Local high school cross-country runners went up against their fastest peers from across the province on November 4 when they wrapped up their season at the OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) XC 2017 championships.
Two Huntsville High School (HHS) teams advanced — Junior Boys and Senior Boys — while two runners from HHS and one from Rosseau Lake College (RLC) qualified as individuals — Zac Varieur and Emma Punkari from HHS and Angeline Carreau from RLC.
“For a lot of the runners, it was their first OFSAA which can be a little overwhelming,” said HHS coach Pierre Mikhail. “I thought they all ran really hard and many were in the top half of their field. That’s really impressive.”
Junior boy Cameron Heinz had the top HHS individual result, placing 22nd in his age category. The Junior Boys team placed 16th of 46 teams, almost reaching the top 15 goal Mikhail had set for them. (See all of the HHS results below.) Each race had between 250 to 300 competitors, with 35 to 40 school teams represented.
Mikhail noted that the HHS team is one of the largest in its region, which extends down to Barrie. “Our high school team often has more than 50 kids participating. Other than Collingwood, there’s no team in our region that’s as big as ours. I think that’s pretty amazing for both towns; we’re smaller in terms of school population.”
For Rosseau Lake College, the OFSAA XC championships were notable because the school had its first runner in recent history qualify, Angeline Carreau.
Rosseau Lake College student Angeline Carreau at the OFSAA XC 2017 championships (supplied photo)
Athletes don’t just choose to attend OFSAA, noted RLC’s Jessica Sheppard. “They need to qualify by earning a spot as a member of one of the top two teams in each of the province’s 18 associations, or as one of the top five individuals not on those teams. Thus, even getting to the race is a huge achievement!”
Angeline ran in the Midget girls 4000m race, starting out conservatively and moving ahead of the middle of the pack by the two-kilometre mark. She would finish 95th of 257 runners, with a negative split — the second half of her race was faster than the first. “A lot of runners find it very challenging to do this, especially on a big stage like OFSAA where the excitement level is high and it is tempting to go out too quickly,” said Sheppard. “When all was said and done, this was definitely Angeline’s best race of the season. She represented herself and RLC with character and strength.”
Congratulations to all of the OFSAA runners on a great season!
HHS/RLC OFSAA XC 2017 results
Midget Boys 4000m
#117 Zak Varieur 14:44.2
Midget Girls 4000m
#95 Angeline Carreau (RLC) 16:55.4
Junior Boys 5000m
Team: #16 1:24:16
#22 Cameron Heinz 19:27.0
#80 Adam Dupuis 20:24.9
#188 Ian Markham 22:09.2
#195 Seth Cooper 22:14.2
#256 Sebastian Horton 24:57.6
Junior Girls 5000m
#128 Emma Punkari 25:50.7
Senior Boys 6000m
Team: #30 1:36:25
#45 Owen Johnstone 23:06.7
#146 Judah Meaker 23:07.7
#179 Zachary Pinheiro 23:43.9
#255 Jacob Heinz 26:25.9
#256 Keegan Chan 26:26.4
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