For the fans who frequent the Marauders website, one name has continued to appear on the front page throughout the school year. No, it is not a point guard, an outside hitter or a quarterback. It is Sergio Raez Villanueva.
Villanueva is a rising star on the cross-country and track team at McMaster, and since arriving at McMaster from McGill following an illness, his name has been hard to miss.
The second-year biology major earned his third Pita Pit Athlete of the Week honours on Jan. 15 following a gold medal at Windsor’s Can-Am meet. There, Villanueva posted a converted time of 3:50.51 in the 1500m event, which is currently Canada’s third fastest time at that event and the fourth-fastest in McMaster history. Villanueva also ranks seventh in Canada in the men’s 3000m track events, the only Marauder to rank nationally in the top 12 in any category.
“I tend to not think much when I’m running,” Villanueva said. “I think it is partly because I do not want to get super nervous. I find my best races have been when I just went and I was like, ‘hey it’s going to be a fun race, I have no expectations, I’m going to give it my best shot’. I’m thinking right now of a 10km race that I did in 30 [minutes] flat, still my best time to this day. That race I was like I got nothing to lose, I’m just going to run and have fun. Turns out it was still one of the best races I have ever run in my life.”
His excellence in the indoor season is really no surprise to anyone as that is Villanueva’s specialty. The bigger change for Villanueva this year was adapting the uneven terrain of outdoor running.
“Sergio is a team leader, very accepting of everyone on the team. A very kind and thoughtful individual — there is no one like him.”
Paula Schnurr
Head coach
McMaster track team
“I’m more of a track guy since it’s just a flat surface, even ground,” Villanueva said. “I’m more of a top speed person that if it’s even ground, I can grind it out. However, when we started cross-country [coach Paula Shnurr] and I talked, and she said [I] should try focusing [my] off-day runs more on the grass. So that’s the one thing that I really changed this year. Every day I was just going to a park and [running] loops on the grass. And it seems to have done something because that was the best cross-country season I’ve had.”
The statistics back the deception up as Villanueva earned himself a Second Team All-Canadian distinction after running the 10km event in 31:43.42 at the U Sports Championships, good enough to place him eighth overall in the country. The drive to win starts at practice and is not lost on the team’s coaching staff.
“Sergio is very driven and focused but more importantly he just loves to run and race,” said Schnurr. “He is very talented and works hard in practice — at times I have to encourage him to slow down. Sergio is not afraid to lead races and make the pace tough for his competitors. He is fearless. His goal is to run faster than the last race and he is always looking to make each race his best.”
Villanueva has always said he prefers the longer distances, like 8km and 10km, with the 1500m being the shortest he likes to run. So it only makes sense he took a long road to get here. Despite his winding path to Hamilton, McMaster always managed to stay on Villanueva’s mind.
“Even before I went to McGill I was always between McMaster and McGill,” Villanueva said. “It’s funny because the summer before I went to McGill I had this placement at McMaster and I contacted Paula like, ‘Hey, I’m around so maybe I could join some practices’. To me this resonated from the very beginning — Paula was just so welcoming from the very beginning and the team was a so accepting, even though they knew that I was going to McGill at that point, they were just so accepting to have me that summer and train with them. I went to McGill and then that whole nonsense happened I recovered and contacted Paula, got back into training because I had a whole year before I started school. That year Paula got me in shape and I managed to do a track race on 10km, and I went to Poland for the World Juniors. So what I’d like to say is that it’s thanks to Paula and the team really — they were so welcoming. It was great being around those guys and we all work together and prosper together and get better together. Who I am now as a runner is thanks to them.”
The change in venue for Villanueva was never a rocky experience for the young runner.
“The only disappointment for Sergio was that he had to sit out a year before he could compete for Mac,” added Schnurr.
The fact that he could ease into the community coming from another program is a testament to the track team, and the university community at large.
“The McMaster community is great,” Villanueva said. “Not only the team but just the community in general honestly. The bumpy stuff was just like you know the paperwork for transferring. Once I got in and it was kind of smooth sailing. I don’t know what else to say to be honest. McMaster is a very welcoming community. I had no problems adapting or starting again at McMaster. So I’m very grateful.”
Villanueva grew up in Peru where he spent most of his time playing tennis. It was only in Grade 8 when his family moved to Canada that he discovered cross-country running. He began to seriously train after joining a club in high school and the rest is history. He even represented Ontario in the Canada Summer Games where he got to meet athletes from all sports.
While Villanueva has his sights set on making the U Sports Championships, he is focusing on improving in the 3000m race right now in addition to the 1500m. While he will focus on statistical improvements during practice, Villanueva also brings the intangibles to every training session.
“Sergio is a real pleasure to coach,” Schnurr said. “When he is absent from practice it is noticeable. He always has a smile on his face and is happy to be at practice. He is extremely supportive of his teammates and in general makes people feel at ease when he is around them.”
The team has only two more competitions to get their reps in before the provincial and national championship meets. When they hit the road towards Boston and then Toronto, the team will only continue to improve.
“The future’s pretty bright,” said Villanueva. “We’re really eager for the next coming years as the team’s progressing very, very well. We came fourth at U Sports as a team in cross-country recently, and we are really excited to try to get to the podium soon.”
Yet regardless of the results, the track team has proven with star athletes like Villanueva that they have a program that is welcoming to all new athletes, and they are successful because of it. In the seasons ahead, Villanueva will continue to be a mainstay on the Marauders home page.
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By any measure, the McMaster cross-country team had a good outdoor season, consistently placing in the top 10 of the tournaments they attended. They ultimately capped off their season with a fourth-place finish for the men and a seventh-place finish for the women at the U Sports national championship in Victoria, British Columbia. The team now looks to build on that earlier success this coming winter term.
Cross-country is a unique sport in many ways as it toes the line between a team sport and individual competition. In addition to this, there is essentially no offseason. When other sports pack it in and head indoors ahead of worse weather, cross-country athletes head indoors to continue to compete.
This indoor track season began in December with the Bob Vigars Season Opener hosted by Western University, where Mac sent a group of their athletes who all contributed to the Marauders’ trophy case. While the men swept the podium in the 3000m race, the women’s side of the track was led by fourth-year Nursing student Erin Mawhinney who captured gold in the women’s 3000m race.
“It was cool,” said Mawhinney. “I haven’t won a university race before so that was different. A couple of us do that race coming just out of cross-country season just to see what kind of track fitness we have coming from cross-country, a sort of base for the rest of the season.”
In the new year, the Marauders headed to Windsor for the Can Am Classic on Jan. 13, where Mawhinney placed fourth in the women’s 1500m race. Sergio Raez Villanueva’s placed first in the men’s 1500m race as the top-performing Marauder over the weekend.
Mawhinney notes that in terms of training not much changes between seasons, although the team does a lot more speed-oriented workouts. One big difference is in the social aspects of the sport during meets.
“We have a lot more time together with the team at meets,” Mawhinney said. “Instead of in cross-country where there is just one girls event and one boys event, track meets sometime span over two days and so you get to spend those two days with the team. It is a lot more team time, which is fun.”
Consistency breeds success and every athlete has their own set of pre-game rituals and habits that help them attack their day at the best of their ability. Mawhinney, who has been running track since she was 10 years old, recognizes that the actions leading up to a race are just as important as the race itself.
After packing her bag the night before a meet, Mawhinney will spend time with friends or teammates to her take her mind off of the impending competition and stave off nerves before a race, which have lessened over her tenure.
“I think being in fourth year, I don’t get as anxious or worked up before races anymore,” said Mawhinney. “It was a bigger problem for me in first and second year, but you learn how to just stay calm before the race and have more fun with it. I try not to think too much about the race until I’m warming up.”
When it comes to game day, music plays a key part for Mawhinney as for many other athletes.
“I listen to music on my warm-up jog,” explained Mawhinney. “I usually listen to the Tragically Hip on my warm up, and there’s a sprinkle of One Direction in there as well. Usually One Direction closer to the race; they’re a pretty happy bunch.”
After the headphones come off, Mawhinney tries to keep things light on the track and visualize the race that lays ahead of her. In order to stave off any pre-race nerves, Mawhinney likes to keep it loose, cracking jokes with her teammates and even her competition.
“I picture the race ahead of time and keep it light and humorous around the track level when we’re warming up because it just makes it way more fun,” Mawhinney added. “I find I race the best when I’m not nervous and some of my worst races have been when I’m just too nervous before. Racing when you’re really nervous before makes you get lactic faster and it is not pleasant. My best races for sure have been when I’m laid back.”
“I try to keep it pretty causal with the other girls that are racing, keep it pretty humorous and funny. Because it is a kind of funny thing to all congregate and put yourself through so much pain.”
Erin Mawhinney, Cross-country
As she looks ahead to her final year as a Marauder, Mawhinney has mixed feelings.
“It’s really good incentive to give training my all,” said Mawhinney. “I’m so much more used to the training program here now. I go to our strength and conditioning much more frequently than I did in first and second year. So having it be my last year is like an incentive to train really hard since this is sort of it, but it’s also sad because the team is so fun and it will be hard to find another environment that is as fun as them when I’m not here.”
Although it will not be the same, Mawhinney hopes to pursue running following her time as a student-athlete. A lot of Mac alumni tend to stick around the area and will sometimes still practice alongside current members of the team, so she hopes that she will be able to do that as well.
Dedicated and talented runners make up the McMaster cross-country program and are a significant reason why they can maintain their winning groove into the new year. While we maybe stuck in the midst of a brutally cold winter, the track season is only heating up.
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Men's
Blair Morgan
Coming off a strong summer season setting four personal bests on the track, Morgan is in the best position he has been in his McMaster career. The engineer is also in his third season as the Men’s team captain and hopes to lead the team to a CIS medal.
Connor Darlington
Though he is a 1500m specialist on the track, Darlington’s strength over the longer distances is clear. This year’s OUA Championships saw him as an All-Star for the third time, and will be an integral part of the Men’s team in their hopes for a CIS podium finish.
Taylor Forbes
Taylor Forbes spent a busy summer training and competing in triathlon, including racing in the European professional circuit. He finished third at the Canadian National Triathlon Championships and 17th at the ITU World Triathlon Championships in Chicago.
Austen Forbes
The other half of the Forbes’ twins, Austen Forbes also spent the summer competing in triathlon. Some of his summer highlights include a top ten finish in the ETU Triathlon European Cup in Holten, Netherlands, and a silver medal at the Triathlon Ontario Provincial Championships.
Gabriel Ghiglione
Ghiglione took a different approach to summer training, which included running around Toronto pulling a rickshaw and an 83-kilometer trail run through Killarney National Park. He is in his fourth year of a degree in Anthropology, a team representative with McMaster Athletes Care and the President of the McMaster ALS Society.
Derek Van Schepen
Van Schepen’s hard work and high mileage has been key in helping him crack the top seven this year. This is especially impressive given the fourth-year Geography & Environmental Studies student spent most of the summer training with an injured foot.
Luke Charbonneau
Charbonneau had a fantastic run at last year’s CIS Championships in challenging conditions in Newfoundland to finish as the top Marauder. He is managing to balance his Cross Country training around working at an internship as a Financial Analyst in Oakville.
Women's
Maddy McDonald
Acting as this year’s Women’s captain, McDonald has shown her strength as this year’s low-stick. An avid volunteer at McMaster and in the community, she is in her final year of Kinesiology.
Chelsea Mackinnon
This is Mackinnon’s fifth time racing at the Cross Country CIS Championships and plans to make it her best. She is currently working on a thesis project in Anatomy while managing the DBAC Pool and working as a Lifeguard.
Gabrielle Foran
Foran is a PhD candidate in Chemistry, and had an impressive summer achieving four World Records in Joggling (juggling and running) ranging from the 400m to the 5-kilometer events. She also won four Gold Medals at the National Joggling Championships.
Emily Nowak
After spending last year’s Cross Country season in a boot cast, Nowak has reclaimed her place in the top seven. She is enjoying her transition into the new Biomedical Discovery and Commercialization program while volunteering with McMaster Athletes Care and the Right to Play Club.
Maddie Benjamin
Benjamin had a successful outdoor track season seeing her set a personal best in the 1500m and is carrying this momentum onto the trails. She is in her final year of completing a double-major degree in Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour and Economics, while finding the time to act as a mentor for fellow Varsity Athletes.
Soren Meeuwisse
Meeuwisse is coming to Cross Country from a background in Mountain Biking, competing this past summer in Europe at the 2015 UCI Mountain Biking World Championships. She is completing her first year in Kinesiology and making her impressive CIS debut early in her Marauder career.
Lauren Locco
This second-year local triathlete had a breakthrough season this year to earn her spot in the top seven. Her multisport strength played a part with her successes, despite a hectic schedule as a Nursing student.
Photo Credit: Maxine Gravina
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For the first time in McMaster cross country history, both the men’s and women’s teams found a place on the podium together. With the team points and finish times noted, both teams ranked third overall and received bronze medals at the OUA Championships in Waterloo.
The men’s team repeated as OUA bronze medalists while the women’s position on the podium was more of an upset.
Team captain Maddy McDonald led the way by finishing 16th overall and crossing the line first for the team. Emily Nowak finished two places behind McDonald. The third place runner for McMaster was Gabrielle Foran, with the fourth and fifth places going to Chelsea Mackinnon and Maddie Benjamin. The last two runners were Lauren Locco and Soren Meeuwisse, finishing 32nd and 43rd respectively. McMaster’s team total was 103 points.
The Women’s Cross Country program, currently ranked fourth in the nation continues to make great strides in solidifying their spot amongst cross country powerhouses. Team captain Maddy McDonald feels that the bronze place was one that showed great improvement for the team.
“Earlier in the season, we did not make the Top Ten ranking. We felt that we had more to prove. Our training and our fitness was going well. Everything worked well in the day and it was really exciting for us,” said McDonald.
With a sport like cross country, individual finish times are just as important as the team’s. Team points are concluded from the addition of individual times so it is clear that every second counts.
For the team to improve on individual and team bests, training is crucial for the success of the team. The team trains outside five to six times a week and workouts take place three times a week.
“Going into the CIS Championships, our ranking this week is a huge motivation for us and it is attainable,” said McDonald.
Both teams have a week away from competition to train and direct their efforts to the CIS Championships, hosted by the Guelph Gryphons on Nov. 14.
“Before going into a race, we remind ourselves of the work that has been put in and all of the hours of running and strength has been done. It is about being proud of our effort no matter the outcome,” said McDonald.
The men’s and women’s teams will look to bring it all together and bring some more hardware back to McMaster.
Photo Credit: Maxine Gravina
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It was a disappointing turnout for the Marauders cross country team in St. John’s, Nfld. on Nov. 8.
After a successful season of hopeful results and top performances from the men’s team that got them to be ranked second overall in the CIS, they finished fourth overall, which was the same result they finished with last year.
While last year’s result was disappointing because they lost by a close margin of 23 points and were so close to being on the podium, this year’s result was especially heartbreaking. The team was initially told that they finished third overall, until the final results were posted, and it was announced that they actually finished fourth.
“One of the Laval guys was missed in the results, so I guess his chip didn’t register from the chip timer,” said head coach Rory Sneyd.
Along with that crucial mistake in timing, the officials also managed to not count the sixth or seventh runners from each team that acted as displacers, and they didn’t count the entire University of Regina team.
The changes that needed to be made from the initial results were the deciding factor to the Marauder’s podium-finishing hopes, and after the changes were made, the announcers had to deliver the news that Laval beat Mac to finish in the third spot.
“Ultimately the rug was pulled from under their feet. And I think honestly, that makes it sting a bit more,” said Sneyd.
“To think that they kind of escaped and just managed to achieve the goal, and only to find out that they did not…it just made it a little more painful for sure.”
The news for the Marauders was more painful than the race itself, where the athletes faced gusts of winds that reached an incredible 110 km per hour.
This made the race extremely difficult and strategic, as running in the wind is tough, and nobody wants to be the leader of the pack.
“With a couple of the guys being triathletes, they talked about it being like a bike race, where they had to get into the peloton and get in the group and get dragged along, and you don’t want to necessarily be leading the group, and if you’re going to be catching up to a group, you want to bring some company,” said Sneyd.
“Things were looking great in the first five km. It was looking like exactly what we wanted, where the guys weren’t leading the group, and were tucked in nicely, but when the separation occurred, they were definitely on the wrong end of how things shaped up.”
In the last part of the race, the first group of about 15-20 guys began to break away from the chase pack, and they began to run much faster than the majority of the runners.
Once the lead pack broke away, even the strongest runners that were at the front of the chase pack couldn’t make up ground to catch up to them, because they were going against such a fierce wind.
“We were all just trying to stay with the pack, and some of us did it better than others,” said men’s captain Blair Morgan.
“I saw at least two people fall every lap. I went down on the last lap with a guy from Queen’s, Gabe fell…a lot of people went down.”
The men’s team faced a weird predicament, where their fourth, fifth and sixth runner on the team actually finished ahead of the first, second and third runners.
Luke Charbonneau, who is usually the sixth runner to cross the finish line for the Marauders, finished in 21st overall, while the usual fourth and fifth runners on the team, Gabe Ghiglione and Austen Forbes, finished 25th and 26th respectively.
“I don’t think we could’ve expected much more from those guys,” said Sneyd.
The Marauders’ three low sticks of Taylor Forbes, Connor Darlington and Blair Morgan, however, finished fifth, sixth, and fourth, a reversed order that came at the wrong time.
Forbes, the usual leader of the Marauders pack who finished the season being an OUA All star, ended up finishing 42nd overall.
Darlington, also finishing the season as an OUA all-star ended up finishing 50th overall, and Morgan, an OUA All-star and CIS all Canadian last year, ended up finishing 32nd overall.
“We couldn’t find any particular reasons why that happened,” said Morgan.
“We were there for more than half the race, and then we were still in the chase pack, and all of our guys were in it. And in the third lap, it hit Taylor more than it hit me. I don’t know what that happened … we just kind of lost it.”
If Forbes, Darlington and Morgan raced to their potential, and if Charbonneau, Ghiglione and Forbes raced as well as they did, the men’s team would have came home with a silver medal.
“If one of us placed in the top 20, that would’ve put us 13-15 points up, and we would’ve got Laval. So we just needed that one performance from one of us, and we couldn’t put it together, so it was disappointing to end up fourth again,” said Morgan.
Although the Marauders men’s team left Newfoundland in disappointment, Morgan is still managing to shed a light of optimism on his team and getting them to look on the bright side.
Another positive for the men’s team is the fact that not a single runner on the team is leaving next year.
The top seven will be back in action for another year, with some possibilities of spots on the current top seven being challenged by some notable recruits, and other runners on the team that just missed out on their opportunity this year.
While the men are looking to build on their current talent, the women’s team will be faced with a significant recruiting year.
The women’s team was also faced with disappointment in Newfoundland, finishing 12th overall, and missing their overall goal of finishing in the top ten.
