The University of Guelph men's and women's cross country teams kicked off their seasons in style Saturday afternoon with wins at the New Balance Vic Matthews Open.
The women used a balance of young and old to handily win the meet. Fifth year Courtney Laurie ran away from the field from the gun and never looked back winning the four kilometre race with a time of 14 minutes and 5 seconds. Rookie Melissa Jones made an impressive debut for the Gryphons finishing as the runner-up with a 14 minute and 14 second performance managing to outkick Leslie Sexton of the London Runner Distance Club who held on for the bronze. The Gryphons scorers were rounded out by Jess Vanhie 10th, Vanessa Piacente 12th and Gabrielle Foran 19th. Overall the home side scored 31 points to win the team competition by 15 over Queen's, Waterloo finished third with a score of 87.
On the men's side current Guelph runners and Guelph Alumni dominated the field. The top six finishers and eight of the top ten all had ties to Guelph. Derek Snider got the win for the Alumni squad but was quickly followed by three current captain Kyle Boorsma, Alex Genest, who was making his debut for the Gryphons after transferring from Sherbrooke and fifth year Rob Koziarski. Alumnus Matt Brunsting rounded out the top five. The current edition of the Gryphons managed to hold off the Alumni team by a 28 to 36 score. The Windsor Lancers, who were resting many of the their top athletes finished third.
The Gryphon Cross Country teams will return to action next weekend at the Western International.
Results: Men's Team
Women's Team
Men's Open
Women''s Open
(Use back button to return to this page)
Chris Moulton
University of Guelph
Track and Field
Know someone else who's interested in running and triathlon?
