St. Mike’s senior, novice boys shine at WOSSAA Cross-Country meet
By: Spencer Seymour
St. Michael Catholic Secondary School’s cross-country team brought home a strong set of results at the WOSSAA Cross-Country Championship Oct. 29 in Strathroy.
Coach Karli Parks called the St. Mike’s cross-country team's success “a testament to the dedication” of their athletes and coaches.
“Since September, this team has been practicing both together and individually,” Parks told the Times. “It shows the progress we’ve seen this season. Some of our athletes came out hoping to run competitively for the first time. To be able to say that they competed at the regional level is something to be proud of.”
The senior boys team for St. Mike’s finished first in their division’s race, including Thomas Mott placing first, Caleb Hurley taking fourth, Van Koss finishing 14th, Lucas De Wit placing 15th and Colton Campbell taking 25th, earning the five senior boys a trip to OFSAA in Sudbury Nov. 9. Two more senior runners from St. Mike’s include Quintin Vollmer, who finished 92nd, and Leland Smith, who placed 125th.
Parks noted cross-country success has become the standard for the five OFSAA-bound senior boys.
“This is the senior boys’ third time winning WOSSAA and punching their ticket to OFSAA as a group of five,” Parks explained. “They push each other throughout the season and during the off-season to continue to improve, with their group chat named ‘OFSAA champs.’ It’s clear these five will continue to show up, determined to get provincial success. This group has been a joy to coach over the years.”
Also going to OFSAA from St. Mike’s was the novice boys’ team, which came second overall, only missing first by one point. Owen Hurley came 11th, Miles Marshall came 17th, Mason Bye finished 18th, Joseph Moss placed 34th and James Rae took 40th to round out the St. Mike’s group advancing to OFSAA. Other results in the novice boys race include Nash Riehl in 43rd and Yafiet Libab in 54th.
Parks credited the novice boys, like their counterparts in the senior boys’ division, with being incredibly determined to succeed.
“When I think about both novice and senior boys teams, I think about how determined they are. For our Grade 9 group, most of these runners are multi-sport athletes. They are used to pushing themselves to their limits. Earlier in the season, two novice boys had a rough start at a race, both being stepped on by other athletes who were wearing spikes,” Parks began.
“Instead of deterring them from running, they came to the next race determined to get the results they hoped for at the last. At WOSSAA, one novice boy lost his footing and took a fall into the bushes. He then got back up, finished the race and passed several runners from competing schools. If this doesn’t show determination, I don’t know what does.”
The junior girls' team finished sixth overall. Lilly Harrigan finished 27th, Lilian Terpstra placed 32nd, Julia Gracey took 48th, and Marysol Belz finished 75th.
The novice girls also finished sixth overall, with Jessika Phillips taking 13th, Danica Felker placing 26th, Adelle DeGroot finishing 44th, Adriana McCutcheon earning 59th, Renae Olbach taking 74th and Eden Neeb placing 77th.
In the senior girls’ race, Lydia McLaughlin finished 48th, and Therese Charlesworth took 60th. Charlie Shaw placed 63rd.
The Stratford District Secondary School (SDSS) cross-country team sent 23 athletes to WOSSAA. While no one from SDSS qualified for OFSAA, Colby Martin placed 13th in the junior boys' race, Nate Micks took 15th in the novice boys' event and Hudson Welsh finished 18th in the senior boys' race.
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