Kodiaks women’s cross country team wins national championship

Nov. 9, 2019 – The Lethbridge College Kodiaks women’s cross country team are national champions. The Kodiaks braved the weather to claim the gold medal at the CCAA championships in Grande Prairie, while Sophia Nowicki claimed a national bronze medal. 

“It's incredibly difficult to win one of these,” says Simon Schaerz, Kodiaks head coach. “Everything has to come together just right. We’ve had two years before where, on paper, we had really strong athletes and they just couldn't do it. But this group was very, very strong and they did it. I’m very excited and very happy for them.” 

The Kodiaks finished a single point ahead of Champlain College Saint-Lambert in the battle for the top of the podium, as the Kodiaks top four runners totaled 49 points. The four scoring runners were Nowicki (third year, Nursing, Bragg Creek), Anna LeBlanc (second year, Renewable Resource Management, Banff), Rosie Bouchard (first year, Renewable Resource Management, Okotoks) and Vildana Rekic (fourth year, Ecosystem Management, Lethbridge), while Janelle Graham (fourth year, Justice Studies, Olds) and Sydney Crowe (first year, General Studies, Vermilion) provided valuable depth as the Kodiaks women’s team won its third national championship and first since winning the second of back-to-back titles in 2004. 

“As a team, this is obviously the ideal outcome,” says Graham. “Everyone faced a lot of different obstacles throughout the course of the year and had to overcome those. You put in the hours, the training, a lot of volunteer work and things behind the scenes that people don't know about. So being able to get that championship means a lot.”

Nowicki, the two-time reigning ACAC champion and last year’s national champion, finished the 6-km course in 25:22 to earn the bronze medal. It is the third-straight season that Nowicki, who was also named a CCAA all-Canadian, has made the podium at the national championship as she also earned a bronze in 2017.

“I'm happy in third, as long as I got on the podium,” says Nowicki. “What I really wanted this year was the team win, so I'm so happy we got the team win because that means so much more to me. I can't say I'm disappointed in myself. You can't win every race and every race is its own. But I'm so happy with the team and so happy we made it there.”

LeBlanc and Bouchard crossed the finish line less than a second apart in nearly identical times of 26:58 and 26:59 in 15^th and 16^th place, respectively. Rekic finished 31^st, Graham was 42^nd and Crowe was 72^nd.

Two Kodiaks men’s runners took part in the 8-km men’s championship. Connor Jackson (second year, Business Administration, Surrey, B.C.) placed 15^thwith a time of 30:03, while Cooper Cheshire (second year, Agricultural Enterprise Management, Trochu) was 45^th in 31:22.

In true Grande Prairie fashion, a winter storm swept over the city the day before the race. About 15 cm of snow blanketed the course on race day and temperatures dropped into double-digits below zero with a fierce wind making it feel even colder.

The Kodiaks will return to Lethbridge on Sunday and details of an on-campus celebration will announced soon.