For the first time ever, Conestoga College won the individual gold medal at the OCAA cross country championship.
In the men’s individual 8K race, David Sharratt captured the individual title with a time of 27:05. Sharratt came into the provincial meet on a hot streak, finishing first and second at the final two OCAA invitational races of the season. Nelson Ndereva Njeru of the George Brown Huskies (Toronto) made his OCAA debut and did extremely well finishing in second place with a time of 27:28, just ahead of the 2006 defending champion Martin Labute of St. Clair. Labute won his second consecutive medal at the championship with a time of 27:28. Conestoga’s Drew Jensen was fifth overall.
In the team standings Fanshawe edged the Condors by a single point leaving Conestoga with the Silver.
Conestoga will now go to the Nationals to be held in Grand Prairie, Alberta November 9th and 10th.
Men Individual – 8K
1. David Sharratt, Conestoga (27:05)
2. Nelson Ndereva Njeru, George Brown (27:20)
3. Martin Labute, St. Clair (27:28)
4. John Mason, Fanshawe (28:03)
5. Drew Jensen, Conestoga (28:22)
6. Mike Scipio, Humber (28:31)
7. Josh Bjold, Cambrian (28:43)
Men Team
Gold – Fanshawe College – 49 points
Silver – Conestoga College – 50 points
Bronze – Humber College – 57 points
Our Team…. By coach Ken Yandeau
The cross country team at Conestoga has had some excellent results so far this year. The men’s team has finished first at both of the meets that it has attended at Fanshawe in London and at St. Clair’s meet in Windsor. At the Provincials Conestoga had another great meet with Dave Sharratt winning gold and Conestoga as a team winning silver.
Dave Sharratt and Drew Jansen have both been in the top five men all season. The rest of the men’s team consists of triathletes like Aaron Barth who did the Penticton Ironman Triathlon in August in just over 10 hours. After swimming over a mile, biking 180 km and running 42 km, the 8km men’s race hardly gives Aaron a workout. The rest of the men’s team includes Neil Dignam, Chris Santos, Stu Parsons and Jeremiah Passmore.
All of the runners on the women’s team are first year students at Conestoga College. Jessica Shantz and Larissa Wilton have been two of the team’s most dedicated athletes when it comes to practice and have improved greatly as the year has progressed. The athletes train by running up and down the hill behind the residences on Homer Watson. They do this 5-6 times every Tuesday and are really starting to believe in the saying that "what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Dave Sharratt runs over 100 miles a week and gets up at 5:30 every morning to go for his first run of the day and he still wonders why he is still single. Neil bicycles into school every day from Waterloo and Stu Parsons has been able to place well despite being constantly sleep deprived due to his address on one of the rowdiest floors in the Conestoga residence. The men’s team is needless to say an interesting group of characters.
The men’s races are 8km long and the female races are 5km in length. Therefore, the races are almost a full out sprint. Lactic acid, sweet potato dinners and carbohydrate loading are terminology that is commonplace among the members of the cross-country team. The team members might not be at every Conestoga toga party but they sure look good in their togas due to their hard workouts and excellent nutrition. Practices are every Tuesday and Thursday at 4:00 p.m.at the Conestoga recreation center.