Kodiaks runners ready for Nationals

By Dale Woodard on November 13, 2021.

Carter Van Roon is tying up his shoes for his Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association championship debut.

As the first-year member of the Lethbridge College Kodiaks cross country running team gets ready to do that when the CCAA’s hit the trail today at St. Mary’s University in Calgary, the game plan for Van Roon is to simply hit the ground running.

After that? See you at the finish line.

“I haven’t set a placing goal, but my goal is just to run my race and do my absolute best,” said Van Roon. “For me, personally, I’m just going to focus on what I can control and the places will fall as they may.”

No matter where he places, the Lethbridge product is just looking forward to his first glimpse at a collegiate national championship, one in which the Kodiaks women’s team goes into as the defending CCAA champs.

“Mostly just excitement,” said Van Roon. “We’ve had so much fun our entire season with our team. We have great chemistry and a lot of fun. So I’m just looking forward to spending time as a team and then being able to race. It’s pretty special. I’m excited. I’m just going to go out there and do my best.”

Having competed at St. Mary’s in the third Grand Prix of the ACAC schedule last month, Van Roon and his teammates know what they’ll be facing today.

“The course is a two-kilometre loop, so we’ll do it four times,” he said.

“The first loop will probably be pretty crowded. The start is pretty narrow, so we’ll be all bunched up. It’ll be lots of elbows, so the race will start out compact and then it’ll spread out from there. It’s a course that is fairly flat, there are a couple hills towards the end in the last kilometre or so of that loop. There is a steep hill that’s a bit narrow, so that’ll be a tough part of the course. But it’s a fairly flat course, so it will be fast.”

The races will feature runners from over 30 post-secondary institutions, coast-to-coast.

The Kodiaks are coming off a strong showing at the ACAC championships on Oct. 30.

The men’s team earned a team bronze medal, with rookie Reggie Jackson earning an ACAC All-Conference award selection after placing sixth overall.

“From our perspective as a team, I think if everybody can put forth their best performance of the year, that would be a big check mark off our goals list. I think that’s what we want for individuals,” said Simon Schaerz of the men’s goals.

There is one goal this weekend, however, and that involves a fellow ACAC team.

“Objectively, we were one point behind Red Deer at the ACACs and that one point kept us from getting a second place finish,” said Schaerz. “I think the boys are hungry to jump ahead of Red Deer.”

The Kodiaks look to Reggie Williams and Logan Danyluk and the entire team to have strong performances.”

Williams, a rookie, and Van Roon paced the team at the ACAC championships, finishing sixth and 11th, respectively. Danyluk and Cole Herbert will also look to build off their strong outings at the ACAC championships to bolster the team’s overall scoring and push them towards the podium.

Sydney Crowe and Rosie Bouchard return to Nationals as members of the 2019 team.

Crowe led all Kodiaks runners with a 14th place finish at the ACAC championships and has improved her time in each race this season.

Maria Boix-Frias is coming off an impressive 15th place finish at the ACAC championships and will look to build on her best outing of the season.

Bouchard had two top-10 finishes in ACAC Grand Prix events this season and will look to finish the season with another strong showing.

“The most important thing for them is to be able to get some more experience for the years to come,” said Schaerz. “We have a number of new athletes and some returning athletes as well. We have athletes on both ends.”

The women’s 6-km race begins at 1 p.m. today, followed by the men’s 8km race at 2 p.m.

A webcast of the event will be available on the CCAA website at https://www.ccaa.ca/sports/xc/championship/index. The site will also feature results after the race.

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