Cross-Country, Lacrosse Teams Win Gold
November 08, 2008 - Campus Bulletin
The University of Guelph's women's and men's cross-country teams made history Saturday, winning the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) championships held at Laval University in Quebec City. It was a record-setting fourth consecutive win for the women's team, while on the men’s side, Matt Brunsting won the gold medal - the first Gryphon men’s individual gold in 31 years.
(Read about the cross-country teams' victory in the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star)
In addition, the Gryphon men’s lacrosse team became national champions, beating McGill University 14 to 9 to win the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association's 23rd annual Baggataway Cup Sunday.
In cross-country, Guelph is now tied for the most combined men’s and women’s national titles in history at 13. Guelph also swept the team titles at the 2008 Ontario University Athletics championships in Kingston Oct. 25.
The men’s team captured its third consecutive CIS team title and earned four first-team All-Canadian spots. It also broke the CIS margin for largest victory, defeating runner-up St. Francis Xavier by 81 points.
Brunsting, whose gold-medal win was Guelph’s first on the men’s side since 1977, won the 10-km race with a time of 32:08.3. He was joined on the podium by teammate Kyle Boorsma, who won silver (32:13.6). Allan Brett, the Ontario University Athletics MVP, was fourth (32:25.2), Derek Snider placed sixth (32:32.9) and team captain Josh Roundell was 15th (33:15.4).
On the women’s side, Lindsay Carson, the 2007 CIS MVP, won the bronze medal in the five-km race despite nursing a foot injury, with a time of 17:59.3. Rachel Cliff garnered her third All-Canadian honour, finishing 10th overall (18:36.7) while teammate Courtney Laurie finished 15th (18:49.5). Although the performance of the top three runners was vital to the Gryphon women, it was the performance of a trio of sophomore women that brought the title back to U of G, with Lindsay Furtado finishing 24th (19:05.0); Karoline Hoy 27th (19:08.5); and Laura McIvor, 30th (19:13.8).
Head coach Dave Scott Thomas said the two championships were the result of “the legacy of miles run together over the past year. It carried them to a new space. I don’t think you can really put in words how powerful that is.”
The men's lacrosse team's victory was its third overall championship title, with previous wins in 1995 and 2000. Head coach Sam Kosakowski led the team to each of its three championship titles.
“It’s still a surreal feeling,” Kosakowski said after the game. “Watching them hoist the cup was a great feeling; they all played their hearts out there today.”
Guelph was led by attacker Braden Gallant, who scored three goals and three assists. Gryphon attackman Jason Mainer was awarded the UnderArmor Player of the Game Award for his performance of four goals and one assist. Overall , the team finished the season 11-2.
