FORT MCMURRAY — The Red Deer College Kings went into the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference cross-country championships in Fort McMurray as legitimate podium contenders and came back with a fourth place finish, just four points out of the medals.
They were led by Noah Arychuk (28 minutes, 28 seconds) and Mitchell Dore (28:38) who finished the eight kilometre course in eighth and ninth respectively and Andrew Jacobs (29:31) was just out side the top 10 in 13th.
The Queens meanwhile, finished in sixth place, led by Jordanna Cota (21:11) who finished the five kilometre course in 13th.
“I thought the men’s team would be medal contenders and the guys all ran well,” said head coach Brian Stackhouse in an email.
“All of RDC’s runners ran consistently strong races and two had notable breakthrough performances. Lucas Plamondon (32:23) was just over two minutes faster than he’d been in previous races this Fall and Autumn Jackson (23:24) surprised us by placing second amongst the RDC women in her first ACAC race”
Team points were accumulated by the top four runners from each team. RDC finished fourth in the men’s race with 56 points while NAIT secured third place with 52 points. Concordia University College in Edmonton won gold with 41 points while Lethbridge College got silver with 45 points.
Edwin Kaitany (26:36) of Lethbridge College won the men’s race while his teammate Boaz Korir (27:12) was second. Hans Asfeldt (27:46) of Augustana was third.
Other RDC finishers in the men’s race include: Austin Midkiff (32:09) in 26th, Jonathan Allan (35:23) in 46th, Jonathan Lam (35:38) in 50th and Carter Weber (36:27) in 54th.
Grande Prairie Regional College won the women’s race with 16 points and will likely head into nationals as the top ranked team in Canada.
SAIT came second with 37 points while Lethbridge finished in third with 53 points. RDC had 101 points to finish in sixth.
Grande Prairie took the top two spots in the individual race with Mirelle Martens (19:05) and Jamie Wigmore (19:25) finishing with gold and silver while Concordia’s Mariya Jenkins (19:39) grabbed bronze.
Other RDC racers included: Laura Friesen (24:06) in 32nd, Samantha Debree (24:06) in 33rd, Celine de Wit (25:11) in 41st, Anna Duda (25:58) in 44th, Melissa Ray (28:35) in 53rd and Laura McKenzie 32:32 in 62nd.
Up next is the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association Championships in Calgary on Nov. 8 and both the Kings and Queens will be competing.