Grace Maramieri ran cross-country at Stewarttown Middle School, but she never captured a Halton title.
The Grade 9 Georgetown District High School student changed that at the Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference championships.
Riding a three-race winning streak into the regional meet, Maramieri pulled away from the pack early on her way to a 28-second victory over Abbey Park’s Helena Georgiou in the novice girls’ race. Maramieri finished the four-kilometre course at Bronte Creek Provincial Park in 16 minutes and 37 seconds.
After a second-place finish in the season-opening race, Maramieri was unbeatable this year.
“Every race she led start to finish,” said Georgetown coach Dan Hipson.
Cross-country isn’t even her main sport, but her training for soccer certainly helped her in topping the competition.
“It helps a lot,” she said. “It’s a lot easier to keep up my endurance because of the running I do for soccer.”
Maramieri doesn’t consider herself a strong starter or finisher but said her strength lies in maintaining her pace throughout the race.
Maramieri’s victory paced a dominating performance by the 87s’ novice girls team, which placed four runners in the top 10. Lilly Smith placed fifth while Kayla Claringbold and Mackenzie Connell were eighth and ninth.
“We knew they were probably locked in for first because of their results through the season,” Hipson said, “but that was really cool. They hadn’t done that (all placed top-10) that before.”
That led Georgetown to a whopping 62-point victory over Milton’s Bishop Reding, 23-85.
All four will represent Georgetown at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) championships in Ottawa on Nov. 4.
Christ the King’s Scarlett Quira also qualified for OFSAA with a sixth-place finish in the race.
Georgetown’s novice boys kept things rolling by winning the division.
“We were pretty confident for OFSAA (by finishing first or second),” Hipson said, “but they went above and beyond.”
Connor Ferguson led the way with a fourth-place finish while Michael Byrne was right behind in fifth. Tristan Konieczny (16th) and Ethan Provost (23rd) rounded out the team that took first by a 48-79 margin over Hamilton’s St. Mary. Charles Grewal, who was 28th, will join them as an alternate at OFSAA.
Georgetown won its third straight team title when the 87s’ won the junior girls race. Last year’s novice champions were led by top-10 finishes by Ady Chatelin (eighth) and Katelyn Ruch (ninth). Annabelle Eskra was 13th and Sarah Nickson was 24th giving Georgetown a 54-67 edge over Oakville’s Garth Webb. Jillian Abercrombie will also go to OFSAA as alternate.
“A couple of them were sick early in the year,” Hipson said. “We knew it would be close, but they came together at GHAC.”
Christ the King’s Danielle Viduka also qualified for OFSAA with a sixth-place finish.
Georgetown’s Ziva Calder and Jorja Padt also qualified for OFSAA after finishing third and fourth respectively in the para girls race.
Georgetown’s Aiden Thibaudeau in the junior boys race and Christ the King’s Miranda Singh-Biggs in the senior girls race each finished eighth and missed qualifying for OFSAA by one place.
Other top finishers from the event included: Charli Borak, CtK (ninth, senior girls); Andrew Albert, CtK (13th, novice boys); Mara Cicchetti, CtK (14th, junior girls); Aleesha Chaudri, GDHS (16th, senior girls); Allison Batchelor, Acton (17th, junior girls).
