Lightning Cross Country was back on the course for the 2022-23 season On Saturday, September 10. Eight members of our Cross Country Running Team travelled to Medicine Hat for the first Grand Prix race of the Cross Country season.

The women’s team placed 4^th in the Women’s 6 km event – a good first team result as there were some missing key runners for the Lightning. Sydney Zissos had an excellent race finishing fifth of ACAC women runners with a time of 25:29, which was St. Mary’s 8^th all time best performance in a 6km race. Sydney is building on her strong performances from last season and has an exciting season ahead. Cadence Laplante placed 14^th and was the teams second scoring runner, a strong debut in the Lightning singlet for one of our rookie runners.

The 4 scoring runners for St. Mary’s were Sydney 5^th, Cadence 14^th, Elizabeth Krueger 18^th, and Sarah Foscarini 21^st. Laura Fraser 29^th and newcomer Martha Sotelo 30^th rounded out the team scoring for the race.

First year male athletes Dan Quibell and Jack Herron placed 21^st and 30^th and put in solid efforts in the Men’s 8 km event. Getting their first race under their belt is invaluable experience and will give them a baseline to build upon.

Lightning athletes had a strong first showing in Medicine Hat, the same course will be used for CCAA Nationals in November and the Lightning athletes will use their experience for this race to prepare to be at their best for then.

Come check out and support your Lightning athletes as the rest of the team will suit up for the second grand prix event of the season hosted by SAIT on Sept 17^th at Confederation Park in NW Calgary just off 10^th street. Women’s Race is at 12:00 pm and the Men’s race follows at 1:00 pm.

Go LIGHTNING!

Full results for MHC Sept 10^th race are here.