The Ramsay Tour may have served as the warm-up but now things get real for the members of the Cambrian Shield cross-country team.
Taking part in the 5km event offered by the Sudbury Masters Running Club at Laurentian University on September 13th served as the precursor to the Seneca Sting Invitational less than a week later.
The top finisher in both races for Cambrian, freshman Austin Finlayson knows that the jump from high-school (Central Algoma Secondary School in Desbarats) will not be an easy one, even if the school's 300m hurdles record holder maintains cross-country is actually a better fit.
"I am going to have to build up some more mileage, but I think I can sustain my pace for longer," said Finlayson, an 18 year-old first year Paramedics major who grew up playing hockey but got increasingly involved in track and field in his later years at CASS.
"The training is a lot different (from sprints and hurdles), but I like it a lot," said Finlayson, who covered the 5km Ramsay Tour course in a time of 19:28, good for 45th place in a field of just under 150 competitors.
"I like the mental challenges," he continued.
While he had never raced the course before, Finlayson had visited the venue in the past and was certainly familiar with the general outline of the circuit.
"It's pretty flat," he said. "There is a down and then you go back up, but really only one hill. I knew it wasn't going to be bad and ran it as a tempo run."
Finlayson finished ahead of teammates Matthew McBlain, Caleb Clelssin, Alyssa Atchison, Ravon Lacovreiere and Ann Phuong. McBlain, Clelssin and Atchison also competed in Seneca, with a handful of others making their OCAA debut for the Shield - and results as follows:
Cambrian Women - Cross-Country (6km)25th - Jamie Hopkins - 35:30
31st - Kirstyn Olsheski - 37:18
32nd - Kylie Lenihan - 40:33
35th - Alyssa Atchison - 40:45
Cambrian Men - Cross-Country (8km)
34th - Austin Finlayson - 34:19
49th - Shaun McKim - 38:21
50th - Matthew McBlain - 41:13
52nd - Caleb Clelssin - 44:25
The Shield are back on the trails next Saturday (October 3rd), competing at the Fanshawe Falcons Invitational in London, with the Loyalist Lancers Inviational set for Thanksgiving weekend (October 16th) in King City.
