Athletes from 12 out of 20 schools in the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) touched down at the Ashtonbee Campus at Centennial College on a relatively mild Saturday morning to compete in the final OCAA invitational before provincials next weekend.
Sophie Ganz, from the University of Mississauga Eagles, won the women's 6k race with a time of 24:33:5 while the second and third places were occupied for a pair of Sheridan Bruins athletes: Marla Brown (25:24:6) and Yonta Gillespie (25:34).
Ganz ran with the pack to start off before pulling away, finishing nearly a full minute ahead of the second place Brown. Her win highlighted the performance of the Eagles, who also took home the women's team award with a total of 22 and whose top four times were in the top 10.
The Bruins came in second with 25 points while the Humber Hawks finished third with 33. All of the schools' top six times each ended in the top 20.
Meanwhile, on the men's side, Matthew Lozano of the Centennial Colts took first place for the men's 8k race with a time of 26:42:2, holding off second place finisher Andrew Brown of the St. Lawrence Vikings, who finished with a time of 26:46:3. Lozano and Brown were neck-and-neck through the good part of two laps before the Colt pulled away and kept Brown at bay for the rest of the race.
Cole Bond of the Bruins finished in third place with a time of 27:24:6, highlighting a Sheridan team that took home the men's team award with a total of 32 points. The Bruins' top four times were in the top 15. Humber finished in second with 41 points while St. Lawrence (Kingston) came in third with 57.
For Ganz and Lozano, it was their third first-place finishes for the two of them this season.
Here is a list of how the team finishes went down on Saturday.
WOMEN'S 6K
1) UofT Mississauga
Top 4 Places: 22
Top 4 Times: 1:43:56:6
Top 4 Average Times: 25:59:1
2) Sheridan
Top 4 Places: 25
Top 4 Times: 1:45:29:0
Top 4 Average Times: 26:22:2
3) Humber
Top 4 Places: 33
Top 4 Times: 1:46:44:6
Top 4 Average Times: 26:41:1
MEN'S 8K
1) Sheridan
Top 4 Places: 32
Top 4 Times: 1:53:33:7
Top 4 Average Times: 28:23:4
2) Humber
Top 4 Places: 41
Top 4 Times: 1:55:21:7
Top 4 Average Times: 28:50:4
3) St Lawrence (Kingston)
Top 4 Places: 57
Top 4 Times: 2:00:10:5
Top 4 Average Times: 30:02:6
4) UofT Mississauga
Top 4 Places: 62
Top 4 Times: 1:59:02:4
Top 4 Average Times: 29:45:6
5) Centennial
Top 4 Places: 68
Top 4 Times: 1:59:54:8
Top 4 Average Times: 29:58:7
6) Georgian
Top 4 Places: 81
Top 4 Times: 2:01:48:0
Top 4 Average Times: 30:27:0
7) Fleming
Top 4 Places: 107
Top 4 Times: 2:08:56:2
Top 4 Average Times: 28:50:4
8) Mohawk
Top 4 Places: 140
Top 4 Times: 2:18:26:8
Top 4 Average Times: 34:36:7
How Centennial Fared
Aside from Lozano's first place finish, three other Colts athletes finished in the top 30 on the men's side. Sahebjeet Singh finished in 13th (29:18:2), which was a season best finish for him; Taranjeet Singh finished 27th (31:24:5) and Ceo Lam came in 33rd (32:29:8).
Rounding off the Centennial Colts runners was Andrew French, who came in 49th with a time of 39:28:9.
Catch Our Next Meet
All of the OCAA teams have less than a week left to prepare for provincials as the 2019 OCAA Championships, hosted by St. Clair College, are on Saturday Oct. 26.
The women's race will be at 11am while the men's will be at noon. The championship awards banquet will be at 4:30pm on the same day following the men's and women's races.