Sunday was a day to recollect for the College of British Columbia (UBC) Thunderbirds on the 2023 U Sports activities XC Championship in London, Ont. The Thunderbirds received each the lads’s and ladies’s workforce titles for the primary time in class historical past.
Sunday’s win got here from a number of years of development for his or her cross-country program. Final yr, the ladies completed as runners-up to Laval, and the lads had been simply off the rostrum in fourth, awaiting a breakthrough.
Girls’s 8K
Whether or not the UBC ladies would win the ladies’s XC title in 2023 was by no means in query, as they had been the top-ranked workforce within the nation all season. The ladies’s 8K received off to a slower begin, however UBC, Western Mustangs and the StFX X-Girls established themselves on the entrance on the finish of the primary of two laps. With round two kilometres to go, Canada West champion UBC’s Katie Newlove placed on a surge and by no means regarded again, successful the 8K race in 29:06, 12 seconds forward of Laval’s Catherine Beauchemin (29:18). Erika Jordan got here in for bronze in 29:24 to place the host Western Mustangs on the rostrum.
UBC positioned 5 ladies within the high 15 to win their first ladies’s U Sports activities XC title in class historical past, led by Newlove. “It’s tremendous empowering to be surrounded by and practice with so many nice ladies,” says 2023 champion Newlove. “We’ve been making an attempt to attain this for the previous two years. To make faculty historical past and have all of it come collectively right this moment may be very thrilling.”
That is additionally the second consecutive yr a UBC athlete has received the ladies’s particular person title. Former Thunderbird Glynis Sim received the race in 2022.
Meet your 2023 Girls’s @USPORTSca XC champion Katie Newlove!
It’s double gold for Newlove! Serving to the @ubctbirds earn their first nationwide ladies’s title in historical past!!#USportsXC pic.twitter.com/5g0jcfZVsO
— Canadian Working (@CanadianRunning) November 12, 2023
Girls’s outcomes
Workforce
1. UBC Thunderbirds (CanWest) 38
2. Western Mustangs (OUA) 71
3. St Francis Xavier X Girls (AUS) 95
4. Guelph Gryphons (OUA) 161
5. McMaster Marauders (OUA) 175
Particular person
1. Katie Newlove (UBC Thunderbirds) 29:06
2. Catherine Beauchemin (Laval Rouge et Or) 29:18
3. Erika Jordan (Western Mustangs) 29:24
4. Jennifer Erickson (UBC Thunderbirds) 29:27
5. Kaitlyn Harrison (Saskatchewan Huskies) 29:28
Males’s 8K
The climate was an unseasonably heat 12 C firstly of the lads’s 8K, with no clear-cut favorite to win the lads’s workforce title. Laval Rouge et Or and UBC Thunderbirds held high positions in our U Sports activities rankings all through the season, however uncertainties lingered about their efficiency towards stronger competitors. The lads set a quick tempo from the start, with UBC’s Andrew Davies utilizing his 5,000m observe velocity to guide out a small pack. Davies and Laval’s Philippe Morneau-Cartier had been the 2 leaders on the finish of the primary lap. Within the closing two kilometres, Morneau-Cartier pulled forward of Davies, upgrading his 2022 silver particular person medal to gold and successful the lads’s 8K in 24:17.
Laval goes ONE-TWO with Philippe Morneau-Cartier and Jean-Simon Desgagnes 🥇🥈within the males’s 8K @USPORTSca
That’s FOUR races and FOUR wins for @rougeetor Morneau-Cartier this season 🤯#USportsXC pic.twitter.com/Rh4ni7Y0H1
— Canadian Working (@CanadianRunning) November 12, 2023
This marked Morneau Cartier’s fourth win of the season in 4 races. His Laval teammate and coaching accomplice, Jean-Simon Desgagnés, handed Davies within the closing kilometre to safe silver in 24:20, in his closing U Sports activities race. Davies held on for bronze in 24:24, ending as UBC’s high male runner.
Initially, it appeared Laval would win their second males’s XC title within the final three years, however a late surge from the UBC males positioned three of their runners within the high 10, securing their first males’s U Sports activities XC title since 1993, edging out Laval by eight factors.
UBC’s high finisher, Davies, who received with McMaster final yr, referred to as the workforce win anticipated. “I knew if we may put every part collectively on the large day, we may pull it off,” stated Davies. “This was the ultimate U Sports activities XC race for 3 of our high 5 scorers. I’m tremendous pleased with this workforce.”
Males’s outcomes
Workforce
1. UBC Thunderbirds (CanWest) 52
2. Laval Rouge et Or (RSEQ) 60
3. Queen’s Gaels (OUA) 90
4. Guelph Gryphons (OUA) 97
5. Victoria Vikes (CanWest) 177
Particular person
1. Philippe Morneau-Cartier (Laval Rouge et Or) 24:17
2. Jean-Simon Desgagnés (Laval Rouge et Or) 24:20
3. Andrew Davies (UBC Thunderbirds) 24:24
4. Jacob Benoit (Dalhousie Tigers) 24:42
5. John Perrier (UBC Thunderbirds) 24:44
For full outcomes from the 2023 U Sports activities XC Championships, head right here.