“I think we have the talent to be more competitive. Its just a number of athletes on our team struggled in those conditions. We can’t ever mirror those conditions in practice, but I know that a number of people left Newfoundland disappointed,” said Sneyd.
“Those were conditions that I have never, ever, seen before -- either as an athlete, or a coach. And it was probably conditions I hope to never see again actually.”
The Marauders will take the awful conditions in Newfoundland as a learning experience. They will have to be resilient in the 2015 cross country season to reach the podium for the men’s team, or finish within the top 10 for the women’s team.
And after a disappointing weekend, where they felt that they missed out on their opportunity to get a CIS medal or top ten finish, it just adds more fuel to the fire for next year.
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The Marauders cross country team traveled to Kingston, Ont., to compete at the OUA Cross Country Championships on Oct. 25, where they conquered the same course they completed two weeks ago.
There was a lot of pressure to perform on the day, as the top seven athletes from each team across Ontario were on the line and ready to go, and this time, the numbers mattered.
The men’s team finished third overall, tying the Windsor Lancers’ score of 71 points overall.
This scoring resulted in a tiebreaker, where according to OUA regulations, the prevailing team depended on the sixth runner that crossed the finish line.
“Had it been the CIS Championships, it would have been a comparison between the fifth runners, which would have given us the edge,” said Marauders runner Taylor Forbes.
The Marauders fifth runner to cross the finish line was Blair Morgan, who finished ahead of the Lancers fourth and fifth scorers.
Despite the disappointment of finishing third, however, this OUA medal performance says a lot about the Marauders men’s program which has improved immensely within the last couple of years.
The team was a dark horse in last year’s OUA Championships, where they shocked the conference when they managed to finish second overall.
Although the team has won a medal of a different shade, it still speaks volumes about what they are capable of as a team and what they will be able to accomplish in years to come.
Taylor Forbes led the pack for the men’s team, finishing seventh overall, which had him named not only an OUA All-star, which includes the top 15 runners on the day, but a first team OUA All-star as well.
“I feel great about my race. It was definitely a goal of mine to be an OUA All-star, let alone a first team OUA All-star, so I’m feeling confident about my result and ready for Newfoundland, where I can hopefully get All-Canadian status,” said Forbes.
The rest of the Marauders worked together in a pack run for the majority of the race, which was a strategy of theirs right when the gun went off.
Connor Darlington finally laced up the spikes to run with the top seven, and finished 14th overall in only his second showing of the season.
Gabriel Ghiglione reached his goal of being an OUA All-star, finishing 15th overall, just five seconds behind Darlington.
Austen Forbes finished 17th overall, and Captain Blair Morgan who was recovering from an illness finished 18th overall, just three seconds behind Forbes.
Luke Charbonneau was the sixth runner to cross the line, finishing 22nd overall, and Paul Rochus was the last of the Maroon and Grey to finish the race, crossing the line just three seconds after Charbonneau in 24th place.
The Marauders are currently ranked second overall in the CIS top ten rankings, and will have to fight off the Windsor Lancers, Laval Rouge-et-Or, and the Victoria Vikings to maintain that spot.
“The boys love a good rally, so silver at [nationals] will still be the goal as it has been all season. As a team, we didn’t race as well as we had hoped for OUA’s, but that just adds more fuel to the fire,” said Forbes.
“We love a good challenge and we can’t wait to fire it up in St. John’s.”
As for the women’s team, they managed to finish eighth overall, which was disappointing for them, as their goal was to finish sixth overall on the day.
“I think our women’s team is better than what we showed at OUA’s. On an individual level, some people had better races, some had worse; but as a team, we should have been in the top six. I think the coaches echo these thoughts,” said the junior Pan Am Games 3000m silver medalist, Maddy McDonald.
Right when the gun went off in the race, a few Marauders got caught behind the pack right at the beginning, which made it tough for the girls to make their way up to the front pack.
“This is something we will be working on at [nationals], getting into a good position off the start so we aren’t already at a disadvantage from the beginning,” said McDonald.
McDonald managed to finish 17th overall, a result that she wasn’t pleased with, especially based on her performance on the course two weeks prior, where she ran a faster time.
“Top 14 was definitely a realistic goal, but I didn’t manage to perform like that on Saturday,” said McDonald.
McDonald will get another chance to show her full potential at the CIS Championships, where she will hope to finish up with the lead pack where she belongs.
Finishing behind McDonald was Gabrielle Foran in 37th, Kierstin Myers in 39th, Chelsea Mackinnon in 45th, Madeleine Benjamin in 47th, Maxine Gravina in 53rd and rookie Erin Mawhinney in 56th.
The team will be trying to stay well rested, and as confident as they can before travelling to Newfoundland to compete.
“Our coaches were hesitant as to whether to send us to the CIS Championships or not, so our goal is to prove to them and to ourselves that we do deserve to be there,” said McDonald.
