UTM’s cross country team competed at Nationals last Friday, November 10 and Saturday, November 11 at College Lionel-Groulx in Québec. This is UTM’s fourth year competing in the OCAA, with the 2014-2015 season being their first year.
UTM’s Sophie Glanz placed fifth at Nationals, and earned UTM’s first OCAA rookie of the year and First Team All-Ontario honours, according to varsity program coordinator Jack Krist. The women’s team set a UTM record by being the first team to ever have an entire team be entered at Nationals. Krist says, “[this] speaks volumes to the high quality of runners that our women’s team has on the roster this year.” With Glanz finishing 15th overall as an individual.
Kale Heino and Haseeb Malik competed at Nationals for the third time in a row. Krist says, “[they] have been steadily improving since joining the team in 2015.” Heino finished forty-ninth overall at last year’s CCAA’s where he moved up twenty-six spots by finishing twenty-third overall at this year’s Nationals.
Krist adds that head coach, Adam Hassan, and lead assistant coach, Sarah Fournier, worked hard to recruit Ayah Abdeldayem and Sam Dumcum, two former UTM Eagle cross country athletes, to assist in training and strengthening the team for competition. A great deal of credit is owed to these two assistant coaches for being a large part of the cross-country teams’ success this year. Krist adds, “The four coaches have been a great blend with each bringing their own strengths to the program and guiding our athletes to personal bests.”
“I couldn’t be more proud of this team from the athletes, to the coaches and even the athletic therapy team who all came together for a stellar performance this year,” says Krist. The future of cross country at UTM is looking bright and the program is evolving with many runners returning. UTM is looking forward to another successful season for the cross-country team.
