OFSAA Cross Country Wraps at Christie Lake
Local organizer Mike Smith earns OFSAA leadership award
DUNDAS, Ont. (November 3, 2018) – Glebe Collegiate and St. Michael’s College claimed the overall girls and boys titles respectively on Saturday as the 2018 OFSAA Cross Country Championship wrapped at Christie Lake Conservation Area. Dundas Valley Secondary School from the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) and Burlington Central of the Halton District School Board (HDSB) were the host schools for this year’s event.
Aurora’s Cameron Ormond captured her fourth straight OFSAA gold medal running to a time of twenty-three minutes and 1.7 seconds in the senior girls race. She is just the second women in history to secure four OFSAA cross country titles. Kathy Butler won four OFSAA and went on to represent Canada in distance events at the Olympics in 1996 and 2004. Ormond won the grade-nine title in 2015 and followed her rookie performance by collecting the junior title in 2016. She now has back-to-back senior titles to go along with the one she earned last season.
Ormond was just ahead of Sam Ford (University of Toronto Schools- Toronto) who finished 12 seconds with a time of 23:13.5. She was followed by Olivia Roussel (Humberside CI – Toronto) at 23:18.8
In the senior boys event, London’s Evan Burke (London South CI) finished the six kilometre race with a time of 19:06.8. Nick Mota of Newmarket (Newmarket HS) was second at 19:21.9 with Welland’s Santiago Gaitan-Caballer finishing third at 19:51.8.
The top local finisher was Bishop Ryan’s Ryan Sorley who took home sixth place in the boys para-race with a time of 13:34.2.
Quincy Rotsertsmith from Dundas Valley broke into the top-30 in the midget girls event to help host school Dundas Valley to an 11th place finish in the team standings. Rotsaert-Smith raced to a time of 17:06.7 on her home course to finish 24th.
Stoney Creek’s Cooper Norton (Orchard Park) also had top 30 finish placing 26th in the midget boys event with a time of 15:22.00.
Other finishers from the host Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board claiming a top 100 included: David Rule (Westmount): junior boys – 53rd; Sarah Cushnie (Westdale) sr girls 76th; Hana Robertson (Westdale) midget girls – 89th; Emma Due (Dundas Valley) midget girls – 94th and Tristan Richards (Dundas Valley) senior boys – 96th.
In the team competition, the HWDSB had seven teams competing with the Midget Girls from Dundas Valley having the day’s best performance with an 11th place finish in their race. The junior girls of Dundas Valley were 23rd, While the Westdale senior teams were both 24th. Dundas Valley had three other teams competing both senior groups and midget boys.
Meet Director, Mike Smith from Dundas Valley was honoured before the race earning the OFSAA Leadership in School Sport Award. This award is presented annually at each OFSAA championship to a teacher-coach who has made a significant contribution to the educational athletic program. The recipient of this award exemplifies the values of fair play and good sportsmanship, while promoting enjoyment, personal growth and educational achievement through school sport.
In Smith’s case this is certainly a earned award as he has continually has one of the top cross country teams within the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board over his 21-year coaching career. His athletes of won eight team OFSAA cross country and track medals. He is also influential in running several local meets and has assisted in operating regional SOSSA cross country and track & field events.
Over 1700 athletes were in attendance at Saturday’s event racing in 12 events. Next year’s event is set to be hosted by Sudbury.
Full event results visit :https://xcrunner.ca/results/ofsaa/
Championship Website: https://www.ofsaa.on.ca/cross-country-running
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Updated on Friday, September 24, 2021.