St. Joseph’s Catholic High School has become the first school in Elgin County to bring home an OFSAA Gold Medal for the sport of Cross Country. The Cross Country team traveled to Sudbury this past Saturday where 9 athletes competed for the school in the OFSAA Championships. The Junior Boys team brought the gold medal back to St. Thomas after their combined finishing scores resulted in the lowest collective score compared to any other team in the province.
Aiden Coles finished the race in 8th place, Tristan Coles 19th, Brent Hagerty 25th, Aiden Holder 44th, and Harrison Belanger in 62nd place. Not only did the Junior Boys pull off the win, the also won by so much that the second place finishing team was over 55 points behind them. The win is the first of its kind for the school, as well as all schools in Elgin County.
The Junior Boys were joined at OFSAA by fellow Cross Country team members Diego Alban-Gasca and Gabe Dala who competed as para athletes finishing 27th and 37th in their race. Will Mantel, who is in grade nine, earned a berth to OFSAA as the 4th qualifying individual out of WOSSA and cracked the top 100 by coming in 94th out of 261 of the best runners in the province. Cerena Aitken-Guignard was the lone female representing the Rams at OFSAA, finishing 46th in her division of 256 runners.