“I do believe that we are capable of competing among some of the best teams in Canada.”
The Marauders will get one final shot at glory at the CIS Championships in St. John’s, Newfoundland on Nov. 8.
The Marauders cross country team took to the trails at the Queen’s Invitational meet on Oct. 11 in Kingston, Ont.
At this meet, the men’s team finished first overall with Taylor Forbes leading the pack at third overall. The women’s team finished second overall with Maddy McDonald being the first Marauder to cross the finish line in third place overall.
The men’s team managed to win for their third time in a row despite the absence of Captain Blair Morgan due to illness, and top runner Connor Darlington due to injury.
Morgan is a competitor that managed to work and train hard even throughout his sickness, and it took a lot of convincing from teammates and coaches alike for him to come to terms with the fact that he was too sick to race.
“It took him two weeks and a string of bad workouts before he finally admitted he was actually sick. And even then it still took some convincing before he finally agreed to just rest up for the OUA championships,” said teammate, Taylor Forbes.
Forbes debuted in this race, after taking a month-long recovery after triathlon season. He was looking forward to racing his teammate and best friend, but will get the chance to do so at the OUA and CIS championships, where Morgan will be in his best shape.
As for Darlington, he was experiencing some tightness in his calf after an earlier work out, and the coaches decided it would be best for him to sit this race out, and run at provincials and nationals when he is feeling his best.
“He’s as much a part of the top seven as anyone else and he will be ready to go come nationals” said Forbes.
Forbes’ first race of the season was extremely impressive, especially after a very long and competitive triathlon season, which saw him compete at the World Championships.
Standing on the start-line for the Queen’s Invitational, he had more than just the regular jitters before the gun went off.
“I was very nervous coming into this race. Not just general race nervousness but nervousness out of fear I may be burnt out from a long triathlon season,” said Forbes.
“It’s tough for us triathletes to perform our best with back-to-back seasons,” he added.
Forbes was able to prove that he was in great shape, however, finishing a team-best third overall and sticking with the race strategy Coach Sneyd had for him as best as he could.
Even with a podium finish, however, Forbes still believes that he has more in the tank.
“I thought I had it in me to run away with the race, but I underestimated by competitors and paid for it pretty hard in the last lap of the course,” said Forbes.
But Forbes first race speaks volumes for the kind of shape he is in right now. This race has gotten him one step closer to his final goal, which is to be an All-Canadian at the CIS Championships in Newfoundland.
Not too far behind Forbes in the race was Gabe Ghiglione in 6th, Austen Forbes in 7th, Luke Charbonneau in 9th and Derek Van Schepen in 13th.
The men’s team consecutive first place finishes has moved them up in the CIS rankings to second overall.
On the women’s side, the team finished second overall, a feat that has moved them up in the CIS rankings to 8th overall.
Maddy McDonald led the team, finishing third overall, right behind former teammate turned-Queen’s University grad student, Victoria Coates.
Next to cross the finish line in Maroon and Grey was Gabrielle Foran, who finished 10th overall, Maddie Benjamin in 15th, Kierstin Myers in 17th, and Erin Mawhinney in 25th.
The Marauders will get to tackle the same course again in Kingston in two weeks at the OUA Championships.
The team will take the next two weeks for a critical period of high-intensity training, followed up by some rest and recovery before the provincial championship meet.
Blair Morgan has just come off of the most exciting and surprising cross country season of his career, and his success is not stopping anytime soon.
Morgan, a fourth-year biochemical engineering major, finished fourth overall at the Western Invitational meet, and was the first Marauder to cross the finish line.
The final result was close to his initial goal, which was to finish first overall.
“My personal goal was to try and win, so I figured I’d just go with the lead pack and just race from there,” said Morgan.
At the beginning of the race, former training partner and Queen’s Gael runner Jeff Archer took the lead pack out hard, and Morgan tried to hold on to the grueling pace.
Marauder runner Austen Forbes also went out with Archer, so Morgan tried to stick with Forbes for the majority of the race.
In the final kilometre, Morgan was passed by two Lakehead Thunderwolves runners, along with Archer who led the race the entire way.
“It was still a pretty good first race,” said Morgan.
Comparing Morgan’s fourth place finish to his 17th place finish at the same meet last year, his first race of the season was more than pretty good. It was phenomenal.
Last season, Morgan’s breakthrough race did not come until OUA’s, where he shocked coaches and runners alike when he finished sixth overall.
Although he was making huge progress throughout the season, his sixth place finish compared with his 36th place finish at OUA’s in 2012 was both impressive and unexpected.
“It would be nice to have an amazing race at OU’s again, but I think it’s going to be more steady. I think I’ll be up at the front pack from the beginning this year,” said Morgan.
And Morgan won’t be the only Marauder that will be leading out in front.
If the results from the Western Invitational are any indication, the Marauders will have several athletes running at the front of the pack.
