X-COUNTRY TEAM IS BACK ON COURSE
The 2022 cross-country season is off and running.
The Lancers have competed at two early season races to test their fitness and assess what still needs to be done ahead of the OCAA Championship at the end of October.
The season kickoff took place on September 23rd at the challenging Seneca Invitational. Racing against most of their provincial rivals the men's team finished 7th overall. Bobby Buck made his return to cross-country running and reclaimed his role as team leader with a 10th place finish. Ironically Buck's last race was the 2018 CCAA National Championship on the same Seneca course. First year students Robert Leybourne (30th) and Isidore Champagne (37th) were next across the line. Second year student Marco Lattanzio (50th) rounded out the team scoring with Mustafa Alali (55th), Elliott Skeggs (57th) and Aiden Chapman (58th) in pursuit.
Head coach Kevin Beatty was pleased with the results. "For most of our athletes this was their first 8k race ever, and it was on the most difficult course we will face this year. Now that everyone has experience at the race distance, improvements should follow naturally. We have an idea of where we stand on a provincial level and can work on closing the gap on teams ahead of us."
The next week saw a smaller Lancer squad head to Ottawa for the Capital XC Challenge. This race was quite different than the week before – a shorter race distance (6k), a faster course, and deep competition with many university teams. A dual sport athlete, Buck was unavailable due to basketball commitments but Leybourne stepped in as the team's top finisher (77th). He was followed closely by David Sylvestre-Williams (81st), who made his Loyalist debut, and Champagne (87th). Alali (96th) was the only racer who had run this course previously and improved his finishing time by over 3 minutes.
The team has the weekend off over Thanksgiving before going to the Centennial College Invitational on October 15th.