Lakers Cross-Country at the Vic Matthews-New Balance Open

After four consecutive weekend races, the men's and women's Lakers Cross-Country running teams left the Vic Matthews/New Balance Open this past Saturday with tired legs and bodies, but positive attitudes and spirits.After a four-hour travel delay on Highway 400, the squad might have been excused for not having the best possible race of the season, particularly with Guelph, Windsor, Queen's, and Western -- four teams which will certainly be in the top five in the nation come championship time -- in attendance.Women's Results
The women's race featured a new distance - 6km, the new OUA Championship distanc,. What was most impressive is the fact that almost all our runners held a faster pace than last weekend in the Western International 5k or the Laurentian Open 5k, averaging four seconds per km faster and the second fastest Lakers team performance on record.Lakers Scorers
55th Kajsa Heyes 24:04
74th Jessica Demers 25:48
75th Stephanie Leggat 26:07
77th Melissa McKiel 26:13
79th Katie Kozub 26:34Lakers Displacers/Pushers
86th Kristen Gagnon 27:57
87th Lynsey Bialkowski 28:14Women's Team Results (6km)Guelph 28Queen's 66Western 81Toronto 90Laurentian 152McMaster 153Windsor 174Waterloo 179Brock 307York 310Laurier 334Nipissing 360Trent 400Men's Results
The men's race was also a confidence booster, as the team ran a pace less than 10 seconds per km off their best 5km time while being extended another 2km over last week's 8km event at the Western International. Despite the challenging and hilly course, at least one of our men ran a personal best for the 10km distance, and our average pace per km was over 10 seconds faster per km than our OUA championship performance last year (37:24 minutes for 10k this year vs 39:02 best average last year!). This nearly minute-and-a-half improvement in our top-five scores from last year was uplifting and just the finish needed to prepare us to move from the shadows of the unranked and finish in the top 10 at season's end.Lakers Scorers
56th Jordan Cascagnette 35:12
57th Terry Doiron 35:12
70th Jordan Scott 37:57
72nd Matt Chalmers 38:37
74th Kevin Durkee 40:04Lakers Displacers/Pushers
77th Bryan Stone 40:35
81st Gabriel Doiron 41:53Men's Team Results (10km)Guelph 32Windsor 61Speed River TC 87McMaste 90Western 180Queen's 186London Runner TC 199Laurier 205Toronto 208York 272Waterloo 283Brock 313Nipissing 329
Over the next few weekends, the Lakers squad will take a much needed break from travel and focus on the final preparations for the OUA Championships, October 26 at Chedoke Civic Golf Course in Hamilton Ontario.
But first, they’ll be participating in the 2013 Our Hospital Run, Sunday October 20, in support of the North Bay Regional Health Centre.
Check out the Lakers Cross-Country Program on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/NipissingCrossCountry