Medal Haul for St. Clair Cross Country at Provincials
Thunder Bay, ON – The St. Clair College Cross Country teams have reason to celebrate after winning a Men's Team Gold and a Women's Team Silver on Saturday at the OCAA Provincial Championships hosted by Confederation College. The event was held at the Lappe Nordic Centre in Kaministiquia, ON which is 20km northwest of Thunder Bay. Saints' male racers also had tremendous individual performances that included a Silver Medal from 2nd year runner Jacob Fitzpatrick (Tecumseh, ON/Tecumseh Vista) and a Bronze Medal from 5th year runner Tyler Jones (LaSalle, ON/Sandwich).
Unseasonably mild temperatures created ideal running conditions but a very challenging course through the mixed terrain of the boreal forest was laid out with the women's event covering a 6km loop and the men's event at 8km.
The St. Clair Men narrowly edged Fanshawe by just three points for the team title who needed four runners in the top 10 to make it happen. Fitzpatrick crossed the line 19 seconds behind first place in a time of 26:03 and was followed by Jones in 26:43. 5th year runner Rick Nepomuceno (Windsor, ON/Holy Names) finished 6th in a time of 27:31 and 2nd year captain Matt Lafleur (Kingsville, ON/Kingsville District) was 10th in 28:27. Fitzpatrick, Jones and Nepomuceno were named All-Ontario First-Team selections after finishing in the top seven while Lafleur was a Second-Team member in a field of 79 finishers. Other finishers for the Saints were rookies Michael Horrobin (Wallaceburg, ON) in 33rd place (32:27) and Russell Niedre (Ottawa, ON) in 49th position (34:20).
A very competitive women's team race saw just 16 points separate 2nd through 5th place and some season best performances allowed the Saints to come out ahead for the silver. 3rd year St. Clair runner Mya Palumbo (Amherstburg, ON/General Amherst) attacked the course for All-Ontario First-Team recognition in 6th position with a time of 26:48 in a field of 51 finishers. 2nd year runner Melody Knight (Tecumseh, ON/Tecumseh Vista) finished 16th in a time of 28:52 but was followed closely by rookie Victoria Skoyles (Mount Elgin, ON) in 18th place clocking in at 28:55. 3rd year runner Natasha Atherton (Windsor, ON/Holy Names) was 20th in 29:09 to conclude St. Clair's scoring entries. St. Clair's Narjis Sharifi (Windsor, ON/Vincent Massey) was 40th in 33:41 and Montana Wilkins (Cottam, ON/Essex) was 48th in 37:02 to round out the Saints team.
At the evening Championship Banquet 7th year St. Clair Head Coach Paul Boots was named the OCAA Coach of the Year for the first time. Over that span he has led the St. Clair Men and Women to three Provincial Silver Medals each to go with two OCAA Men's Gold along with a CCAA National Title in in 2018. Boots has helped St. Clair to another five individual provincial medals, two national team medals and another CCAA individual medal. All told he has 8 provincial medals 4 national medals on his resume.
With the provincial accolades in hand both the St. Clair men's and women's team advance to the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) National Championships being hosted Nov. 12th on the campus of Medicine Hat College (Medicine Hat, AB).