SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. - The province's best collegiate runners will compete in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., this Saturday at the 2012 Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) Cross Country Championships.

Algoma University hosts this year's championships at the beautiful Hiawatha Highlands Conservation Area.

The Fanshawe Falcons are looking to make history as they target their fourth consecutive OCAA men's team title. St. Lawrence-Kingston (1978-1981) holds the distinction of being the only school to four-peat. Fanshawe's Clint Smith is working on a streak of his own, having earned consecutive individual silver medals. No doubt he would like to keep his medal streak alive with an upgrade to gold. Smith won both the St. Lawrence-Kingston and Seneca-King Invitationals during the OCAA fall racing season.

Standing in Smith's way is 2011 men's individual champion Sean Sweeney of George Brown. Sweeney is looking to add a fourth OCAA individual medal to his collection. The two previous men's champions successfully defended their titles, a trend Sweeney would love to see continue.

Others looking to grab gold is Riley Olesky of Fleming, finishing in the top four of all four lead-up races, including first place at the Humber Invitational. St. Clair's Andrew DeGroot won the Fanshawe Invitational, and is also a medal contender in the Soo.

Darian Limb leads a Humber team looking to defend its women's team title. She placed no worse than fourth in three lead-up races. Richelle Moore of St. Lawrence-Kingston is the only returning OCAA individual women's medalist, placing third last year. She won silver in 2010.

Fanshawe's Jocelyn Fry had a successful race schedule this fall, winning three of four events. Most recently, Liz Seguin of George Brown won the Humber Invitational.

Nineteen OCAA schools with close to 250 runners will compete in this year's event. The women's 5 km race begins at 10 a.m., while the men will race the 8 km course at 11 a.m.

Algoma University cross country head coach Cam Wilson is looking forward to the opportunity that hosting this event provides his team.

"Hosting the meet is pretty exciting," he said. "We've put quite a bit of time into preparing for this weekend, both as competitors and hosts, so we're optimistic that everything will come together."

As for his squad, Wilson is simply looking for them to put their best effort forward.

"Being our first year together, we're just looking to compete and see where we're at," he commented. "Our athletes have been training hard, but it will be nice to see how we stack up against this broad a field."
 
The Thunderbirds have competed in two other meets in this, their first season of competition. Wilson is hoping that some of the experience gained in the Seneca-King Invitational and the Humber Invitational will help his athletes, not just on Saturday, but into next year.

Along with Algoma, other schools represented at the championships include Cambrian, Conestoga, Confederation, Fanshawe, Fleming, George Brown, Georgian, Humber, Lambton, Loyalist, Mohawk, Redeemer, St. Clair, St. Lawrence (Brockville, Cornwall and Kingston), Sault and Seneca.

Championship Website: www.algomau.ca/cross-country

With files from Algoma University

- OCAA -

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