Onwards To Kingston
By plane, van, and the skin of our teeth
It’s with AUS silver medals dangling by their nightstands or shoved inside their sling bags that 14 hungry runners, dressed in white and blue, travel to Kingston for this year’s U SPORTS championship. The roster:
Women
Jane Hergett - Port Williams, NS - Junior - AUS placing: 2
Paige Chisholm - Port Williams, NS - Senior - AUS placing: 5
Ashley Robson - Halifax, NS - Senior - AUS placing: 11
Breanna Sandluck - Thorburn, NS - Sophomore - AUS placing: 21
Ellen Taggart - Dartmouth, NS - Sophomore - AUS placing: 22
Zoe Johnston - Pembroke, ON - Senior - AUS placing: 25
Aidan MacDonald - Arisaig, NS - Sophomore - AUS placing: 28
Hergett raced in her first U SPORTS championship last year, and was taken aback by the quality and depth of the field. This season, with an individual AUS second place finish now to her credit, she aims higher.
“I’m confident in my training and curious about where I can place,” she says. “I want to stay mentally focused during that middle portion of the race, and then cross the finish line with nothing left.”
Men
Paul MacLellan - Antigonish, NS - Senior - AUS placing: 2
Jacob Benoit - Windsor, NS - Freshman - AUS placing: 3
Addison Derhak - Waterloo, ON - Senior - AUS placing: 13
Luc Gallant - Mont-Carmel, PE - Sophomore - AUS placing: 16
Evan Knight - St. John’s, NL - Freshman - AUS placing: 17
Graydon Staples - Oro Medonte, ON - Sophomore - AUS placing: 21
Findlay Day - Victoria, BC - Freshman - AUS placing: N/A
MacLellan will run his final cross-country race with the X-Men over the weekend. He recognizes that most of his teammates are racing at U SPORTS for the first time, and says he hopes the race helps them grow as runners. On an individual level, he hopes to end his cross-country career with the white and blue with an exclamation mark.
“I have met many different people through my university career and I am grateful that some of them were my teammates. This is my last chance to represent St. FX athletically, so I want to make this one count.”
St. FX seniors take one last stride
Check out this video that features our graduating team members, by cross-country team manager Mark Chisholm.
Paige, Ashley, Paul, and Addison, thank you for representing the white and blue with skill, class, and grit. Here’s to one last trip to hell and back.
National recognition for Paul MacLellan
At the U SPORTS end of season breakfast on Friday morning in Kingston, fifth year X-Man Paul MacLellan was recognized as the U SPORTS Student Athlete Community Service Award winner.
MacLellan will graduate with a business degree this year, and balanced a rigorous academic schedule with several volunteering endeavors. In his time as a student, he has given his time to organizations like Fit 4 Tots, the StFX Student Food Resource Centre and the St. Martha's Regional Hospital Hope and Dreams event.
MacLellan is poised to place in the top-30 at this year’s U SPORTS championship, and hopes to lead the X-Men to a top-ten finish tomorrow. Congratulations, Paul!
A general U SPORTS preview
Women
The Queen’s Gaels, led by sisters Branna and Brogan MacDougall, comfortably won the Ontario University Association championship, beating the Guelph Gryphons by 20 points. The Gryphons, despite boasting a young roster, will have the best chance of denying the Gaels of a win at home. They are led by fifth year runner and last year’s fourth place finisher, Danielle Jossinet. Last year’s champions, the Rouge et Or of Laval, returns most of its runners, but have so far failed to perform at as high a level as last year.
The individual victory will likely be contested between both MacDougall sisters and University of Toronto’s Lucia Stafford, the sister of new Canadian 1,500m record holder, Gabriella Stafford. The U of T senior handily won the Ontario conference championship of late October, and is the favourite to win national gold.
Men
The Calgary men, led by Canada West first and second place finishers Stefan Daniel and Russell Pennock, look to repeat as national champions. Like last year, they will be pressed by two Ontario teams, the McMaster Marauders and the Guelph Gryphons. The Gryphons narrowly beat a deep McMaster squad at the Ontario conference championship, but might not have the high-end talent to challenge Calgary.
The individual battle features Pennock and Daniel from Calgary, OUA champion Mitchell Ubene of Guelph, and last year’s silver medalist, Jean-Simon Desgagnés of Laval. Desgagnés and Pennock had a close battle for silver behind Guelph’s Connor Black last year, and we can expect more tight racing this year, as a clear favourite has yet to emerge.
From under the weather to atop the podium
It has now been 10 years since the vicious H1N1 breakout that left many Canadians coughing, fevered, and fearing the unknown. Like clockwork, the pandemic coincided with the X-Men’s shot at a second consecutive national medal. The white and blue had won silver in 2008, powered by a mix of tough Nova Scotians like Lee McCarron and Brent Addison, and accomplished exchanged students David Gerych and Petr Doubravsky of the Czech Republic. A year later, the runners were back older, stronger and ready to give the powerful Guelph Gryphons a proper run for the title.
Unfortunately, a few days after the AUS championship, disaster struck in the form of influenza. With barely ten days to go before the final race, the “swine flu” had infected most of the men’s team. They spent days in bed, weathering severe fevers and wondering if they would even be healthy enough to board the plane. Most of them did not run. On the Thursday before the race, they flew to Kingston tired, weak, and exhausted.
There was no gold for St. FX that year but, against the odds, there was a gritty bronze (results here). The sick men fought through their ailment, left it on the course, and brought home the second men’s cross-country team medal in St. FX history. Here, we revisit the X-Men’s improbable podium finish of 2009, on the very same course with which our teams will grapple this year - Fort Henry.
We hear from team members Lee McCarron and Brent Addison, as well as St. FX head coach at the time, Bernie Chisholm.
