SDSSAA cross-country runners waited two full years to experience the OFSAA feeling once again, with the provincial races contested this past weekend in Peterborough.
The Lo-Ellen Park Knights junior boys - well, they were experiencing something not seen in these parts in the past twnety to twenty-five years.
The squad of Sam Rice (8th), Owen Dobson (18th), Nolan Kuhlberg (28th) and Jacob Barney (31st) securing gold in the OFSAA Junior Boys team event, the LOE total of 85 points well ahead of both Upper Canada College (119) and Dundas Valley Secondary School (137).
At a glance, it would appear that on average, entries were down to about 60%-70% of normal standards, with the typical field of 250 or so runners in each age bracket numbering closer to the 160 athlete range in these pandemic times.
Still, in spite of this, there is no denying the influx of very talented distance runners being felt on a local level. Top ten, top twenty, top half of the field performances could be found around each and every corner.
It was a pair of girls' groupings that offered the next best high-end results, on the heels of the junior boys victory, as Lucia Salmaso (8th) of Marymount and Lo-Ellen freshman Monique Fitzmaurice (13th) were up with the very best in Ontario in the Novice girls classification.
Gracie Dale of Lo-Ellen Park was also within earshot at 27th.
The depth of talent across the north was evident one age group higher as SDSSAA place no less than seven junior girls in the top 80 of the field in a category in which Manitoulin Secondary finished first (NOSSA champion Maren Kasunich won bronze at OFSAA) and the Lo-Ellen quartet placed fifth.
Lauren Pineau (6th - Lockerby), Georgia Lepage (15th - St Benedict), Isabel McKague (LOE - 35th), Bay Jones (45th - Lockerby) and the Knights' trio of Grace Thomas (58th), Lara Makela (66th) and Finlay Cuza (73rd) all showed well in their first OFSAA appearance.
With the Sudbury top tandem of Nicho Labrecque and Adam Urso away for hockey, it was Lo-Ellen novice Hudson Crowder who would lead the local boys, placing 62nd, with teammate Benjamin Pearce not all that far behind at 80th.
Though the Lo-Ellen junior lads were the story of their age group, from a Sudbury and area perspective, they had plenty of company in the top eighty, with the Lockerby Vikings' duo of Liam Binks (26th) and James Bertrim (36th) in hot pursuit, and Russell Joiner (77th - LOE) and Callum Baron (80th - LCS) just a little further back.
As many SDSSAA alumni can readily attest, the challenge to hold lofty positions only grows increasing harder over time, as Kaedan Ward (40th - LOE) and Owen Roney (50th - LCS) the top local senior boys.
Brandon Radey of Lasalle Secondary came in exactly at spot # 80.
On the senior girls side, only Sarah Lanthier (70th - LOE) and Avery Sutherland (77th - LOE) did better.
In the para boys race, Riley Cornthwaite of Lasalle would squeeze himself between Robert Leybourne (Centennial SS - Belleville) and Owen Roberts (Corpus Cristi CSS - Hamilton), earning an OFSAA silver medal in the process.
"One thing that we've been fortunate with is that most of our athletes buy-in and believe what we are saying," noted Lo-Ellen head coach Colin Ward, assisted this year by Neil Phipps, Camille Dupuis, Erin Ferguson and Zach Beamish.
"It is difficult to travel and perform," Ward continued. "The ability to control oneself and to control the controllable variables sets the stage for greate performances when it counts."
"Most runners on our team nailed it; most runners had their best run of the year. That is what we are most proud of."
