Rookies lead Lakers at Queens Invitational

KINGSTON, ON - The Lakers Cross Country teams journeyed to Kingston for their final tune up race prior to the Ontario University Championships, which will be held on the same course on October 27th.

“Our plan was to train right through this race by bringing the entire team,” said assistant coach Donna Mae Robins.

“Unfortunately we were unable to field a full women’s team due to some nagging injuries and illnesses.”

The Lakers biggest challenge on this day proved to be the strong winds that swept across the hill top course and the slick muddy course that slowed all the runners considerably.

Carly Drake put in a gutsy performance running the third best time in Lady Lakers’ history on this course finishing in 22.47, followed by Christina King in a time of 24.10. Lara Bishop and Celynn Marceau ran in tandem over the first half of the loop before Bishop pulled ahead in posting a time of 26.12 with Marceau a bit over a minute behind to round out the Lakers performance.

On the men’s side Rookie Paulo Carvalho continues to show his steady progress.

“He looked very strong and relaxed out there for us today,” said head coach Tim Uuksulainen. “He seemed to enjoy battling the other athletes. Paulo’s been working on running relaxed during the higher intensity workouts and it seems to be coming together for him.”

Carvalho finished the race in 38.01 while veteran team member Jon Pratt by his own admission didn’t have a stellar day with a time of 39.40.

“I’m not happy with what happened out there today but it seems every season I have one race like this.” said Pratt.

Josh Fortier ran another steady race with a performance of 41.28 while sophomore Rory Currie and Cam Hodgins kept the pressure on each other the entire race with Currie getting the nod in 42.49, 18 seconds ahead of his teammate. Likewise first year members Mike Lefebvre, Andre Hopkins and Phil Frazer were like peas in a pod out there today. Unfortunately Frazer stepped in a depression and went down with 2km to go and couldn’t continue, leaving his teammates to battle on, with Lefebvre hanging on over the final 2 kilometres to edge out teammate Hopkins by a 5 second margin 47.26 to 47.31.

“We will need to reflect on the results and use the remaining time to do some final sharpening and increase the rest before we return to Kingston for the Championships,” added Uuksulainen.

“This year’s been fun. We had almost a complete roster changes from 2005, which can lead to instability however, our team members seem to get along well, and they respect and support one another. We encourage them to value each competitive moment, experience it, learn from it and move on. As we know sports moments are fleeting, so enjoy the journey.”