It was a banner day for the Trinity Western cross-country teams as both the men’s and women’s squads captured their respective Canada West banners.
The men also placed second at the U Sports national championships while the women’s team was third.
The races were held on Saturday on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City.
Declan White led the TWU men’s team, finishing second in a time of 30:56.0 in the 10-km race. All five Spartan runners were in the top 42 and crossed the finish line within 1:22.2.
“For our guys, every single one of them ran out of their minds,” said Spartans coach Mark Bomba.
“This was not expected. We thought we’d have a shot at the Canada West championship if we ran well, but finishing second in the country, I don’t have words for what they did.”
This was the first Canada West banner in men’s program history.
“For them to come together and do exactly what they needed to do and in some cases more, is a testament to their perseverance,” he added.
Joel Di Schiffart (31:15.59) was eighth overall while Caleb DeJong (31:34.4) was 17th and Nick Colyn (31:36.4) was 19th. James Lam (32:18.3) was 42nd, Tyler DeJong (33:31.1) was 81st and Adam Marshall (34:15.4) was 97th.
The TWU women’s team won their fourth straight Canada West championship as two of their runners finished in the top five overall.
Lisa Brooking was fourth while Regan Yee was fifth as they finished the six-km race in 21:23.8 and 21:30.0.
Meg Harradine (22:59.0) was 27th, Mirella Martens (23:00.2) was 29th and Joanna Williams (23:13.2) was 38th to round out the top five.
Mikaela Smart (23:34.9) and Hannah Ryan (23:48.2) were 47th and 52nd, respectively.
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Bomba was named the Canada West coach of the year while White was the Canada West male athlete of the year and also a U Sports first team all-Canadian.
Brooking and Yee were both also named U Sports first team all-Canadians and Canada West first team all-stars. Harradine, Martens and Williams are Canada West second team all-stars.
De Schiffart was named a U Sports second team all-Canadian. White and De Schiffart, along with DeJong are all Canada West first team all-stars, while Colyn is a Canada West second team all-star.
