Posted: November 13, 2004

Athletics: Dalhousie And Windsor National XC Champions

GUELPH, Ont. (CIS): The Dalhousie University Tigers women's team claimed its first national title while the University of Windsor Lancers repeated as men champions at the 2004 CIS cross country championships at the Guelph Lakes Golf Course.

Kristina Rody, from the University of Guelph, and Windsor's Cristiano Mauricio captured individual gold medals. Mauricio led a clean sweep for the Lancers as teammates Brandon Young and James Gosselin joined him on the podium, marking the first 1-2-3 finish in CIS men's cross country since Ottawa's John Halvorsen, Bob Rice and Alain Boucher accomplished the feat in 1986.

Dalhousie becomes the first school from the Atlantic conference to win the CIS banner in women's or men's cross country. The women's event started in 1980.

Windsor repeats as men's national champions for the first time. They also claimed the gold medal in 1998.

Rody completed the women's five-kilometer race in 17:01.1, with a comfortable 26-second lead over Dalhousie's Janice Ashworth (17:27.5), who finished second for a second straight year. Calgary's Shannon Slater-Popowich (17:32.9) completed the podium, taking bronze for a second consecutive season. 117 runners completed the event.

Shannon Gerrie (Western), Hilary Burn (Dalhousie), Renee Haylor (Calgary) and Leanna Maclean (Dalhousie) placed fourth to seventh to round out the first all-Canadian team.

Dalhousie's five scorers finished second, fifth, seventh, 16th and 29th for a point-total of 59. The host University of Guelph Gryphons were second with 74 points, and the defending champion Calgary Dinos third with 79 points.

In the men's 10-kilometer race, Mauricio led a field of 99 runners and stopped the clock at 31:02.9, just in front of Young (31:05.6). Gosselin wasn't far behind, finishing in 31:13.0. Gosselin and Young were respectively fourth and sixth at the 2003 championship in Moncton.

Paul Chafe (Dalhousie), Kristjan Hunter (Manitoba), Scott Arnald (Waterloo) and Cleve Thorson (Guelph) rounded out the first all-Canadian team.

The two other scorers for Windsor finished ninth and 17th to give the Lancers 32 points. The host University of Guelph Gryphons took team silver for a second consecutive season with 88 points, while the University of Alberta Golden Bears claimed bronze with 114 points.

-CIS-