After a productive summer of hard work and mileage, the Marauders cross country team is back and ready to take on some of the powerhouse teams in the OUA.
Their first test will be this weekend at the Western Invitational, where select runners on the men’s and women’s team will get to lace up the spikes and prove themselves in the first race of the season.
After the time trial two weeks ago, there are already some talented athletes who stand out.
On the women’s side, the 3000m CIS finalist Maddy McDonald finished first overall and is looking to improve on last year’s cross country season, when she finished 17th overall at nationals.
“Maddy took the summer off and hasn’t done any serious competing. She just trained and didn’t have a stressful or competitive season,” said assistant coach Paula Schnurr.
Another name that stands out on the women’s side is Phoebe Cseresnyes, who unfortunately was faced with an injury at the beginning of last year’s cross country season.
Cseresnyes is now completely healthy, and is expected to be a top performer for the Marauders throughout this season and future seasons in both cross country and track.
As far as female rookies go, Erin Mawhinney will be the leader of the young pack, which she proved after her outstanding performance at time trial, which saw her finish third overall.
Local rookie and Westdale Secondary School graduate Lauren Locco will also be a force to be reckoned in upcoming seasons, finishing right behind women’s captain Chelsea Mackinnon in time trial.
Veteran runner Maddie Benjamin managed to surprise the coaches in her debut, finishing fourth overall and impressing both coaches.
The main goal for the women’s team this year is to maintain their top six finish overall from last year, a goal that head coach Rory Sneyd sees as being reachable with the right amount of work put in.
“I kind of get the sense with the women’s team that we have enough talent, and if we can stay healthy, that a few people will work themselves into shape,” said Sneyd.
“I see the best running for them in late October and in November for sure.”
As for the men’s team, they are looking to reach the CIS podium this year after being close to doing so last year.
The main goal for the men’s team is to keep everyone healthy, so the best seven on the team will be ready to race hard at Nationals in November.
If this is the case, the team will be heavily favoured to win a CIS medal.
Among the best Marauders on the line will be captain Blair Morgan, who just got off of a ground-breaking season, finishing sixth overall at OUA’s and 11th overall at CIS.
“[Morgan] has got a ton of confidence from how he performed in cross country last year and he had the opportunity to represent Canada at the World University Games Cross country Championships in Uganda, so I think that just having run with the other members of Team Canada and just getting to know them, he feels like he belongs now,” said Sneyd.
Austen and Taylor Forbes will also be ahead of the pack, after coming off of very successful summers that saw the twins reach the national triathlon championships, with Taylor Forbes then advancing to Worlds.
Paul Rochus is also a name that stands out on the men’s side. He finished second overall in the time trial and has put in a lot of mileage over the summer months.
Nick Kondrat, who was injured with a stress fracture early on last year is also looking to have a successful cross country season, as he was the top rookie coming into the program last season.
Kondrat worked hard through his injury to come out on top in time trial, finishing third overall.
The coaches were surprised by Derek VanSchepen’s performance, as he did not make the top seven last year, but after his debut performance at time trial where he finished fourth, the odds are in his favour.
Another athlete that the Marauders coaches are looking forward to seeing race includes Gabe Ghiglione, a runner that started at the back of the pack and has quickly worked his way to the top of it in the last two years.
“[Ghiglione] really surprised us last year and he’s such a great competitor, that I think there will be some extra expectations after his success last year, but I think he’s okay with that,” said Schnurr.
Out of the recruits on the men’s side, the coaches are excited about Evan Ubene, who was the first rookie to cross the finish line at time trial, and Frank Sorbara, who is completing his Masters of Physio here at Mac.
If the men’s top runner Connor Darlington stays healthy for the CIS Championships, settling on the top seven to put forward for the provincial and national championships will be difficult for the coaches.
“It’s going to be really hard to decide who’s not going to make it. It’s a good problem to have, but it’s going to be really tough,” said Sneyd.
Before Sneyd and Schnurr have to worry about making any difficult decisions, the team still has to run their first race of the season.
The team will be travelling to Western University on Sept. 20, where they will look to put in a solid team effort to start the season.
A couple of weeks ago, Blair Morgan had no idea that he would be racing at the FISU World Cross Country Championships in Uganda, Africa.
Morgan – the Captain of the Marauders track and cross country team – was named one of the alternates of the team after his stellar race at the CIS Cross country Championships in November that saw him place 11th overall. This top 15 finish solidified his spot as a CIS all-star.
“I found out about a week afterwards that I was an alternate for the race,” said Morgan. “I was actually the second alternate, because Lionel [Sanders] was the first alternate.”
Sanders – a veteran runner on the Marauders cross country team – finished 10th overall at the CIS Championships, just two seconds ahead of Morgan, making him the first option as an alternate for the Canadian team.
Six people were named to race at the International meet, but after Ryan Cassidy – a runner from U of Vic was declared as being injured – Sanders was next in line to be named to compete.
