A trio of Canadians won NACAC Cross Country individual titles and all four teams reached the podium on a sunny, blustery day in Boca Raton, Florida.
Canada went 1-2 in the first event of the day, the U20 women’s 5-kilometres race. Brogan MacDougall of Kingston, Ont., and Hannah Bennison of Vernon, B.C., dominated leading from the gun. Also finishing in the top 10 were: 4th place Hanna Johnston of Thunder Bay, Ont., 5th place Martha MacDonald of Toronto, 6th place Catherine Beauchemin of Québec, and 9th place Shona McCulloch of Nepean, Ont. The U20 women’s team scored 12 points to outdistance the runner-up’s from the USA who scored 36 points.
Initially crossing the line in second place, Kieran Lumb of Vancouver was promoted to a tie for the win in the U20 men’s race. Lumb was misdirected off course by a race official and was later reinstated to a tie for first place after a protest. The U20 men’s team finished in the bronze medal position with Jean-Simon Desgagnés of Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que., also finishing in the top ten for Canada (9th).
Sasha Gollish of Toronto broke free over the closing kilometres to secure the individual NACAC senior women’s title. Claire Sumner of Calgary and Victoria Coates of Hamilton, Ont., finished in 4th and 6th place respectively. The team competition was a tight one between Canada and the USA. Both teams scored 18 points but thanks to Canada’s fourth runner, Lisa Brooking of Orillia, Ont., finishing ahead of the USA’s fourth place runner, Canada was awarded the senior women’s NACAC Cross Country title.
In the men’s senior race, Sami Jibril of Toronto led the way with a solid 6th place individual finish. Rory Linkletter of Calgary, Trevor Hofbauer of Burnaby, B.C., Nicholas Falk of Windsor, Ont., and Evan Esselink of Guelph, Ont., followed each other across the line in order to finish 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th securing a runner-up team finish.
U20 Women’s 5km
Brogan MacDougall 1st 16:39.28
Hannah Bennison 2nd 16:44.14
Hanna Johnston 4th 17:09.82
Martha MacDonald 5th 17:10:80
Catherine Beauchemin 6th 17:11.54
Shona McCulloch 9th 17:40.09
U20 Men’s 6.5km
Kieran Lumb T-1st 19:19.42
Jean-Simon Desgagnés 9th 19:32.29
Graham Baird 14th 19:46.15
Andrew Alexander 17th 20:00.62
Mitchell Ubene 18th 20:08.24
Senior Women’s 8km
Sasha Gollish 1st 26:48.89
Claire Sumner 4th 27:07.62
Victoria Coates 6th 27:18.86
Lisa Brooking 7th 27:30.21
Rachel Hannah 16th 30:08.56
Senior Men’s 8km
Sami Jibril 6th 22:59.78
Rory Linkletter 8th 23:32.49
Trevor Hofbauer 9th 23:33.08
Nicholas Falk 10th 23:48.88
Evan Esselink 11th 23:55.81
Thomas Toth 13th 24:16.41