At the meet, the top five Marauders that counted towards scoring finished within the top 15.
Following Morgan in 4th, Austen Forbes finished 7th, Gabe Ghiglione finished 9th, Paul Rochus finished 10th and Paul Kolb finished 14th overall.
This adds up to 44 points, which was 31 points ahead of the second place Lakehead Thunderwolves.
This was all done without two of the top three runners on the team, Connor Darlington and Taylor Forbes, both of whom are more than capable of finishing within the top 5 at the meet.
These two runners are planning to race at the Queen’s Invitational meet on Oct. 11.
With this group on the line, winning a CIS medal is more than a goal—it’s an expectation.
“If everyone is healthy and on the line, we’ll have a medal,” said Morgan.
The women’s team also performed very well at the meet, finishing third overall.
Maddy McDonald was the leader for the Maroon and Grey, finishing in fourth place, a feat that got her named the McMaster Pita Pit Athlete of the Week.
Not too far behind McDonald were Kierstin Myers in 24th, Maddie Benjamin in 25th, rookie Erin Mawhinney in 28th, and Gabrielle Foran in 30th.
The Marauders will take the week to prepare for the Windsor Invitational on Sept. 27, where they will hope to keep up with the lead pack and race hard to the finish line.
Photo credit: Clive Morgan
The Marauder cross country team ran to the best of their potential at the CIS championships at the Thames Valley Golf Course in London, Ont. – a course that they are very familiar with, from last year’s CIS Championships.
The women’s team finished in 6th place overall, while the men’s team finished 4th overall, which was their best finish at the championships since 2000.
The men’s team managed to pull off an incredible performance and finish despite missing one of the best runners on the team—Connor Darlington.
“He came down with a lower-body injury. The day before the meet he indicated that he was 95 per cent sure that this wasn’t going to be something he could run through. He’s a big time team player and we know it hurt him to have to admit this. Hopefully he is back healthy soon and ready to do some damage in the indoor cheapest generic cialis season,” said coach Rory Sneyd on the situation.
This ended up not being an issue for the team, however, as several runners stepped up in the high-pressured situation to have strong finishes overall.
The most impressive of these performances included Lionel Sanders, who finished in tenth place overall, and captain Blair Morgan, who finished in 11th place overall, which was a huge improvement from last year’s CIS championships, where he finished 46th overall
“Blair proved that his OUA performance was no fluke,” said Sneyd.
The third runner in for the Marauders was Gabe Ghiglione in 20th place – which was also an incredible performance on his part, as he finished in 44th place at the OUA championships two weeks before.
“Gabe was a game-changer having been 44th at the OUA meet, and then 20th at CIS meet – that just isn’t done. Had he been our 4th or 5th man, our men are on that podium. He’s a special athlete and I look forward to seeing his progress in coming years,” added Sneyd.
Rounding out the score for the Marauders was Taylor Forbes in 36th place, while his brother Austen Forbes finished in 37th.
Although the men’s team missed making it to the podium this round, the future of the team is looking promising, with several runners returning next year, and other top high school recruits expressing their interest in McMaster for next year.
“All five of our scorers return, plus Connor, and guys like Nick Kondrat, Paul Rochus, Jeramie Lai, Luke Charbonneu, and Nick Belore. We have at least three of the top ten senior boys from OFSAA sincerely interested in McMaster. The men are going to be podium contenders for years to come,” said Sneyd.
As for the women’s team, Sneyd is proud of their 6th place accomplishment, and feels as though they are proud also and have reached their goal of the season, especially after facing some major challenges and setbacks throughout the season.
“Going into the meet, we talked about beating some teams that we had previously faced and thought we could beat – Windsor, Dalhousie, and McGill. We knew that the teams from out west were big question marks so we did not set our sights on Trinity Western or Victoria because we were not sure how good they might be. We felt the top four OUA schools would be tough to beat. It ended up that Trinity Western ran well and our women were able to beat Victoria. The women talked about being proud of their team effort and I think they achieved their goal,” said Sneyd.
The women’s team will be losing their oldest member, Courtney Patterson, for next season, which Sneyd believes is a loss for the team, but nothing that will set them back from winning a medal.
“She contributed to five OUA team medals and four CIS team medals. We knew we could count on Courtney and she is definitely a big loss for the program.”
But Sneyd knows that the women’s program will only improve from here, as the goal is to get on the CIS podium once again.
“We expect to get some quality recruits and the goal for next year is to be back on the OUA and CIS podiums,” said Sneyd.
As for the people that stood out in the race on the women’s team, Sneyd credits grad student Kierstin Myers, and leader Maddy McDonald for their outstanding performances.
“Kierstin Myers stands out. To be so close to Courtney was quite impressive. Maddy McDonald also ran great. She ran conservatively and was less than ten seconds off being an all-Canadian again. It was a trying season for her, both physically and emotionally, and she performed admirably despite these tribulations,” added Sneyd.
