Waterloo races signal start of season (new)

The following article was submitted by Marc Larochelle, sports information officer at Nipissing University.

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For most universities in Ontario, the Waterloo cross country meet signals the real start to the season. As Nipissing University Laker assistant coach Donna Mae Robins put it: “It’s the first opportunity for us to see where we stack up against the competition with seven weeks to the provincial championship.”

As a new team on the circuit, the Lakers want know where they stack up and to set some benchmarks for the team. Unfortunately, a number of the Lakers male and female runners were sick and had to miss the race or they ran under the weather. Denise Dietrich, the most experienced runner had bronchitis, while Dave Cartagena is recovering from strep throat. Rookie Heather Hardie and James Agnew competed despite being ill.

The men’s 8km race was incredibly deep with a field of 150.

“Despite being a tougher field than last year, several of our runners had very good races,” said head coach Tim Uuksulainen.

Second year runner Jon Pratt is showing signs of making a break through into the top third with a solid 28th place run hanging in tough with many of the top runners from other schools. Assistant coach for the men’s team Mike McDonough showed he hasn’t lost his touch running as an open athlete with a time of 30.34.

Teammates Andrew Bubar and Cameron Hodgins, traded leads throughout the race in helping to push each other to times of 31.23 and 31.37 respectively. The newest Laker Salman Khan made his debut with a respectable 39.18. Top three teams were Windsor, Toronto and McMaster.

The women faced an equally tough challenge with a stellar field assembled.

Robins was boxed in the early going and was helpless in watching the leaders pull away. She finally managed to break free and played catch up the rest of the race to place an impressive sixth in the field in a time of 14.55. Kathleen Crawford had a good run placing 75th in 20.41, with Heather Hardie one place behind in her debut race. Top three teams were Toronto, Windsor and York.

“We had some good individual performances in Waterloo, but our lack of depth once again showed as we weren’t able to field full teams to factor in the team scoring for this meet. However, we have recently made some late additions to our women’s team and while they weren’t ready for Waterloo we are excited to have them join us. We have three strong athletes that can step in and get the job done in Ashleigh McGuinty, Jenn Litt and Sheila Merkly," Robbins said.

The next race of the season is Saturday at the University of Western Ontario International meet. The Lakers will only take the men’s team for this meet as teams from as far as the United States and Japan make an appearance at this high calibre event.

The Lakers will have their strongest line up for this meet, with Tim Feick, Dave Cartagena and Jason English joining the others who competed at Waterloo. While the Lakers won’t be vying for the medals –yet, it will give the guys some valuable experience and to learn what it takes to be one of the top winners.