WATERLOO, Ont (October 9, 2014) – Miles Matthews of Belle River District High School and Hannah Woodhouse of Georgian Bay Secondary School (Meaford, Ont) took the top senior results at the Pre-OFSSA Cross Country meet held at the University of Waterloo on Thursday.

Matthews won the 6,957-metre senior boys race dashing across the finish line in the 22 minutes and 4.6 seconds just 18 seconds ahead of Ehab El sandali of Westview Centennial SS (Toronto). Woodhouse ran the 5,029-metre race in 17:55.8 taking gold ahead of Madeleine Ghazarian from local Preston SS (Cambridge, Ont.)

The senior boys race featured 740 competitors while the girls race saw 581 student-athletes.

The event, which is a precursor to the OFSAA Cross Country Championship, saw a total of 4,144 runners register which organizers believe is the largest high school cross country meet ever run in Canada.

“Based on some of the resources available and several people we’ve spoken too, we are sure this is the biggest high school race ever run in Canada,” said Ian Clancy event chair and vice-principal of Sir John A. MacDonald SS in Waterloo. “It was a great way to get us ready for the real show coming up in a couple weeks. We had a good event today, but we’re looking forward to the OFSAA competition on November 1st.”

The closest race saw Luke Jaciw-Zurakowsky from Ajax’s Notre Dame HS grab the top result in the junior boys division besting Brayden Clark of Erin DHS by just three one-hundredths of a second. Emily Cohen of Lawrence Park HS (Toronto) won the junior girls event winner, topping local Cambridge runner Sevanne Ghazarian of St. Benedict CSS. Cohen crossed the line in 14:40.2 while Ghazarian crossed in 14:48.4
Midget results saw Caroline Forbes from Northern CIV (Sarnia, Ont.) win the 3,100-metre girls race while Aidan Dudas of Parry Sound HS took the 5,029 midget boys race.

In team results Centre Wellington from Fergus captured the senior girls team title ahead of Eastview HS (Barrie, Ont.) while Kingston CVI won the senior boys title over Petawawa’s Valour HS. Sir Winston Churchill (St. Catharines, Ont.) took the junior boys title while Lawrence Park was the toast of the junior girls event. Centre Wellington also claimed the midget boys title while Northern CIV took the girls team title.

Both Pre-OFSSA and OFSAA are jointly hosted by the Waterloo County Secondary School Athletic Association and District 8 Athletic Association Cross Country coaches. Several of the student-athletes from Thursday’s meet will return to compete in OFSAA which is set for Saturday, November 1, 2014 on the same University of Waterloo course.

Stay connected to OFSAA Cross Country Running Championship:
Twitter: @ofsaaxc
Web: www.ofsaa.on.ca/cross-country-running

Today’s Pre-OFSAA event by the numbers

# of Schools registered: 193
# of Athletes: 4144
# of Female Athletes: 2000
# of Male Athletes: 2144
# of Para Athletes: 7
# of Midget Girls: 536
# of Midget Boys: 577
# of Junior GIrls: 605
# of Junior Boys 595
# of Senior Girls: 854
# of Senior Boys
, MB, JG, JB, SG, SB: 536, 577, 605, 595, 854, 970
Farthest School: Roland Michener HS – South Porcupine, Ont (773km)
Closest School: St David CSS, Waterloo, Ont. (2.7km)
Largest Team: St Marcellinus SS (Mississauga) – 123 Athletes (60 boys, 63 girls)
Average team size: 22

For full results visit: http://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=86959

For more information contact:
Ian Clancy
519-880-9979 x1412
ian_clancy@wrdsb.on.ca