The team will now take a much-needed break before getting into training again for the track season, which gets underway in January.
Connor Darlington was prepared to go far away for university. His plan all along was to get a full-ride scholarship from a good school in the United States, and to run with some of the best collegiate runners in North America in the NCAA.
This was something that was not out of reach for him, as he was always a stand-out runner in high school, winning numerous OFSAA medals, and qualifying for the Canadian junior cross country team as an 18-year old.
“For the most part throughout high school, I was thinking of going to the States,” said Darlington.
Darlington had offers from Southern Utah University, University of Missouri, University of Mississippi, Liberty University, and Iona College. He ended up getting a full-ride scholarship with Iona College, and signed there, as he felt like the school was a good fit for him.
“Iona was my top choice. I signed there confidently, expecting to go the States. And it was only two months later that I decided maybe Canada is right for me.”
For Darlington, it was not the coaches, or the college itself that was the problem. He simply just did not know if going to the States on a full-ride scholarship was the right choice for him.
“I did an official visit. It was great. I loved the school, the coaches were good. I think a big fear amongst Canadians going to the states is that you are going to get a coach who is pretty intense, they will break you down, but these coaches were very good, and very prepared to work with me.”
But Darlington is the type of runner that has suffered from several injuries in the past, and was hoping to be able to receive individual attention from the coaches. This is hard to come by in the States, where exceptionally talented athletes come in numbers.
It wasn’t all about the pressure for Darlington. At the end of the day, it came down to his injury problems in the past, and the expectations that go along with a full-ride scholarship that made him look more seriously at Canadian schools.
“In a full-ride, there is an expectation that you perform and train and give them the results as an investment in the athlete and in the school. There is a little bit of pressure. I wasn’t too concerned about the pressure, but I knew that I am the type of runner that needs individual attention and I have had a past of injuries before. I wanted to make sure I was in an environment that would not have me injured and gave me some freedom to do what I need to do. That is a big concern for the [United States].”
The running program at McMaster turned out to be the best fit for Darlington, as he knew that he would have the freedom to train how he wanted, would receive great coaching from Rory Sneyd, Paula Schnurr and Pete Self, and at the same time, would not run into the kind of injury problems that he feels he may have suffered in the States.
“Going into first year, I wasn’t 100 percent healthy. In the time, I have been able to overcome [injuries] and take the steps that I need to be healthy. Right now, I am probably 95 percent healthy, only small things, which is pretty good as far as injuries go.”
Other than the individual attention, a huge part of Darlington’s decision to come to McMaster was the fact that he started to gear his training towards triathlons, and knew that there were facilities here that could help him with this. He also had teammates from triathlon-training that were on the Marauders cross country and track team, and convinced him to come.
“The only reason I started to change was because I started to cross-train more and I got interested in triathlons, that led me to look at Canadian options because triathlons are bigger, as far as University goes, in Canada than it is in the States. That made me start to look more locally this side of the border,” said Darlington.
“The thing that made me come to McMaster is definitely the combination of having the coaches and also the triathlon teammates which would be easily accessible at McMaster. I was on the fence cialis online between running and triathlons and I knew it had the combination of good running coaches and the right facilities to train for triathlons” added Darlington.
He also liked the fact that there was not a lot of risk involved with his decision to come to McMaster, compared with his decision to go to the States.
“It was the best of both worlds with low risk. Going to the [United States] you have more risk involved, as money is on the line,” added Darlington.
With the addition of Darlington on the roster, the Marauders have been able to shock some people, winning their first OUA medal in years. Darlington feels as though this is a sign of things to come for the future of the men’s running team at McMaster.
“The general trend is that fast teams usually attract faster recruits. I am hoping that with our success this year, we will be able to attract even more recruits,” Darlington said.
As for the team currently, Darlington feels as though they too will improve even more so than they have already, because of their youth.
“As far as the team goes, we are a young team, most of our guys are in their second or third eligibility year with the exception of a couple…I think that we can recruit more talent. That has been the case with the Guelph team as well, they have created a power house and they attract more runners. I think [McMaster] will do that as well.”
Before Darlington thinks about the possibilities of next season, however, this season still isn’t over yet.
The Marauders men’s team will look to capture their first CIS medal in a very long time this weekend, In London Ont. at the CIS Championships. This is a race that Darlington feels he is prepared for.
“I have never been as excited about a team medal as I have been for this race because I think that it is a genuine possibility,” said Darlington.
“I am hoping to land in the Top 15 and hopefully that bodes well for our team to follow up with a couple low scores. I think we can get a medal.”
As for his decision to stay and compete in Canada, as opposed to the United States, Darlington could not be happier with it.
“Sometimes I think about the alternatives, as I am sure everyone does. But I think staying in Canada was the best fit for me.”
