WATERLOO REGION (October 21, 2016) – On a chilly and wet Thursday at Bechtel Park in Waterloo, the St. Benedict Saints successfully defended their overall cross country championship title.

It was again Sevanne Ghazarian who lead the way for St. Benedict’s as she has now won individual gold at the D8 Championships all four years of high school. Ghazarian finished more than two minutes ahead of Resurrection’s Eliza Smith who won the silver in the five kilometer race. Kennedy Bourque from St. David’s won the bronze. St. Benedict’s Hope Harnack and Emily Soares finished fourth and fifth respectively to win the senior girls title.

Greg Danayan, also for St. Benedict’s, ran strong in the senior boys seven kilometer race to win gold; followed by St. Mary’s Marcus Kemp who won the silver. Joseph De Sousa from Monsignor Doyle captured the bronze. The Saints would also capture the senior boys team division with strong outings from Nathaniel Wells and Kyson Vi.

In an impressive repeat performance from last year, the junior girls team from Rockway dominated with three runners in the top four. Claudia Heeney ran for the gold for the Flames beating St. Benedict’s Nikki Soares by four seconds in the four kilometer race. Tessa Hedrick followed up four seconds later, taking the bronze, trailed by Rockway teammate Kaitlyn Fabian in fourth.

One of the best team performances came from the junior and midget boys from St. Mary’s. In the six kilometer junior race, the Eagles had six runners in the top nine and four in the top six finishers in the five kilometer midget race. Both teams scored an incredible meet low score of 14 points each.

The junior boys individual gold went to St. Mary’s Foster Malleck who won his race by more than a minute over Père René de Galinée runner Kyle Bociort who took the silver medal. Andrew Schipper and Joshua Jackson finished third and fourth for St. Mary’s respectively.

It was much of the same in the midget boys race with Daniel Cooper from St. Mary’s winning gold in a much smaller margin over Bruce Hackner from Père René who finished second by four seconds. St. Mary’s Adam Loffelmann won the bronze six seconds later over teammate Nathan Kemp who was another six seconds behind Loffelmann.

St. Benedict’s also captured the midget girls division without an individual winning a medal. Resurrection’s Abbey Yuhasz won the gold for the Phoenix narrowly beating a pair of Woodland runners. Elissa Gibson came across the line two seconds ahead of teammate Caitlin Shepherd as they won silver and bronze respectively.

The overall girls title went to St. Benedict’s and the boys overall title was a split decision between St. Mary’s and St. Benedict’s, which hasn’t happened since 2000 when St. Benedict’s slip the prize with Resurrection.  For complete results please visit www.district8.ca.

The CWOSSA Championships will take place Thursday October 27th at Bechtel Park in Waterloo, followed by OFSAA Championships on Saturday November 5th in Port Hope, Ontario.