For the final 12 weeks, college cross nation groups throughout Canada have competed on grass and dust with one goal: reaching the 2023 U Sports activities XC Championships in London, Ont., on Nov. 12. The championships are simply three days away, and now we have all the knowledge you must know heading into the top race of the XC season, together with previews and predictions for each the boys’s and ladies’s races.
Learn how to observe
You’ll be able to catch all of the motion from Thames Valley Golf Course in London on CBC Sports activities, beginning with the ladies’s race at 12 p.m. ET, adopted by the boys’s race at 1 p.m.
Males’s U Sports activities cross nation convention championships energy rankings
Ladies’s 8K: Can UBC win their first nationwide title?
It’s been an distinctive season for head coach Steve Weiler and the top-ranked workforce within the nation, the UBC Thunderbirds. Following final yr’s runner-up end to Laval in Halifax, the Thunderbirds have seen constant success, successful each meet they’ve entered this season. Earlier within the season, Weiler’s squad travelled from Level Gray, B.C., to London, to run within the Western Invite, aiming to familiarize each the boys’s and ladies’s groups with the 2023 U Sports activities course. The ladies’s had a landslide victory by putting 5 runners within the high six, beating a deep Western Mustangs workforce.
UBC seems to be the front-runner within the ladies’s subject for Sunday’s occasion, however securing a win received’t be a cakewalk. The host faculty, Western Mustangs, has proven continued enchancment all through the season. If the race is sluggish and strategic, Western might provide a troublesome problem to UBC, with the power of Sophie and Chloe Coutts and Olivia Roussel.
Anticipate the Laval Rouge et Or ladies to around the third spot on the rostrum until UBC or Western faces challenges—there’s room for unpredictability. Laval has one of many favourites for the U Sports activities ladies’s particular person title in Catherine Beauchemin. She has gone undefeated this season and has performed an important position in Laval’s final two gold-medal-winning groups. Beauchemin will likely be eyeing a 3rd U Sports activities workforce gold on Sunday.
Predictions
Workforce
1. UBC Thunderbirds (CanWest)
2. Western Mustangs (OUA)
3. Laval Rouge et Or (RSEQ)
4. Guelph Gryphons (OUA)
5. Victoria Vikes (CanWest)
Weekend recap: Laval Rouge et Or win double gold Quebec XC championships
Particular person
1. Catherine Beauchemin (Laval Rouge et Or)
2. Kyla Becker (UBC Thunderbirds)
3. Katie Newlove (UBC Thunderbirds)
4. Cameron Ormond (Guelph Gryphons)
5. Kaitlyn Harrison (Saskatchewan Huskies)
Males’s 8K: What can we anticipate from top-ranked Laval?
Laval has maintained the highest rank within the nation all through the season, however they’ve but to compete in opposition to any of the highest 5 groups main as much as the U Sports activities XC Championships. On paper, they boast two of the perfect distance runners within the nation: Philippe Morneau-Cartier and Jean-Simon Desgagnés. Morneau-Cartier, unbeaten in all his XC races this season, has displayed dominance in all three of his wins. As for Desgagnés, in his ultimate yr of XC eligibility at Laval, enters U Sports activities after successful a gold medal within the 3,000m steeplechase on the 2023 Pan American Video games final week. Whereas these two might each take the person title, the workforce’s success depends on their third and fourth runners, Jonathan Tedeschi and Alexis Lepage, to revive Rouge et Or to gold.
There are about three different groups with a good shot at claiming the title in the event that they carry out nicely, starting with the UBC Thunderbirds. UBC, led by Andrew Davies, beforehand received an OUA convention title on this U Sports activities course in 2021. Davies was a part of the gold-medal-winning males’s McMaster Marauders squad final yr and transferred to UBC for his graduate program. Past Davies, UBC has substantial depth and consistency inside their high six, which might catch many groups off guard.
The Guelph Gryphons have proven constant enchancment all through the season. Their standout performer, Nicholas Bannon, triumphed over UBC’s Davies earlier this yr on the Western Invite (the identical course), he additionally earned OUA MVP for his excellent performances this season. Because the Gryphons proceed to enhance, they’re a darkish horse choose to win and will shake issues up on the rostrum.
The Queen’s Gaels males’s squad has proven potential this season however confronted challenges on the OUA convention championship, ending second to Guelph. Very similar to UBC, the Queen’s workforce boasts a ton of depth, and if they will throw down a constant efficiency on Sunday, it wouldn’t be a shock if their high 5 might outperform Laval, UBC and Guelph, to win their first males’s nationwide XC title since 1984.
Predictions
Workforce
1. Laval Rouge et Or (RSEQ)
2. UBC Thunderbirds (CanWest)
3. Guelph Gryphons (OUA)
4. Queen’s Gaels (OUA)
5. UNB Reds (AUS)
Particular person
1. Philippe Morneau-Cartier (Laval Rouge-et-Or)
2. Andrew Davies (UBC Thunderbirds)
3. Jean-Simon Desgagnes (UBC Thunderbirds)
4. Nicholas Bannon (Guelph Gryphons)
5. Jared Howse (UNB Reds)
