Posted: November 1, 2007

Athletics: CIS Athletes of the week - QSSF cross country champions Whyte, Genest honoured

Cross country runners Lauren Whyte of McGill University and Alex Genest of the University of Sherbrooke were the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) female and male athletes of the week for the period ending Oct. 28, 2007. Whyte, a fourth-year political science student from Belleville, Ont. finished first of 39 runners to capture the individual title and lead the Martlets to the team banner at the QSSF championship at Papineauville, Que. The 21-year-old, also named the Quebec conference athlete of the year, completed the five-kilometre course in 17 minutes, 42 seconds, some eight seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. Whyte, a first team all-Canadian the past two seasons who missed a national bronze medal by one second in 2006, will travel to Victoria for the CIS championship on Saturday, Nov. 10. Genest, a second-year kinesiology student from Lac-aux-Sables, Que. claims the honour on the men’s side after winning individual gold and guiding the Vert & Or to first place in the team standings at the QSSF championship. The 21-year-old distanced 40 rivals to finish the 10-kilometre race in 30 minutes, nine seconds. Genest, who also earned QSSF-athlete-of-the-year honours as well the Community Service Award, was named CIS rookie of the year in 2006 after capturing individual silver at the national championship. Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest