October 30, 2018

On Saturday Holland College played host to 2018 ACAA Cross Country Running Championships where 47 runners took part in the event.

The women’s race was the first to hit the Mark Arendz Provincial Ski Park at Brookvale on Saturday with 21 runners competing in both the team and individual races on a six-kilometre course.

The Mount Allison Mounties took home the team championship with 22 points (points based on each team member’s placement in the race), five points head of the Dal AC Rams and seven points in front of the MSVU Mystics.

The individual competition was won by Dal AC Rams runner, Hannah Arsenault, as she took home gold with a time of 26.45.  Mounties runners, Megumi Gates finished second, 35-seconds back of the leader with Olivia Medsger finishing third.

Holland Hurricanes runner Haley Shea ran a great race missing the podium by 23 seconds as she finished in fourth place with a time of 27:47.  Isabelle Saunders finished seventh (29:09) and Teanna Letkeman (30:55) completed the course in 12th to round out the Hurricanes women’s runners.

In men’s action the Dal AC Rams captured the team championships after a tie-breaker was needed with the Mount Allison Mounties.  The Rams were declared the winners due to their top individual runner finishing higher.

The Holland Hurricanes captured the bronze medal with 30 points followed by the Crandall Chargers with 65.

Individually, Dal AC runner, Kieran Thornell, ran a blistering 30:05 on the eight-kilometre course to capture gold, while Hurricanes runner Ryan Francom took home silver with a time of 30:20; Dal AC Rams runner Kyle Cublerson (30:45) would take home the bronze medal in the race.

Men’s Hurricanes runners included André Boudreau finishing seventh (31:28), Benjamin Nwaogazi-Awuja in tenth (31:28), James Wilmot finishing 11^th(34:12), Chris Lomond in 13th (34:50) and Agwell Francois finishing 14th (35:17).

At the ACAA Cross Country Running awards banquet, Kieren Thornell and Hannah Arsenault of the Dal AC Rams were recipients of the men’s and women’s Most Valuable Runner awards for the season, presented by Adidas.

The 2018 ACAA Cross Country Running Coach of the Year was Matthias Mueller from the MSVU Mystics.

For more information on the 2018 ACAA Cross Country Running Championships, including full results and photographs, please visit www.acaa.ca.

For more information on the Holland Hurricanes, visit www.hollandcollege.com/athletics,www.facebook.com/hollandhurricanes,www.twitter.com/hc_hurricanesand www.instagram.com/hollandhurricanes.

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