WATERLOO, Ont. (October 17, 2014) – The St. Mary’s Eagles collected five of the nine titles up for grabs at the 2014 District 8 Cross Country Championship on Friday including the prestigious overall combined title.

The Eagles landed on top collecting their fifth overall combined title in six seasons and their second in many years besting St. Benedict CSS by 11 points for the win. St. Mary’s scored 46 combined points while St. Benedict’s had 35. Resurrection finished third with 33 points.

St. Mary’s Sydney Collins led the way for the Eagles in the senior girls 5,000-metre clocking a time of 17 minutes and 43 seconds to win gold. She was followed by St. David’s Breanne Steven at 18:01.4 while Sylvie Carruthers of Père René de Galinée placed third. Kennedy Bourque and Julia Moreau both of St. David’s finished fourth and fifth to help the Celtics win just their third senior girls team title since 1990.

Resurrection’s Brendan Masters and Joseph Hunter provided a 1-2 punch on top the podium for the Phoenix in the senior boys race with Masters dashing to a time of 23:12.59 on the 7,000-metre course. Hunter finished at 24:23.2 in second while Jason Bleach of St. Mary’s took third. St. Mary’s edged Resurrection for the senior boys crown on a tiebreaker as both teams finished with 29 points.

In the junior races, St. Benedict’s swept the podium on the girls side with standout Sevanne Ghazarian leading the way in the 4,000-metre race. She crossed at 14:09 while teammate Emily Soares followed at 15.55.6. Saint’s Sarah Joseph was third at 16:36.4 The podium sweep for St. Benedict’s easily gave them the junior girls title ahead of Monsignor Doyle.

The junior boys 6.000-metre race saw Joseph De Souza of Monsignor Doyle take gold placing ahead of Kyson Vi of St. Benedict. De Sousa’s golden time was 21.04.7 while Vi crossed at 22:08.09. St. Mary’s won the junior boys title with 27 points ahead of St. Benedict’s.

Marcus Kemp of St. Mary’s was the golden runner in the midget boys 5,000-metre race while Eliza Smith of Resurrection won the midget girls 3,000-metre event. Smith led a Phoenix podium sweep on route to Resurrection earning the girls midget title. St. Mary’s won the boys title ahead of Woodland Christian HS.

Next week, runners from this event will move on to the Central Western Ontario Cross Country Championship (CWOSSA) in hopes of advancing to the provincial championship. CWOSSA will take place on October 23rd at the University of Guelph while OFSAA will be held in the Waterloo region at the University of Waterloo on November 1st.

Overall Team Results

Overall Combined
St. Mary’s HS 46
St. Benedict CSS 35
Resurrection CSS 33
Woodland CHS 23
St. David CSS 22
Monsignor Doyle CSS 7

Overall Boys
St. Mary’s HS 30
Woodland CHS 18
Resurrection CSS 15
St. Benedict CSS 14
St. David CSS 9

Overall Girls
St. Benedict CSS 21
Resurrection CSS 18
St. Mary’s HS 16

For full results from the District 8 Championship visit http://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=96963

For more information on the 2014 OFSAA Cross Country Championship hosted in Waterloo visit http://www.ofsaa.on.ca/cross-country-running or follow on twitter @ofsaaxc