Cross-Country Teams Win CIS Gold
November 12, 2011 - Campus Bulletin
The University of Guelph women's and men's cross-country teams once again swept the team titles at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) championships held today in Quebec City.
The women's squad won its seventh straight team title Saturday, and the men earned their sixth consecutive banner.
Geneviève Lalonde and Andrew Nixon also won individual gold medals.
Guelph head coach Dave Scott-Thomas was named the CIS coach of the year.
In the women’s five-kilometre event, Lalonde won gold with a time of 18:00.04, and the Gryphons placed five runners in the top 10.
Guelph’s Nixon won the men's individual gold medal, running the 10-kilometre race in 31:42.8, six seconds faster than teammate Alex Genest (31:48.6). Five Gryphons were among the seven fastest runners Saturday.
The top seven finishers in the women's and men's races earn first-team all-Canadian status. On the women’s side, that honour went to Lalonde, Carise Thompson (18:16.5) and Lydia Frost (18:29.5).
For the men, first-team all-Canadian honours went to Nixon, Genest, Ross Proudfoot (31:59.1), Aaron Hendrikx (32:15.4) and Allan Brett (32:22.6).
“We have a lot of respect for the other universities, and the level of competition is very high,” Scott-Thomas said. “Before the races, we made sure everyone understood their role. Once it looked like we had secured the team titles, they all gave everything they had to improve their individual rankings.”
Guelph has the most successful cross-country program in CIS history, with the most banners captured by a single school. U of G has 19 CIS cross-country banners in all — 11 men’s titles and eight women’s titles.
