Thunderbirds Fly High at BC Cross Country Championship

This past weekend marked a very important event for the Vancouver Thunderbird's. The 2019 BC Cross Country Championships took place at Beaver Lake in Saanich BC. Our crew woke up bright and early in order to catch a 6:00 am team bus to arrive at the Tsawwwassen terminal at 7:00 am heading to the Island. It was a gorgeous, brisk, sunshine filled day. Upon arrival we were able to do a walk through of the course to get the lay of the land prior to racing and what a fantastic day of running we had!

Four members of the Thunderbirds post-collegiate group made the trek to Victoria to compete in the senior races. Sandra Kilmartin and Madelyn Brunt worked together to place a strong 4th and 5th in the senior women's race. In the senior men's race, Braeden Charlton ran a confident race to capture the silver medal. Chris Taylor ran with aggression to finish a well earned 5th. All four athletes have qualified to run on the BC Team at the upcoming Canadian Cross Country Championships.

The intermediate endurance group had a crew of 14 athletes who competed at the event. First up was Rachael Rallison in her very first BC Cross Country Championship race. Rachael joined our team in September and has had an incredibly successful season with the Thunderbirds! She ran a strong race and finished the 3 km course in 13:50. Next up was the U-16 boys where Paul Van Raamsdonk commanded the pace with the lead runners finishing second place. He looked strong, comfortable and in control. Fantastic race to watch and a great result heading into the BC High School Championships this coming weekend. Brayen Horlock came 24th in the U-16 boys category. As a sprinter, Brayden has really learned to exercise control in these longer races and continues to improve as he navigates his way through the cross country season.

In the girls U-16 category, we had 5 athletes competing. Congratulations to Nanette Novak-Klotz who lead this amazing group of young ladies in a 9th place finish. Alexandra Campbell bravely took a risk with an aggressive start and still managed to place in 12th position. Esmee Ko ran a solid race and was 17th, followed by Allison Lee-Meyer in an impressive 22nd place in her first BC Cross Country Championships and congratulations to Layla Sajan who took 23rd position. This is a very competitive and strong group of runners, well done ladies!

In the girls U-18 category, we also had 5 athletes competing. Congratulations to Ella Symon our club veteran and best cheerleader who lead this girl's squad in a strong showing for 15th place. Anna Gustafson followed closely behind for 18th position. Anna is new to our team and has been a consistent and steady force as she's proved over and over in this cross country season. Olivia Uliana has had a fantastic season improving with each week that goes by. She placed 21st while Abby Arthur ran a brave race for 30th position. Last but not least Lucille Shaw placed 35th with an incredible second half of this 4 km race. Way to go team!!

In the final race of the day, Yabi Davidoff captured 23 rd place in a time of 17:46. Yabi has really come into his own this season and has worked incredibly hard to improve and build upon his last cross country season. Nice work! Congratulations also to Callum Campbell who placed second in the U-20 category. Well done!

We had some great individual performances by our JD runners but came we up short in the JD team race losing out by 3 points. It was clear that with a full team we would have easily won the title; something that we will have to focus on achieving next year.

In the 9-year-old race Simon McCutcheon took 5th and Pierce Simmons 7th, while on the girls' side Maddy Blesch earned a bronze finish. The 10 year old race saw Christopher Guite pick up a fifth place finish ahead of Francesco (7th) and Gianluca Hawkey (10th).

Elijah Clarke and Harris Boomer both had strong finishes to take 2nd and 3rd in the 11 year old event, adding major points to the TBird total and almost catching the first place finisher in the process; Roman Simmons and Ben Smith running 2 seconds apart taking 14th and 15th and Nick Jang exploring cross-country for the first time this season, running gallantly for 21st place. Our 12-year olds: Chloe Symon, Camron Haime and Kate Logan, pushed each other (finishing within 11 seconds of each other) to claim 2nd, 5th, and 3rd respectively in their categories, James Guite (running impromptu) and Griffin Cole (running with a good deal of pain) both ran courageously. Rachel Rallison, our only 13-year-old running, finished twelfth. Congratulations to all those that ran and to getting so close to winning the team title given the limited number available to run. Thank you again to all of the parents and athletes that were able to participate.

Thank you to everyone who competed this weekend for the Thunderbird's! We had a fantastic time traveling together as a team and sharing in each other's race experiences. It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday!