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Greater Sudbury cleans up at NOSSA cross-country championships

For the first time in at least five years -- and likely much more than that -- the local contingent laid claim to more than half of the individual gold medals as SDSSAA runners capitalized on home "course" advantage at the 2014 NOSSA Cross-Country Ch

 For the first time in at least five years -- and likely much more than that -- the local contingent laid claim to more than half of the individual gold medals as SDSSAA runners capitalized on home "course" advantage at the 2014 NOSSA Cross-Country Championships on Thursday at Laurentian University.

No less than four of the six NOSSA champions that were crowned were also Sudbury city champs on the same course one week earlier, with a small handful posting extremely impressive
victories.

Despite having to shut down his training for a week following a mild groin injury sustained in hockey, Ben Lagadin of Lively looked no worse the wear in posting an 11 second win over Reuben Du Rand of Widdifield in the junior boys race.

"I started off hard, pushed my pace, pushed myself hard through the whole race," said Lagadin. "I could hear people behind me." 

After winning the SDSSAA midget boys title with ease in 2013, Lagadin was sidelined for both NOSSA and OFSAA due to another hockey injury, with the 2013 Ontario high-school championships hosted in Sudbury.

"I've seen an OFSAA race, but I was very disapointed last year that I couldn't go," stated Lagadin. "There's no big gap at all between runners. I'm very excited for OFSAA." 

Speaking of which, the top local finisher at the all-Ontario meet last year was in fine form at NOSSA, as Karly Hellstrom recorded the largest margin of victory of the day. A 34th place finisher at OFSAA as a midget girl one year ago, Hellstrom crossed the line more than a minute ahead of Bree Modeen of St Joseph Scollard Hall (North Bay) in the junior girls 4km circuit at Laurentian.

After squeezing past Sydney Tarini (Lo-Ellen) by less than a second to post a victory at the city championships, Collège Notre-Dame midget sensation Nina Kucheran gave herself a little more breathing room at the northern Ontario finals.

Registering a time of 13:55.33, Kucheran was comfortably ahead of Jadyn Pettenuzo of Korah (14:03.24), with Tarini four seconds back, securing third place.

Nowhere, however, was Sudbury dominance more pronouced than with the senior boys race as Liam Passi (Lasalle), Tie Pylatuk (Sacré-Coeur) and Brendan Costello (Lo-Ellen) made it a 1-2-3 finish for the nickel city crew.

"The first kilometre, we went out a little quicker than I was thinking," said Passi, who for the second time in a week, went stride for stride with his training partner (Pylatuk) through the vast majority of the seven kilometre race.

"I was a little worried about how I was going to hold up, especially with all the hills here. But Tie really pushed me to stay with him." With the Sudbury troika (as well as 6th place finisher Caleb Beland from Bishop Carter) all Track North regulars, the opportunity to share pre-race strategy can certainly create an advantage.

"We knew it was going to be a fast start, there were a lot of quick times coming in," said Passi. "Even though that's not really how I like to run, it will definitely prepare me for OFSAA."

In the Senior girls race, Sarah MacLean of Lockerby had to settle for second place, as Lydia Heimonen of Superior Heights (Sault Ste Marie) set the pace from start to finish.

Finally, Andrew Budau of White Pines (SSM) captured the midget boys bragging rights, with the local lads in that age grouping continue to play leap-frog from one race to the next.

This time around, it would be Jacxson Cress from Lively who would show the way for the SDSSAA athletes, placing third, thirty seconds back of Budau. The Lockerby Vikings girls took the ladies aggregate championship banner, with Korah Collegiate securing both the boys crown as well as overall team aggregate honours.

Following is a listing of the SDSSAA athletes who cracked the top-10 at NOSSA in each division:


Senior Boys (7 kms)
1st - Liam Passi (Lasalle) - 25:50.84
2nd - Tie Pylatuk (Sacré-Coeur) - 26:20.17
3rd - Brendan Costello (Lo-Ellen) - 26:44.68
6th - Caleb Beland (Bishop Carter) - 27:29.94

Senior Girls (5 kms)
2nd - Sarah MacLean (Lockerby) - 23:52.66
6th - Alexie Legault (Notre-Dame) - 25:19.46

Junior Boys (6 kms)
1st - Ben Lagadin (Lively) - 24:15.79
10th - Stavros Gallant (Lockerby) - 25:46.83

Junior Girls (4 kms)

1st - Karly Hellstrom (Lasalle) - 16:56.61
6th - Allison Caswell (Lo-Ellen) - 18:51.79
10th - Kyla Bruni (Lo-Ellen) - 19:24.19

Midget Boys
(5 kms)
3rd - Jacxson Cress (Lively) - 21:53.59
4th - Aiden Martel (St Charles) - 22:06.19
6th - Mathieu Dokis-Dupuis (ESMC) - 22:08.23
7th - Josh Tilson (Lo-Ellen) - 22:17.06
9th - Aidan Lewis (Lasalle) - 23:28.79
10th - Mark Thom (St Benedict) - 23:36.48

Midget Girls (3,200m)
1st - Nina Kucheran (Notre-Dame) - 13:55.33
3rd - Sydney Tarini (Lo-Ellen) - 14:07.04
9th - Katie Keenan (Lockerby) - 15:14.70


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