PETAWAWA – A gray, cool day met runners at the 2017 OFSSA Cross-Country running championship in Petawawa November 4th. Over 1,000 of the province’s top distance runners took part in the two day event.
This was Erika Jordan’s second year in a row competing at OFSSA. In Port Hope last year, Jordan placed 57th overall in the Midget 3K event. This season, Jordan raced in the Junior 5K event. She qualified for the championship at EOSSAA the previous week, finishing first overall in individual results, third overall for the race event.
Jordan raced in the lead group of racers throughout the 5,350 meter race, and finished 17th overall with a time of 22:34.0 minutes. There were 257 athletes competing in the event.
“I was happy with my run,” Jordan told The Leader after the competition. “I was hoping to finish in the top 20 runners.”
She finished 1:09 minutes behind race winner E.J. Boston from Aurora, north of Toronto.
“The course was all hills. It was definitely more difficult than last year’s course in Port Hope,” Jordan said.
She had raced this course previously, at the Kitchissippi Ridge Invitational early in October and improved on her time by over a minute.
“I was glad I ran the course earlier in the season,” she said. “It gave me a chance to see what the course was like, who else would be running, and what the finish times would look like.”
Jordan, a Grade 10 student at Seaway District High School, will continue to train over the winter, while also competing in some non-high school cross-country events. She also skates with the Morrisburg and District Skating Club and plans on competing in track and field running events next spring for Seaway.
Midget Girls results
Lilly Lewis, a Grade 9 student from Seaway, qualified for OFSSA in the 10th and final spot in the individual rankings at the EOSSAA championships October 26th. In past seasons Lewis competed at the Upper Canada Cup for Seaway Intermediate.
Lewis moved up in race standings this season from finishing 16th at the Pirates Run XC in October, to second at the SDG Championship.
She finished the 4,100 meter OFSSA race in 18:15.7 minutes, 3:29 minutes behind race winner Emma Gosselin from Milton. This placed Lewis 178th out of 257 competitors in the race.
Lewis shaved a minute and a half off her time for the course, as she had raced in the Kitchissippi Invitation race earlier in the season.