It had been more than two minutes since the winner had crossed the finish line and yet as Kayla Clarington sprinted toward the end, she looked as if she were racing for a gold medal.
With 20 metres left, she ran past Ottawa’s Aaliyah Bourdreau and had the race been maybe three metres longer, she may have caught Christ the King’s Scarlett Quira and Ottawa’s Avery Shula as well as the runners crossed the line, separated by less the two-tenths of a second.
Clarington’s dash earned her a 95th place finish at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association cross-country championships in Ottawa, but more importantly, it helped the Georgetown 87s secure their first provincial high school cross-country title in 35 years.
“It was amazing,” said Georgetown coach Dan Hipson. “We had a really good chat before the race where (coach) Lisa (Labe) and I told them, ‘Just worry about where you are in the moment, you could be 50th, you could be 100th, but just pick off every spot you can.'"
That would be valuable advice as Georgetown claimed the novice girls' division by four points, the closest finish in any division at OFSAA since Georgetown’s Christ the King won the novice girls' title by three points in 2012.
“I was so impressed with how hard they ran right to the end,” Labe said.
Leading the way for the 87s was Grace Maramieri, who finished 20th with a time of 16 minutes, 13.77 seconds. Maramieri took an early lead in the race, attacking the first of two steep hills on the course. Though she would eventually be overtaken, Maramieri maintained her pace throughout, taking just 11 seconds longer to complete the second lap of the course and still had something left for the end of the race.
“We were about 300 metres from the finish, and we were counting runners,” Hipson said. “When Grace went past us, she was in 24th place, so she picked up four places in those last 300 metres.”
After Claringbold finished in 17:33.09, Lilly Smith followed 13 seconds later to place 104th and another 10 seconds later Mackenzie Connell crossed the line in 114th out of 268 runners.
That gave Georgetown a total of 333 points, while LaSalle’s St. Thomas of Villanova finished with 337. As if that wasn’t close enough, Oshawa’s R.S. McLaughlin finished with 341 points and Toronto’s T.D. Riverdale was fourth, 20 points back with 353.
By comparison, the next closest division finish at this year’s OFSAA was the junior boys' division, where 22 points separated first and second.
Georgetown’s margin was so slim that if each of its four runners had run the four-kilometre course two seconds slower, Villanova would have beaten them for the title.
The Georgetown novice boys’ team finished 14th, led by Connor Ferguson (25th) and Michael Byrne (58th) while the junior girls’ team placed 20th.
Georgetown’s Ziva Palmer placed fifth in the para girls’ race while Jorja Padt was 14th. The para team is coached by Sylvia Springer.
