Lakers harriers impress in Waterloo

WATERLOO - The Lakers men and women’s cross teams continued their impressive quest for excellence with solid performances by both teams again at the University of waterloo Open Meet.

“This is our strongest showing at this meet,” said head coach Tim Uuksulainen.

“To put it in perspective, last year our top runner ran 30 minutes and this year all seven of our guys were under 29.00 minutes for the 7,800 metre course. We are very pleased with the consistent and hard effort put in by our entire team.”

The Lakers showed its balance beginning with Evan Bayer who was the first Laker to cross the finish line in 27.37 (30th overall) followed by Kyle Ego 27.41 (32nd), Paulo Carvalho 27.54 (33rd), Ryan Lahti 28.05 (34th), Josh Mosco 28.14 (36th), Kevin Gallagher 28.22 38th) and Ben Brzezynski 28.48 (40th). The strong performance by the men gave the Lakers a 4th place team finish in the University team division.

The Lady Lakers also performed well placing 6th in the University team division.

Team captain Carly Drake lead the way placing 13th overall on the 3,900m course in 15.40, improving her time by 50 seconds over last years performance.

Katie Hicks continued her progression of steady performances with a 16.26 performance (25th) followed by Ashleigh Bowins in 34th in 17.01 and Marina DeMarco 18.40 (38th) who was making her season debut following rehabilitation for a serious ankle injury. Teammate Celynn Marceau 19.17 rounded out the team scoring.

Assistant coach Donna Mae Robins running in the open division continued her strong showing placing third overall in 14.40.

“I was pleased with the girl’s performances today,” commented Uuksulainen.

“Drake had that eye of the tiger look out there today, something that wasn’t always evident last year. Hicks and Bowins are making the transition from road racing to the turf nicely and DeMarco ran well for her first race since coming off a serious injury,” added Uuksulainen.

The race was won by the University of Toronto.

The Lakers have two meet remaining before the OUA Championships in London on October 26th. The teams will likely use split squads for these meets and use them for final preparation and team selection.

Submitted to BayToday.ca