Staff
It was a trial run—and the verdict was pretty promising.
The Muskie cross-country running team used the annual Dryden “Turkey Trot” event last Wednesday as its final warm-up before the NWOSSAA championships today in Thunder Bay.
A look at Fort High’s results provides plenty of optimism for local runners hoping to qualify for the OFSAA showdown Nov. 1 in Waterloo.
Jenny Hammond led the Muskie charge with a third-place showing out of 22 runners in the girls’ five-km run with a time of 23:06.
Hammond was just three seconds slower than Elizabeth Carter of the host Dryden Eagles (23:03), who finished second behind teammate and winner Andie Wood (19:59).
However, Hammond is away on a school field trip and won’t be in Thunder Bay today.
That leaves Hailey Beaudry, the reigning Muskie female athlete-of-the-year, as Fort High’s best chance to have a participant at OFSAA.
Beaudry was ninth in Dryden, with a time of 24:42, as she tries to rediscover her form in an effort to make it to her third-straight provincial meet.
But it will be a tall order as only the top three individual finishers outside of those on the top two teams will advance.
“[Beaudry] has some stiff competition this year, running against athletes who have qualified for OFSAA both in cross-country and track last year, so they have some high-level racing under their belts, as well as some fast runners who moved up from juniors last year,” noted Muskie co-coach Ilka Milne.
Sydney Beck, who is racing in the Midget division in Thunder Bay, was 12th in Dryden last week (25:53).
“Sydney should do well . . . she’s a confident competitor,” said Milne.
Muskie rookie Gabi Peters finished in 14th last week (26:05) and also will be in the Midget field today.
“This is Gabi’s first NWOSSAA race,” noted Milne.
“She is strong mentally and has benefitted from the greater depth of racing experience we were able to offer the team this year,” Milne added.
Tory Beaudry was 16th (28:07) on what she described as a “very muddy track.”
The Muskie girls’ contingent did well enough to place second in the team rankings with 29 points behind host Dryden.
Meanwhile, it was a long-awaited season debut for Arthur Van Ael last week in Dryden.
The Muskies’ lone male representative this year worked his way to a seventh-place finish in the boys’ five-km run with a time of 21:35.
Van Ael had been relegated to a spectator’s role since the start of the season due to a hip injury suffered during summer training sessions.
“Arthur felt good about his first race of the season,” said Milne.
“Considering he had to cut back his mileage almost to zero to recover from his injury, his goal for Dryden was to complete the run while focusing on the changes he’s made to his form to prevent re-injuring himself,” she noted.
“In spite of this modest goal, and the fact that he’s lost fitness during his down time, he found himself in a comfortable third place until he fell twice in his last lap of the course,” added Milne.
With the senior boys’ race at NWOSSAA set to cover seven km, Milne is tempering her hopes for Van Ael.
“Looking at the times his competitors have been recording this year, we aren’t expecting Arthur to place as well as we had hoped from his summer training,” she admitted.
“But he’s planning to race hard anyway,” she stressed.
