Sean Allen
BRANT NEWS

Brant runners are hoping to leave their mark on the regional cross country competition this week for a chance to shine at the provincial meet on Nov. 3.

The Brant cross country championships were held last Wednesday at the W. Ross Macdonald school, with races for boys and girls in the midget, junior and senior divisions.

Paris District High School’s Brandon Thomas won the senior boys 7 km race with a time of 22:05, just 10 seconds ahead of North Park Collegiate’s defending champion Riley Malcolm.

Thomas cruised to a win as a junior last year with a victory margin of more than two minutes and capped his season with a bronze medal at the Ontario Federation of Secondary School Athletics meet.

He is relishing the increased competition as a 16-year-old Grade 11 in the senior field.

“This is the strongest (local) field we’ve had in a long time,” Thomas said. “But it’ll be a ridiculously strong field at CWOSSA. It’ll be a blood bath, for sure.”

The Central Western Ontario Secondary Schools Association meet is at the University of Guelph on Thursday.

Assumption College’s Cozette Collin will be there again as the repeat winner of the Brant senior girls 5 km race with a time of 18:31.

She will be looking to improve on her fourth place showing at CWOSSA last season.

North Park’s Tyler Moore had one of the more impressive displays of the day in the junior boys 6 km race, finishing with a time of 20:26 – a full three minutes ahead of second place.

“I just go out as hard as I can and try my hardest to keep my pace,” Moore said. “It’s kind of hard without anyone to push me, but I just think about what my overall time is going to be and keep my goal in my head.”

Moore placed second as a midget boy at CWOSSA last season and he hopes for another strong finish this year so he can do better than his 27th place finish at OFSSA in 2011.

The OFSSA races are scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 3 at Heart Lake Conservation Area in Brampton.

St. John’s College student Leah Coon took home the junior girls 4 km race with a time of 15:29.

Her goal is to earn the OFSSA berth that she came so close to achieving last year.

“Last year I came ninth at CWOSSA, just four places away from going to OFSSA,” she said. “That is my goal this year.”

PDHS’ Kyle Madden won the midget boys 5 km race with a time of 18:00.

North Park’s Alex deVries captured the midget girls 3 km race with a time of 11:10.

Midget girls 3 km
1. Alex deVries, NPC               11:10
2. Kendra Van Leeuwen, SJC    11:51
3. Kacie Pottruff, NPC               13:25

Midget boys 5 km
1. Kyle Madden, PDHS          18:00
2. Matt Perriman, PDHS         19:14
3. Brian Coon, SJC                20:25

Junior girls 4 km
1. Leah Coon, SJC               15:29
2. Jennifer Garner, SJC         16:47
3. Brooklyn Davis, BCI          17:10

Junior boys 6 km
1. Tyler Moore, NPC               20:26
2. Nick Baldwin, NPC             23:27
3. Jacob Wardell, PJC            23:52

Senior girls 5 km
Cozette Collin, ACS                18:31
Amanda Baxter, ACS              19:25
Samara Collin, ACS                 20:26

Senior boys 7 km
1. Brandon Thomas, PDHS       22:05
2. Riley Malcolm, NPC              22:15
3. Tyler Van Leeuwen, SJC       23:14