Lee McCarron, far left
Lee McCarron: We thought we could finish high at nationals. We had been ranked second all year. David Gerych was third individually two years prior. He thought he could win the whole thing. Petr and I the whole year were getting closer to (Dalhousie’s) Russell Christie (who was 12th the year prior) so we figured we’d have three in the top 10.
Then, after AUS we did our workout on Tuesday – and everybody we did 2x4k on Brierly brook. People were not feeling that great. Everyone had chills. We did not run until the next Wednesday. I couldn't run. We were all screwed. Crazy fevers, sick as a dog. You couldn't even think about running. next Wednesday. Bernie suggested we do some kind of workout Wednesday. 800s and 400s on the track. We did it and nobody felt very good. Everybody was still sick. We went to Kingston on Thursday. And I remember going on that plane thinking I cant believe I had to do a 10k. We had a pre-race meeting and we told each other “guys just do the best you can do, no expectations on it now, run as hard as you can.”
David, Petr and I ran in a close enough back and I remember with one lap to go, I thought I couldn’t hold this pace. Then went by me and when I finished, the tank was so empty. We had no idea how we did. We thought we had finished somewhere between fifth and eighth. When the results came out, we were so excited, because we knew we could have chosen to feel sorry for ourselves and give up, but we played the cards we were dealt. Every person fought through the sickness and did it for the team.
Brent Addison, bib 001
Brent Addison: 9 days before CIS Bernie told us that David our top runner and defending bronze medalist was sick and experiencing symptoms of swine flu. I was feeling a little under the weather but things really got worse for me quickly that night. In the middle of the night my fever spiked, I was burning up one minute and shivering the next. I was unable to stand because I would have passed out. Lee had to be hospitalized that night after fainting and Peter was also having similar symptoms. . None of us really got out of bed until the day before we left for Kingston so not the best run up to the most important race of the year.
I had an overwhelming feeling of anxiousness knowing that we would underperform. I was not prepared to feel so terrible so early on. It didn't help that things were not looking great for the team in the first half of the race. I could clearly tell David was not himself and was not going to get us that low stick we were hoping for. I could see Peter and Lee and they weren't doing anything special so I thought a medal was completely out of the question.
I didn't even entertain the idea that we had won a medal after crossing the line. When Brenda (Chisholm) told us we had won bronze, I was really overcome with pride that for the most part our team had stayed tough even though everyone must have felt much like myself. Julian MacLean, he really had the race of his life. I think he finished 66 or 67 well ahead of expectation, which saved us.
Bernie Chisholm:
Leading up to CIS, the guys did not look good. They were vomiting, and couldn’t get out of bed. They were potentially contagious, so for a while we wondered if we would even go (to nationals.)
The sickness was a kick to the stomach. The team was running extremely well, and were undefeated in AUS competition. When they got ill, it felt like the high hopes were dashed, and the expectation had to change. Now, instead of winning a medal, I hoped they would just be able to get through the race.
On the course, they looked gaunt. Some of them hadn’t really been eating for a week. They were giving everything they had and their bodies weren’t responding the way they wanted to. But it was mind over matter, and they pulled through for a medal.
I was so proud of how they performed. It’s one of the only years St. FX didn’t go to the after-party. They were much too drained for that, physically and mentally.
Remember them?
With only three days to go before the U SPORTS championship in Kingston, we feature a former X-Woman who will be flashing the Dalhousie colours on Saturday. Catherine Thompson led the Tigers to the AUS championship by claiming the individual bronze medal, her highest placing ever at a conference championship. We caught up with the fifth-year runner from Blenheim, Ont. and wish her good luck (and the Tigers too, we guess) at nationals.
Thompson (far right) in 2018 competition
Q) Where do you live now, and what brings you there?
A) I now live in Halifax and I am pursuing a Master’s in Marine Management at Dalhousie University.
Q) What is your favourite thing about your new program, and least favourite?
A) My favourite thing about my new program is that it offers an interdisciplinary learning experience, as we have classes in both marine and social sciences. There is also an internship component next summer which I am really looking forward to. My least favourite thing about the program is that we have a lot of group work and it’s hard to coordinate with everyone’s schedules.
Q) What is your favourite running souvenir from St. FX?
A) My favourite running souvenir from St. FX is a framed picture of me running in the St. FX Invitational in 2017. Eric gave pictures to each of the graduating runners last year.
Q) What is your favourite non-running souvenir from St. FX?
A) My X-ring of course! Oh, and all of the memories of my time at St. FX
Q) What skills did you develop as a student athlete at St. FX?
A) I developed strong leadership skills as a student-athlete at St. FX. Through programs like the Leadership Academy, I learned how to be a vocal leader on my team and how to hold myself and my teammates accountable. As a student athlete, I also developed time management skills and organizational skills, which have been extremely helpful outside of my sport.
Thompson (bib 17) leading the Dalhousie women in AUS competition
Q) Now that you have experienced XC in another school, what are the main differences between your experience at Dalhousie and at St. FX?
A) The XC program at Dalhousie focuses more on long and slower workouts (E.g. long thresholds). Whereas the program at St. FX includes a lot of speed work (E.g. tempo and 3-minuters). Both are extremely important to success in Cross Country running. My team was unique this year because none of our top 7 runners had trained together before September- 4 of us had been competing against each other on other teams in the AUS. This was very different from my experience at St. FX where the team had been fairly consistent over the course of my four years.
Q) What is your goal for this weekend?
A) My goal for this weekend is a personal best time and placing. USports XC is an amazing opportunity to race against the best in the country, I want to make both St. FX and Dalhousie proud! Other than that, I am looking forward to spending another race weekend with my teammates and catching up with old X alum in Ontario.
Editor’s note: Following the AUS championship, Thompson was named Dalhousie’s Athlete of the Week. Congratulations!
