CROSS COUNTRY TO RUN FOR NATIONAL GOLD THIS WEEKEND
SAULT STE. MARIE, ON: The Humber Hawks women's and men's cross country teams will race for CCAA National titles this coming weekend in Sault Ste. Marie. The event, which is hosted by Sault College, will take place at the Crimson Ridge Golf Course. Women (5K) are first at noon, with the men (8K) to follow at 1:00 pm.
The Hawk's women's team, winners of the 2016 OCAA title just a few two weeks ago, head into the big race as the number two ranked team in the country. Humber's women have had great success on the national level, placing on the podium four times since the 2008 season, and winning gold in 2011. Individually, Lindsay Webster (bronze/2014) and Vicky Siemon (silver/2011), have been the closest to grabbing gold for the Hawks.
Humber is led by OCAA silver medalist and OCAA Female Rookie of the Year, Kaitlin Shuvera. Beyond freshman Shuvera, the Hawks are a veteran squad. Stalwarts Claire Brown and Coby Phillips returned for their fourth year, and continue to be contributors to the team's final scores in every meet. Ivon Jaimes (3rd year), Richelle Ramirez (3rd year) and Marcia Coelho (2nd year) will all don the Hawks uniform this weekend.
The women's six continue to use the recipe that sees all of the counting runners vying to get into the top fifteen, thus ensuring a strong team result. The fact that the fifth and sixth finishers for the team arrive in the top twenty only helps to guarantee they push other team's runners back a spot or two. For the nationals this year, the secret weapon may well be Shuvera, as a top seven finish would go a long way in getting the Humber women to the podium.
Humber's men, now just two years removed from winning the CCAA title, will look to get back to the podium after a year's absence. The Hawks placed second in the OCAA, behind the powerhouse Fanshawe Falcons team. But never say never, as it was the Humber team that came from a similar spot in the OCAA to grab that national title mentioned above.
The last and only time Humber placed a male on the individual podium was Colin Murray-Lawson's silver medal run in 2005. No runner on the Hawks squad looks to be in a position to challenge for individual glory, but their commitment to pack running served them well in 2014. In that year, the top racer for Humber was Daniel Bright's sixteenth place finish.
Idris Ahmed (OCAA 9th) and Simon Wells (OCAA 25th) are the only returning runners on the Hawks squad, but both are relatively new, being in their second year. The next four are all freshman, and this bodes well for seasons to come. Orest Vesna (OCAA 11th), Aaron Veenstra (OCAA 19th), Brian Jaimes (OCAA 29th) and Shawn Acrey (OCAA 30th) will be seeing their first CCAA national action.
