XC | Lanteigne and Wallingford lead Laurentian cross country teams at McMaster Invitational
Laurentian's varsity cross country running team competed in the final regular season competition this weekend at the McMaster Bayfront Invitational in Hamilton. Fourteen universities from across Ontario and Quebec raced over an eight kilometre distance on the flat and fast course at the picturesque Bayfront Park.
Fourth year kinesiology student Abby Lanteigne (Sudbury) ran to her fastest time over eight kilometres in her Laurentian career, leading the Vees with a 42nd place finish in a time of 30 minutes and 12 seconds. Although the gap behind Lanteinge to the next Vee scorer was significant, the team packed in tightly over the second half of the race with first year kinesiology student Valerie Vaillancourt(Sudbury) placing 101st in 32:14; Georgia Lepage (Sudbury) 102nd in 32:19; Charlotte Grenier (Sudbury) 11th in 32:58, Claire Scholl (Newmarket) 112th in 33:05, Charli Borak (Georgetown) 114th in 33:06 and Ariel Gibbons (Renfrew) 129th in 34:59. The Laurentian women placed 12th overall in team scoring.
Fifth year social work student Keon Wallingford (North Bay) once again led the Vees in the men's race. Wallingford also established a new personal best over the eight kilometre distance with a time of 24 minutes and 38 seconds, placing 20th overall. Following Wallingford was first year SPAD student Braeden Estabrooks (Timmins) in 76th place in 26:11, Luke Ford (Brooklin) 103rd in 26:55, Alan Wilkin (Manitoulin) 143rd in 28:36, Travis Annett (Sudbury) 144th in 28:37 and Shiloh Sauve (Sudbury) 145th in 28:38. The Laurentian men placed 11th in the team scoring.
"We are very happy to see Abby's progress over the past three years as a Vee", commented Head Coach Darren Jermyn. "She has taken five minutes off her eight kilometre time since making our varsity team and it's indicative of the hard work she has put into her training".
Commenting on the men's race, Jermyn noted "Keon was solid again today and is definitely ready to shoot for an All Star (Top 14) finish at the OUA Championships in two weeks. That being said, the men's team score slipped today so we will need to re-group, get healthy and be ready to battle in two weeks. There are five universities within just a handful of points of each other and we need to beat them all at the OUA championships if we want to race at the U Sports nationals in November."
The Vees will now begin their final preparations for the OUA Championships, hosted by Queen's University at the historic Fort Henry course in Kingston on October 25th.