Cross-country squads bumped to second place

Tigers foiled by St. FX in all four divisions

5 km finish line. Photo by Violet Macleod

To sit atop the leaderboard in future conference races, it appears Dalhousie’s cross-country runners will have to elude a determined crew from Antigonish.

St. FX third-year Natalie Kannenberg bested the 5km women’s cross-country race in 19:05 last Saturday at the Saint Mary’s Invitational at Point Pleasant Park, surpassing Tigers Cara Groves and Ellen Chappel, who crossed the finish line in second and third respectively. Afterwards, X-Men Connor MacGuire remained in the top pack throughout the 7.5km men’s race, topping the field with a time of 24:36. Dal rookie Matt McNeil took second place.

“It was good to get that first race under my belt,” Kannenberg said after winning the season-opening race. “[My teammates] are all really good at working with each other and we all seemed to come in one after another.”

Groves picked up her own pace as the race pushed forward, and she was just two seconds behind the leader. Chappel was farther back, finishing at 19:19. Rounding out the top ten, the other Tigers representative was Ashley Chisholm in fifth place.

Dal and St. FX occupied each spot in the top 14 with the Tigers holding six positions and X acquiring eight spots.

St. FX’s dominance continued when the team scores were calculated based on the finishes of each school’s top runners. In both the men’s and women’s categories, St. FX was first and Dal second.

They may not have won any division, but Tigers head coach Heather Hennigar is not discouraged. She told her runners to avoid tiring themselves too much ahead of this weekend’s Western International cross-country meet held at the University of Western Ontario.

“Our strategy in this early race was for people to have a conservative first half and then do what they want to do in terms of stretching it out in the last half of the race,” she said. “So, coming out of the race, most of our athletes felt like they were able to pick it up and finish strong, […] and they’re leaving the course feeling like they have a little more in them.”

The men took that approach to heart in the afternoon’s later race. Tigers Matt McNeil and Brent Addison were snugly positioned about 10 back on the lead before McNeil burst forward to the top three in the third and final lap. As the gap widened, McNeil landed in second with a time of 24:39, three seconds off the lead. Jake Wing of Saint Mary’s claimed third in 24:46. Dal’s Brent Addison held strong in the 10th slot.

The Tigers rookie was thrilled to claim second place in his first university race.

“I really picked up some ground over the second half,” McNeil said, “so I just moved up and got past a few people one at a time and I got myself right near the front.”

After this weekend’s exhibition meet at UWO, the Tigers cross-country team returns to conference play on Oct. 8 in Moncton. Dalhousie’s meet happens on Sat, Oct. 15.