Former RDC star Jodi Nesbitt (nee Sanguin) captured the five-kilometre women’s open/Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference cross-country race at the annual Hunting Hills Lightning invitational meet at River Bend Saturday.
Nesbitt finished in 19 minutes 11 seconds, with open runner Shari Boyle second at 19:50 and Marriya Jenkins of Concordia University College of Edmonton third at 20 minutes.
Jenkins led the ACAC runners with Lesley Koopman of Grant MacEwan University fourth overall and second in the college division at 20:01. RDC’s Jordanna Cota placed 13th overall and sixth among ACAC runners at 21:22. Emily Maplethorpe was 27th (11th among ACAC runners) at 23:05 while Robyn Hebert was 35th (17th) at 23:41, Anna Duda 38th (18th) at 23:51 and Samantha Debree 20th (19th) at 23:57. Catherine Alcorn placed 42nd (20th) at 24:12, Laura Friesen 45th (23rd) at 24:23, Sidney Moss 55th (31st) at 26:13 and Nicole Wilson 65th (40th) at 28:50.
GMU won the team event with 31 points while Lethbridge had 40 and RDC 52.
Meanwhile on the men’s side, RDC’s Devin Woodland was 12th overall and fourth among ACAC runners with a time of 26:22 in the 7.5km race.
Edwin Kitany of Lethbridge was first overall at 24:03 with open runner Willy Kimosop at 24:18 and Clifford Childs, also an open runner, at 24:57. Former RDC runner and Hunting Hills grad, Kevin McDonald was seventh overall at 25:46.
Noah Arychuk of RDC was 33rd overall (ninth) at 28:05, Tyler Nelson 69th (31st) at 33:34 and Kevin Buckel 92nd (48th) at 51:10.
Lethbridge won the team title with 24 points while GMU had 39 and SAIT 61. RDC was fifth with 92 points.
The next ACAC Grand Prix race is Saturday at SAIT with races Oct, 5 in Edmonton, hosted by Concordia, and Oct. 12 in Camrose. The ACAC championships are Oct. 26 in Edmonton, also hosted by Concordia, with the Canadian championships Nov. 9 in Toronto. The Athletics Canada junior and senior cross-country championships goes Nov. 30 in Vancouver. Nesbitt and Cota will compete in the championships along with a number of the top high school runners in the Central Alberta.