Despite a brutal course and some disappointing individual performances, the Dinos cross country team turned in perhaps their best ever race day at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport national championship Nov. 10, 2007.
Head coach Doug Lamont, who was awarded Canada West coach of the year, felt the weekend marked the best performance in Dinos cross country history.
“In terms of team performance, it’s the best overall we’ve had,” said Lamont. “With the women taking the silver medal, and the men placing fourth in the CIS competition. Also on this weekend, we did the Canada West conference championships as well, with both men and women coming home with team titles [which are] pretty significant accomplishments. As a coach, that was right out there on the verge of our ultimate performance as a team.”
Two prominent runners, Heather Sim for the women and Geoff Kerr for the men gave top-level performances.
“On the women’s side, Heather Sim was sixth and she is a first-team All Canadian,” said Lamont. “Geoff Kerr was sixth on the men’s side, so he’s a first-team All Canadian. Both Heather and Geoff have been selected to represent Canada at the [International University Sports Federation] cross country championships in Apr. They’ll be held in France. FISU is the world governing body for university sport. For Geoff, he’s a five-time All Canadian. There’s only a handful of other people who have accomplished that in their university careers.”
Matt Cloutier, who placed second among the Dinos at 27th overall, noted the brutality of the course.
“It was definitely a beastly course,” said Cloutier. “It was four 2.5 kilometre laps. It started off [with] 150 metres before it closed down, so it was a really intense start. There were three really good hills in each lap. So it was insanely hilly, you’re either going up or down the entire time.”
Cloutier added that some hills were so steep that many of the top-ranked runners in the competition ended up walking to make it to the finish.
“It was insanely steep,” he said. “It was the kind where you could easily touch it with your hand while trying to run up it.”
Rookie Jessica O’Connell put in a great performance, garnering second among the Dinos and 15th overall. Though she felt that she could have improved on her own performance, she was pleased with the team effort.
“[The race] could have gone better,” said O’Connell. “I think I went out a little too hard, but it wasn’t bad. The team did really well as a whole. [The trip] was so much fun, just seeing everyone, all our friends from other schools. Runners are fun people. It was good times.”
Geoff Kerr, who won gold at CIS in 2006, was disappointed with his own sixth place finish.
“Bit of a bittersweet day, I guess,” said Kerr. “It was a good team result [and I] came home with the men’s title which was a little bit unexpected, but my own race wasn’t quite [what] I was hoping for.”
Some of the cross country team members will go on to compete in the national championship in Guelph in three weeks, while others are turning their attention towards the upcoming indoor track and field season, kicking off with the Dinos opener Dec. 8 at home.