The Fanshawe Falcons’ men’s and women’s cross-country teams have combined to take millions of steps in training this fall, but their hope is they can take one final big one this weekend.
Both teams are at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) championships in Blainville, Que., with legitimate chances to capture a medal or even an overall national championship.
The Fanshawe women’s team won gold at the Ontario Collegiate Athletics Association (OCAA) race and currently sits fourth in the CCAA rankings behind the No. 3 SAIT Trojans from Calgary, the No. 2 Red Deer Queens and the host Nordiques de Lionel-Groulx, who sit in the top spot.
Janelle Hanna is coming off a first-place finish at OCAAs, running the six-kilometre race in a time of 22 minutes, 11 seconds. If you do the math, that is three minutes, 42 seconds per kilometre over sometimes very uneven ground. That time set a personal best, beating the 22 minutes, 30 seconds Hanna ran as a member of the University of Guelph cross-country team, before enrolling at Fanshawe in the medical radiation technology program. Sammi-Jo Burch was seventh in that race. Breah Gordon, Hannah Carley and Nicole Sharma round out the women’s side.
The Falcons’ men’s team comes in as the favourite, ranked No. 1 in the country after also claiming Ontario gold on Oct. 28.
Not only do they have Jordan Kadlecik, the men’s Ontario champion, but Fanshawe’s six-man team owns three of the top five runners from OCAAs after Chris Caddey came third and Alastair Thompson finished fifth. Zach Buchan, Dean Vanherpe and Justin Attfield made up the rest of the men’s finishers.
At provincial and national competitions, six runners count toward a team’s final score and having three runners cross the line that early provides a massive advantage.
Ashley VanderVecht is the coach of the Falcons and admits, this year’s collection of runners has come together like very few teams do.
“This year the team is even more special than previous years. The team is crazy close,” says VanderVecht. “They spend a lot of time together. They do all their workouts together and they all have each other’s back. They will put themselves out there and what happens, happens.”
The province-wide college strike in Ontario has been difficult for students all over Ontario, but if there is a silver lining, VanderVecht says it may come in the amount of time the athletes have been able to use to train and to bond.
The competitions will begin Saturday morning at 11:30 with the women’s six-kilometre race and follow with the men’s eight-kilometre at 12:30.
The national championship course will wind the runners through Blainville Equestrian Park, in the lower Laurentians, just 30 kilometres from Montreal. That should provide the opportunity for a few hills to be incorporated into the circuit.
At this point, VanderVecht admits, there isn’t much left to do but wait for the gun to go off at the start line.
“I don’t have to tell them anything. They are all well aware of what they want to do. It’s just about running the race with no regrets.”
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