic Secondary School in Cobourg and Port Hope High School advance to Wednesday’s COSSA championships. At that meet, the top three teams and five individuals will qualify for the provincial meet.

Make no mistake, cross-country is considered a team sport, even though it’s based on the performances of individuals.

Team results are based on the placings of the first four runners from each school. Top individual results don’t guarantee a team win. 

Cobourg Collegiate Institute had three teams place third and another fourth at the Kawartha meet.

The senior girls from CCI have plenty of depth as Norah Urbach placed ninth in a time of 31:16.01, Hilary Johnson 11^th (31:54.31), Lea Crowe 18^th (33:25.42), Hazel Cullen 19^th (34:16.65), Mollie Hogan 21^st (34:22.19), Laurel Whitelaw 23^rd (35:17.47) and Sarah Eversten 25^th (36:40.13). 

The race was won by Grace Murphy from Peterborough’s St. Peter’s in 25:36.29.

St. Mary’s Bella Lorefice finished 16^th in 33:10.28 and Sydney placed 24^th (35:38.65).

In the senior boys race, Erik Unger from Adam Scott Collegiate in Peterborough won the race in 19:34.08. CCI’s team placed fourth with results from Matthew Dafoe in 28^th (27:24.99), Martino Lenardon 30^th (27:29.62), Avery Speksnijder 31^st (27:34.84), Jakob Proos 35^th(28:56.98) and Aidan Dixon 45^th(31:52.08).

Port Hope’s Nathan Cardinal placed 26^th in a time of 27:06.52.

Adam Scott’s Poppy Thomson won the junior girls division in 20:44.70, but the race featured strong individual performances from local athletes as well. CCI’s Jaeden Holden placed sixth in 24:28.69 and St. Mary’s Natalie Cerna was seventh in 24:29.96.

Two more CCI runners weren’t far behind as Ella Buzminski was ninth in 24:53.13 and Rachel Cranston 10^th (25:02.82).

There were no junior boys runners from the Cobourg and Port Hope schools.

The results are as posted, however in the novice categories there are some inaccuracies. 

In novice girls, the CCI team had a strong performance with a third-place result and that’s with Sophie Harold not finishing the race due to injury. She had recently won the category at the Bay of Quinte Invitational in a course record-setting time. 

Harold could rejoin the team Wednesday at the COSSA championships.

Leading CCI to the third-place result at the Kawartha meet were Lauren Wilson in 12^th (20:46.23), Brooklyn Upton 23^rd (23:26.97), Raylea Ney 31^st (24:59.60) and Zoe Mackey 33^rd (25:09.43).

Sydney Dobbin from St. Peter’s won the race in 17:20.45. 

St. Mary’s Emily Goodal had a strong showing in fifth place (19:50.44) and teammate Ava Liao-McDonnell was 40^th (27:39.09). Ella Besslich and Ashleigh Heath also competed for St. Mary’s, but their results weren’t posted.

CCI’s novice boys placed third as William Urbach came in 4^th (16:29.42), Jacob Mandeville 22^nd(20:06.25), Izaak Avery 31^st (23:02.59), Dane Goodwin 32^nd(23:30.97) and Austin Gait 37^th(25:15.04).

Carson Cameron from Fenelon Falls won in 15:25.44.

Port Hope had three runners in the race, with Ben Tuttle listed as coming in 26^th, Kees Boon 27^th and Lincoln Crane 24^th however they were held up at the start and only ran one lap. All three will race again Wednesday in Brighton.

Watch for results from Wednesday’s COSSA championships.