The Gaels took a trip to the Nation’s Capital, and they didn’t let a little sand in their shoes get in the way.
On Sept. 27, Queen’s Cross Country teams competed at the University of Ottawa’s Capital XC Challenge. The women’s team took home second place, while the men took third in their event. The race featured a 6km run on what Ottawa calls one of Canada’s most unique tracks, which requires competitors to run on a stretch of beach and up a four-storey hill.
The unique track was no problem for the women, whose strong team performance earned them second place among six Canadian university teams. They were led by another strong performance from Elizabeth Vroom, Sci ’26, whose time of 22:39.20 was good for fourth among 107 runners. The performance follows a fourth-place finish for Vroom in the Gaels’ season opener, further establishing herself as a top collegiate runner this season.
Top ten finishes for Caleigh Pribaz, Kin ’26, Madison McDermott, ArtSci ’29, and Hannah Pushka, Sci ’26, added to an extremely strong Gaels performance, and a strong run by Olivia Hendrikx, MD ’27, for 23rd place rounded out their score. The seventh-place finish for McDermott adds to a strong start to her Gaels career, with a second top-ten finish in her second collegiate event.
The Gaels’ women’s team was just two points shy of Université Laval, earning their second-straight runner-up finish to open the season.
On the men’s side, the Gaels competed without many familiar faces, with the top four racers from their last event taking a well-deserved rest. Instead, the event allowed the next generation of Gaels runners to shine. Queen’s finished third out of 11 teams thanks to strong top-20 finishes from Peter Neill, Sci ’27, Ethan Rashid-Cocker, Comm ’27, and Cameron Bennett, Sci ’28. Neill’s 19:17.80 led the Gaels and was good for 13th overall.
Freshmen Saul Taler, Kin ’29, and Andrew Neill, Comm ’29, rounded out the Gaels’ top-five at 24th and 25th, respectively, adding to extremely strong starts for two first-years.
Gaels tuning in saw a familiar face, with Miles Brackenbury, ConEd ’24, MA ’25—a member of Queen’s U Sports championship-winning Men’s cross country team last year—finishing ninth as an unattached racer with a time of 19:08.50.
Next, Queen’s will travel to McMaster University to compete in the Bayfront Invitational on Oct. 10. The event serves as one more tune-up for the Gaels before they host the OUA Championship on Oct. 25.
Tags
cross country, Gaels, University of Ottawa
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.