London, ON – It was a nearly perfect day for the 2022 OUA Cross Country Championship at Thames Valley Golf Course on Saturday afternoon.
The Mustangs Women's team finished in 3rd place in team standings behind McMaster in 2nd and Guelph who took the gold medal and championship banner.
"I think the women's team ran a good race, I don't think most of them ran as well as they wanted to, however, we still had a few great performances," said Mustangs Head Coach Guy Schultz "Losing the silver medal by a single point definitely is giving our group motivation going into nationals in a couple of weeks,"
The women's team's top performer was Sophie Coutts who finished 5th individually with a time of 29:57.
"Coming into the day we felt we could potentially win today if we had our best day and unfortunately we didn't and then to lose silver by a single point is tough," said Coutts "Finishing 5th was pretty solid, it wasn't my best race but overall I am pretty happy with how today went,"
The Mustangs top 5 racers were Coutts in 5th, Erika Jordan in 7th, Anna Carruthers in 16th, Chloe Coutts in 20th and Heidi Ohrilng in 23rd. Paige Breedon finished 22nd and Hallee Knelsen finished 51st.
On the men's side, Western finished in 4th place behind Guelph (3rd), Queens (2nd) and McMaster (1st).
"I think most of our men's team could have run a bit better today but there has been a lot of improvement over last year, they have bought into a lot of the little things and I want them to be motivated to get better," said Schultz.
The Mustangs top individual finisher was Marcel Scheele who took 15th place and a total run time of 25:44.
"I think the race went alright, not exactly the performance we were hoping for but not terrible either," said Scheele "There is definitely more that this team is capable of, we will keep working hard and be ready for U SPORTS (national championship)."
Westerns top 5 were Scheele was followed by Ben Fox in 18th, Mark Royce was 19th, Mitch De Lange in 27th and Erik Ohrling in 39th. They were joined by Keithan Sivapragasam in 28th & Ethan Loucks in 45th.
The next step for both teams is a trip to the U SPORTS National Championship on Nov. 12th in Halifax, NS at The Links at Brunello Golf Course.
"We have a couple of big workouts set for this week, one on Tuesday and one on Friday then we will have a bit easier workout on the week of nationals," said Schultz "We're all excited to get another chance to show our potential, everyone has been working so hard on their midterms lately and I'm excited to see what they can do,"
The top 7 individual finishers in each race are awarded OUA 1
st Team All-Stars while the 8
th through 14
th place finishers are awarded 2
nd Team All-Star stars. Sophie Coutts & Erika Jordan both received awards for their finishes.
Women's Team Results
| Place |
Team |
Points |
| 1 |
Guelph |
21 |
| 2 |
McMaster |
69 |
| 3 |
Western |
70 |
| 4 |
Queens |
121 |
| 5 |
Windsor |
148 |
| 6 |
Waterloo |
168 |
| 7 |
Toronto |
175 |
| 8 |
Ottawa |
237 |
| 9 |
Laurier |
245 |
| 10 |
Laurentian |
256 |
| 11 |
Brock |
295 |
| 12 |
TMU |
369 |
Men's Team Results
| Place |
Team |
Points |
| 1 |
McMaster |
20 |
| 2 |
Queens |
51 |
| 3 |
Guelph |
71 |
| 4 |
Western |
117 |
| 5 |
Lakehead |
169 |
| 6 |
Windsor |
182 |
| 7 |
Ottawa |
183 |
| 8 |
Toronto |
186 |
| 9 |
Waterloo |
247 |
| 10 |
Laurier |
271 |
| 11 |
Brock |
286 |
| 12 |
Laurentian |
358 |
| 13 |
York |
389 |
| 14 |
Nipissing |
405 |
For full women's race results
click here
For full men's race results
click here
