It’s not summer anymore – at least not based on where the thermometer is dropping as the sun sets each evening – so best wrap up those fall outdoor sports quickly.

The final stretch of the SDSSAA cross-country season was launched with city championships Wednesday at Kivi Park and for as much as the Lo-Ellen Park Knights graduated some very talented runners – both Owen Dobson and Nolan Kuhlberg are competing on the OUA circuit this fall – the incoming class of LEP freshmen leaves little doubt the dynasty is in good hands.

The Knights swept Novice individual gold medals, produced a perfect score in the Junior Girls division and finished the day going 4/6 in terms of race winners – and this with sure-fire bet Carson Jewitt (JB) sidelined with illness.

As they had for pretty much every race this fall, Julian Luoma and Sadie Frantz showed the way with the grade nine crew, even on a day where at least one race favourite was not at 100%.

“I wasn’t feeling too good today,” admitted Luoma, gutting his way to a ten second victory over Lo-Ellen teammate Samuel Lazare. “I was a little bit sick, but I did what I could. I kind of tried to ignore it and push it down and do the best that I can do. It bothered me a bit in the second half of the race.”

A mainstay of the outdoor sports that also ranges to cover mountain biking and nordic skiing, Luoma was very much in his element in the pristine south end setting. “I think out of all of the trails in Sudbury, I like this one the best,” he stated. “There’s not too many obstacles so I can go pretty fast.”

“Sometimes I want a rockier trail, a junkier trail – but for today, I just wanted to go fast.”

A 15 year-old grade 10 student at Lo-Ellen, Alessandra Melo honestly had that same mindset as she stepped up to the start line for a race in which she would eventually finish second. “I was going in trying to keep up with Megan (Pineau), but she sprinted off and I thought: oh well, she’s gone – I’m going to keep my own pace,” said Melo with a smile as the Knights tandem were at the top of a four-runner sweep that also featured Anna Shelswell and Alexandra Hann.

“Her pace was like my 100m sprint pace.”

That lack of flat out closing speed is a big part of the reason why Melo has taken quite so strongly to cross-country, missing out on her grade nine season after suffering a knee injury.

“This is so much fun,” Melo bursted. “I can’t sprint, but in cross-country, you have five kilometres to catch up and do what you want to do.”

Well back of Pineau but comfortably ahead of Shelswell, the personable teen settled into something of an awkward gap that runners don’t always enjoy. “When I run, it seems like the super fast people are (well) ahead of me and no one is right behind,” Melo explained. “I feel like that’s kind of harder because I don’t even know what pace I am going at.”

Now in grade 12, senior boys bronze medal winner Jack Ellis has now gotten a very good handle on his pacing, which is a critical skill to have when he and his Sudbury Secondary North Stars teammates might only number a single handful of athletes.

“They say you need to run your own race so I try and train on my own and try and beat my past self, try and be a better runner every day,” said Ellis. The 16 year-old who is contemplating running XC beyond high-school was seven seconds behind Raphael Belzile (ESMC), the duo coming in about a minute or so after senior boys champion Shiloh Sauve of Lo-Ellen.

“I didn’t want to slow down,” Ellis added. “I wanted to try and keep the same pace, go down the hills nicely and up the hills nicely – really just do my best.”

The truth is Ellis has come a long way since immersing himself in a sport in which his comfort at the elementary level gave way to giving it a more serious try, in earnest, in high-school.

“In grade 10, I tried out for cross-country and I was doing really good so I decided to stick with it,” he said. “I’m a lot more conscious now of injuries, learning that my body is not invisible. I have to stretch more, take care of my body.”

Following are the top five finishers in every division from the SDSSAA Championships, with NOSSA set for next Wednesday in Sault Ste Marie:

Senior Boys Division
1st – Shiloh Sauve – (LEP) – 21:19
2nd – Raphael Belzile (ESMC) – 22:12
3rd – Jack Ellis (SSS) – 22:19
4th – Max Portelance (CND) – 23:01
5th – Isaac Longston (LCS) – 23:36

Senior Girls Division
1st – Valerie Vaillancourt (Sacre Coeur) – 25:24
2nd – Misaki Diavolitsis (LCS) – 26:24
3rd – Gracie Dale (LEP) – 27:38
4th – Lily Bignucolo (LEP) – 27:51
5th – Lea Maki (LEP) – 27:52

Para Division
1st – Dante Ricketts (LAS) – 19:21
2nd – Sophia Carlson (MMT) – 25:19
3rd – Summer Boyer (LAS) – 34:28

Junior Boys Division
1st – Cam Young (LCS) – 20:25
2nd – Gord Farrell (LCS) – 20:29
3rd – Matteo Ceccon (STB) – 20:44
4th – Ben Lamarche (LEP) – 21:19
5th – Narayan Shukla (LEP) – 21:36

Junior Girls Division
1st – Megan Pineau (LEP) – 24:50
2nd – Alessandra Melo (LEP) – 27:01
3rd – Anna Shelswell (LEP) – 27:46
4th – Alexandra Hann (LEP) – 28:33
5th – Brooklyn Hepworth (BAC) – 29:55

Novice Boys Division
1st – Julian Luoma (LEP) – 15:17
2nd – Samuel Lazare (LEP) – 15:27
3rd – Lex Gorval (Champlain) – 15:57
4th – Maxime Belzile (ESMC) – 16:08
5th – Peter Pagnutti (Horizon) – 16:45

Novice Girls Division
1st – Sadie Frantz (LEP) – 17:42
2nd – Lia Paillé (LEP) – 18:08
3rd – Mackenzie Roy (STC) – 18:49
4th – Mila Beljo (LEP) – 19:08
5th – Ewa Breckon (LEP) – 19:11