Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – The clock will be ticking on members of the MacEwan Griffins cross-country team at their final tune-up event before nationals this Saturday.
Their tough love missive: Run the 8K in 35 minutes or less at Saturday's Stewart Cup in Calgary or forget about going to the U SPORTS championship next month in Kingston, Ont.
That's the bar that coach Drew Carver has set for his women's team, even if it possibly means not enough of his runners will meet the standard to field a five-woman team on Nov. 9-10.
"This is a do-or-die weekend," said Carver. "We have to have a performance or we will be cutting the team just to the athletes that are performing at a U SPORTS level.
"Running it in 35 minutes puts them in the last 10 runners at U SPORTS (nationals)," he added. "If they're outside of that, then there's no point in going."
If the last meet is any indication on Oct. 13 in Victoria, a few of MacEwan's competitors have some work to do. Just Emma Steele, Ashley Tymkow and Shehzadi Abdul met the standard Carver is looking for.
The only two men's competitors the Griffins have this season – Scott Kohlman and Owen Guenette – are running well enough to compete in the individual competition at nationals. They will both run the 10K as a tune-up on Saturday.
"We don't have a men's team. We just have two guys running at that level," said Carver. "They're both solid, so I expect them to perform. But on the ladies side, we've had (some injuries). That's the biggest thing, if we do have a solid team going, great. If we don't then we take the athletes that are competitive."
The Stewart Cup, which will be contested on a tough course at Calgary's Canmore Park that features a 500-metre hill shortly after starting the race, will be the Griffins' third meet of the 2018 season.
"That sets the heart rate and it's those athletes that can recover from the hill and continue to run that do well," said Carver.
"We've had (former Griffins) Hannah (Leggatt) and Vanessa (Trofimenkoff) run great times on that course, even in the worst of conditions. I remember Vanessa was running there one day and it was snowing so hard you couldn't see the runner in front of you."
It is Calgary, so any weather is possible, but the forecast looks better than that for this weekend. Nevertheless, the athletes will be relying on their training to overcome any type of adversity thrown their way.
"This is a testament of the athletes who are really serious about their training," said Carver of the Stewart Cup. "It doesn't matter the weather or the course, they're going to perform.
"The ones that break down due to the conditions or they've had some holes in their training, it's going to show up. They know it. We've talked about it. They know what they're headed for."
