By Jeff Gard/Today’s Northumberland
Cross-country running is primarily a team sport and that was certainly evident at Cobourg Collegiate Institute.
Five runners from CCI were considered individual participants this past Saturday at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) championship meet at Lakefield College School. The junior girls qualified as a team, but didn’t have a fourth runner available. They still worked together.
There has been a collaborative effort, though, overall at CCI for the first cross country season since 2019. Some athletes practised this season with the team, but didn’t compete at any meets. Many who did compete, but didn’t qualify for OFSAA, didn’t stop running last week.
“We have kids coming out that just want to run, they just want to get fit and be part of something again,” said CCI coach Dawn Watson. “We have kids out running that didn’t race all season, which is great. Even last week when we were having practices, we had other kids showing up to support their teammates that were going on to OFSAA.”
Lakefield College School was also the host of the recent Kawartha championships and Watson said the CCI athletes at OFSAA either bettered or matched their previous results on the course.
“That’s not an easy feat at OFSAA when there’s so many runners,” she said. “Overall the team did fantastic. They all ran really well.”
Watson said the OFSAA event was really well organized.
“The course was nice and clean, a little bit of mud but not too much. There was enough room for the athletes to get out and run their own race which doesn’t always happen,” she remarked. “Todd Harris and Lakefield College School did a really good job getting the course set up so that it was OFSAA friendly.”
CCI’s junior girls had qualified as a team, but were without Sophie Harold who had placed second at the Central Ontario Secondary School Athletics (COSSA) championship the previous week as she had a scheduling conflict.
Harold had won a novice girls race at the Bay of Quinte Invitational earlier in the season and moved up to boost the junior girls at the COSSA meet where she also excelled.
“She’s a very good runner, but also a very good hockey player so she had to choose and I do think it was really hard for her,” Watson said.
With four runners competing, the CCI junior girls could have achieved a top-five finish as a team (four runners required), based on the great results of the three girls who did compete.
Ella Buzminski placed 67th out of 160 athletes who completed the course with a time of 24 minutes 30.3 seconds while Jaeden Holden wasn’t far behind in 71st (24:36.9) and Rachel Cranston 76th (24:45.2).
“Those girls all ran amazing and they worked together. Everyone thinks of cross country as an individual sport and those three girls worked together as a team,” Watson said. “You can see it from the results where they all came in together. They’ve been spread out in other races and we didn’t have a long season but you could just see them get closer and closer together and supporting each other.
“You can’t really talk that much during a race, but just those words of encouragement from your teammate makes a difference between you slowing down and actually hanging on,” she added. “Cross country is a tough sport and the course set up at LCS wasn’t the hardest course we’ve ever experienced at OFSAA, but it certainly was a tough course with a constant up and down. There wasn’t a lot of flat area to get your stride out so having your teammates and being able to see your teammates is a comforting feeling.”
Watson believes the future is bright for this group of girls and could be a force at the senior level, even starting next year as Grade 11s if they have a full team. The entire CCI team, though, was hampered by injuries throughout the season. Some of those injuries occurred in other sports, which the coach believes is a case of the long layoff from sports.
“We lost runners all through the season,” Watson said. “We started out probably thinking we had three potential OFSAA teams. We’ll persist with running through the winter so that they get a little more fit again and get outside more.”
Two more individual runners from CCI had great OFSAA races.
William Urbach placed 41st out of 161 in the novice boys race with a time of 16:31.0. Watson noted Urbach’s impressive result followed him playing the entire game as CCI earned silver at the COSSA junior boys soccer championship the previous day.
“He sacrificed his legs for the soccer game and still came out and had a fantastic race,” Watson said. “I’m very proud of him for wanting to support both teams – soccer and his cross country team.”
In the senior girls race, CCI’s Hilary Johnson placed 65th out of 173 races who completed the course. She posted a time of 26:53.4.
Watson was thrilled with the outcome for Johnson, who she said struggled at the Kawartha meet, but rebounded the following week at COSSA. Johnson was fifth overall senior girl at COSSA and the second qualifying individual for OFSAA.
“She ran her race plan and she improved tremendously and that was really good for her outlook for the rest of the year,” Watson said.
