Saints Cross Country Ready for Provincials
Caledon, ON – The St. Clair College Cross Country teams have enjoyed a brief but successful 2021 season and will look to cap it with a strong OCAA Provincial Championships performance on Saturday which is being hosted by Humber College at Albion Hills Conservation Area in Caledon.
In just two season meets the St. Clair Men have raced to silver and gold while the Women have taken silver twice.
3-time All-Canadian Tyler Jones (LaSalle, ON/Sandwich) will lead the Saints on the Men's side and placed 2nd two weeks ago at the Centennial Invitational. Fellow 4th year runner Rick Nepomuceno (Windsor, ON/Holy Names) is another holdover from St. Clair's 2018 National Championship squad and has put up strong finishes this season. Rookies Jacob Fitzpatrick (Tecumseh, ON/Tecumseh Vista), Matt Lafleur (Kingsville, ON/Kingsville District) and Mitch Haggart (Kingsville, ON/Kingsville District) along with University of Windsor transfer John Riley (St. Catharines) make the Saints a deep team to contend with provincially.
The St. Clair Women are led by 2nd year runner Mya Palumbo (Amherstburg, ON/General Amherst) who was a top ten finisher two weeks ago in Scarborough. 1st year runners Lily Pattinson (Windsor, ON/Riverside), Melody Knight (Tecumseh, ON/Tecumseh Vista), and Samantha Marchenkowsky (Windsor, ON/Massey) along with 2nd year runners Hailey Jones (Windsor, ON/Vincent Massey) and Natasha Atherton (Windsor, ON/Holy Names) will be counted on to lift the Saints to a podium finish.
The last time St. Clair ran to a Men's and Women's team double gold was in 1990. The best combined team finish since then was in 2013 when Saints' Women won gold and the Men were bronze.
The top three OCAA teams and 25 individual finishers from Saturday's results will qualify for the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Cross-Country Running National Championships being hosted St. Mary's University in Calgary, AB on November 13th.