“They were going to ask Lionel, but they heard he wasn’t interested, so they called me, and after that it took a couple weeks for them to get confirmation that they could enter me because it was past the entry deadline, so it was a couple weeks of just waiting,” said Morgan.
Morgan got the call that he would be racing on March 6, and he needed to alter his training from shorter track distances, to longer cross country distances in the short period of time.
But he was prepared, just in case.
“I got all the vaccinations I needed before I found out I was going, so I made arrangements before, basically as if I was going,” said Morgan.
Qualifying for the FISU Canadian cross country team was just the cherry on top of some of the major accomplishments that Morgan has achieved this season.
Morgan – an extremely dedicated student-athlete – has improved tremendously this season both in cross country and on the track, shocking everyone in the competitive running scene in the process.
Last year, Morgan finished 36th at the OUA Championships, and 46th at the CIS Championships.
This year, he finished 6th at OUA’s, and 11th at CI’s, dropping off an outstanding 35 places, and practically a minute and 15 seconds off of his time at the CIS Championships.
“I was at a plateau, but then I upped my mileage, and it got me going up,” said Morgan.
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Triathlons are Morgan’s main concentration in the summer months, but for the summer leading up to this year’s cross country season, he did things a little differently.
“I finished my tri season early to get ready for cross and I was training pretty hard, but I wasn’t expecting what happened,” said Morgan.
Along with upping his mileage, Morgan credits this year’s massive improvements to swimming over the cross country season to prevent injuries, and to his core work-outs with the rest of the Marauders team.
After a long season of hard work and extremely impressive results, Morgan will now get the opportunity to compete alongside some of the world’s best collegiate runners.
In such a high-level, prestigious meet like the FISU World Cross Country Championships, Morgan has one goal in mind: to not be the last runner sporting the Canadian singlet to cross the finish line.
“There’s a couple of guys that I raced with in the fall cross country season. I’m just going to try and run with them and see how it goes,” said Morgan.
Although the meet will be filled with future Olympians and extremely talented runners mainly from the host-continent of Africa, Morgan will fare well in the competition, as he is a primary example that hard work really does pay off.
By: Laura Sinclair
Cancer is a terrible disease that effects millions world-wide every year. In the case of former McMaster swimmer, Naomi Cermak, the disease struck this year, when the doctor’s told her that she was diagnosed with Stage IV melanoma.
Naomi graduated from McMaster’s kinesiology undergrad program in 2004, and after getting her Masters degree at Brock University, she revived her PHD in Kinesiology in 2010, also at McMaster. She won the Young Investigators Research Award in 2008, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada doctoral award (2007-2010), and Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Naomi was a swimmer for the McMaster swim team, where she made it to the OUA finals all 5 years of competing. She was also the Captain of the Swim Team in her final two years at Mac. This high-performing, talented student athlete received the shocking news of her diagnosis in November and is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
The news also effected the lives of family and friends, one of them being former swim team, cross country, track team member and McMaster grad student Andrew Bysice, who wants to do anything he can to help raise money for his friend, Naomi.
In order to do this, Bysice started a “Fear the Beard” campaign to help raise money for melanoma research.
Bysice initially grew out the beard for superstitious purposes for his indoor track season, but after hearing the news that Naomi was diagnosed with melanoma, decided to use his growing beard as a method to gain awareness and raise money for his friend. “It’s essentially just me growing a grotesque beard and getting people to donate to alleviate the pain on their eyes!” Said Bysice.
Over the last couple of weeks, The “Fear the Beard” campaign is well underway, with a YouTube video, a twitter hash tag (#fearthebeard), t-shirts being sold, and a donation page where all of the money raised will go to the Princess Margaret Cancer Research Centre to benefit melanoma treatment and research, as requested by Naomi. The Princess Margaret Hospital has also opened a special melanoma immunotherapy fund thanks to the Fear the Beard campaign’s contributions.
Bysice suggests many ways for people to get involved in Naomi’s fight against melanoma: “People can buy a shirt and wear it around campus, donate to my donation page, and if other people want to get involved with shaving their beards as well, then come and join!”
The “Fear the Beard” Campaign’s first cut-off date is March 15th, as Bysice will be shaving his beard before Relay for Life at McMaster. The Campaign has no real end date, however, as donations can still be given to the campaign after the March 15th deadline. “If more donations are coming after that we will gladly accept.” Said Bysice.
As for the future of the “Fear the Beard” Campaign, there are still goals to be achieved and Bysice hopes that money can still be raised in years to come. The challenge of growing another long and itchy beard, however, is another thing. “Hopefully, we can keep this thing going for next year…however, I don’t know if I can grow another beard for this long! Someone else might need to take up the challenge!”
Twitter: #fearthebeard
YouTube: Cancer will fear the beard
T-shirts: e-mail bysicea@gmail.com
