Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
KINGSTON, Ont. – Emma Steele led the way for the MacEwan Griffins at the U SPORTS cross country national championship with a 57th place finish in the women's 8 km race on Saturday.
It was a solid result for the second-year runner from Edmonton, just seven seconds off her 2018 pace on the same course that netted her Canada West second all-star team honours. But her placing was 18 spots lower as the depth of the field was apparent on Saturday.
"Emma had a solid race," said Griffins head coach Drew Carver. "She ran about seven seconds slower than she ran last year, but that tells you how many bodies are coming across the line. That's how fast that finish is with them all coming in.
"I was really happy with Emma's performance," he continued. "She did a great job. You can tell her confidence as the year was going got stronger each race. She was feeling like she could handle it and was getting into the racing mode that much better."
Lucia Stafford of the University of Toronto won in 27:30, just ahead of Laval's Anne-Marie Comeau (27:36) and Queen's Branna MacDougall (27:52).
Steele finished 15th among Canada West competitors, which would have put her one spot shy of an all-star team spot (she was 11th in the same race in 2018). However, unlike as in years past, the teams were awarded out of the inaugural Canada West championship two weeks ago in Calgary. MacEwan's Kiana Row secured a second team all-star nod there by finishing 11th, but she struggled to a 122nd-place finish (38th among Canada West competitors) on Saturday after completing the course in 32:08.
Going in, Carver had thought his star rookie could break the 30-minute barrier, but some days even the best athletes just don't have the legs. Row led the Griffins in every previous event the team entered this season.
"I think the year was going along great and she basically didn't really recover from the last race," he said. "I know how hard she pushed herself in that one and it showed up today.
"Even though she did put everything she had into it, you could just tell right from the start that the legs weren't there and as hard as she tried it wasn't going to happen."
Carver had hoped a week of light training would allow for extra recovery, but it just didn't work out.
"Talking to Kiana after the race, the whole thing was she didn't feel strong," he said. "As hard as she tried to keep up with Emma, she just kept losing ground. The lead group they normally run with left Kiana behind and she struggled right to the finish line. I think the rookie year with all the racing kind of caught up to her."
