Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
CALGARY – Not long before race time, the wind picked up and snow started blanketing Canmore Park, turning the Canada West cross-country running championship into a slip-sliding battle of attrition.
Times were slower than the athletes were accustomed to, but the MacEwan Griffins' streak of conference all-stars remained intact after rookie Kiana Row finished 11th in the women's 8K (31:28) to earn Canada West second all-star honours.
It's the sixth-straight year the Griffins have had at least one student-athlete make a conference all-star squad, following Vanessa Trofimenkoff (2014-15), Hannah Leggatt (2016-17) and Emma Steele (2018).
"The year can be all summed up as Kiana leading the team all year long," said Griffins head coach Drew Carver of Row who was the top Griffin in every event they entered this fall. "My biggest fear was she's pushing herself pretty hard and would she break? She didn't. She continued to lead the team right to the end."
On Saturday, Row ran with the lead pack of runners for the majority of the race until they started separating from each other with about one kilometre remaining. Row was in contention for Canada West rookie of the year but couldn't match UBC first year Naomi Lang (fourth in 31:12) down the stretch.
"She had a great race," said Carver. "We knew where the other rookie was. Kiana knew exactly what she had to do, and she fought tooth and nail to stay in it with all of them.
"It came down to probably the last 100 where she started to fade. Her kick wasn't there, and she began losing places."
To show how close it was, Row missed a spot on the Canada West first all-star team (going to the top-seven runners) by just 12 seconds. And she was only 52 seconds behind winner Nicola Symonds of UBC.
Steele, who was a second team all-star a year ago in her rookie season, finished 22nd in 31:58, while Ember Large (38th in 32:56), Ashley Tymkow (43rd in 33:09), Emma Perry (65th in 35:23) and Daniella Wasielewski (73rd in 36:59) rounded out MacEwan's results.
Ember Large races ahead of a pack of runners on Saturday (Linda Miller photo).
That put the Griffins seventh in the women's team standings behind winner UBC and podium finishers TWU and Saskatchewan, who also both qualified for the U SPORTS national championship.
"All of the girls on the team who went to Canada West were totally supportive of each other," said Carver. "They took it as a team. They wanted to perform as a group and finish solidly and they did. I was really proud of them. UBC's a big team with a lot of really good athletes and all of the other schools showed up with their top runners and we were in the middle of it.
"Right down to our fifth runner Emma Perry crossing the line, there was somebody to catch all the way through and they were not giving an inch," he added. "It was a positive experience for the athletes, and I was pretty proud of them to see how they toughed it out on a day that was horrible out there."
Rookie Emma Perry comes into the finish line on Saturday (Linda Miller photo).
MacEwan entered one men's athlete in the 10K event and rookie James Thomson finished 78th in 37:29, exactly six minutes behind winner Stefan Daniel of Calgary.
"He was in tough because every school that showed up brought solid teams and he was doing his best to keep up with them," said Carver. "He had his best race of the season. He ran a really good time out there. He experienced Canada West at his hardest. For a rookie, he went through the whole season steadily getting stronger, so it was a good race for him."
James Thomson, right, had a solid run in his first Canada West championship (Linda Miller photo).
There's no doubt it was one of those races where student-athletes in men's and women's events just had to tough it out.
"The times they ran were not the fastest times they'll see all year because of the winds and the snow and the slipping," said Carver. "You had to take it easy going around some corners, so there were all kinds of challenges.
"All the athletes that were out there met the challenge and raced their hearts out. I was really proud of my team and the way they performed today."
