VANCOUVER – Following back-to-back Cross County meet sweeps for the UBC Thunderbirds men's and women's teams at Victoria and Trinity Western this season, expectations remain high heading into the Canada West championships this Saturday, October 30th in Saskatoon.
It's the first conference meet since 2019 when the T-Birds women took home their second consecutive Canada West banner while the men earned bronze.
Many familiar faces will don the blue and gold on the course at Victoria Park on the shores of the South Saskatchewan River, but plenty of new T-Birds will also be looking to make their mark on the eight kilometre course.
Third-year T-Bird Jaimie Hennessey, who finished 16th at the 2019 conference meet, heads to Saskatoon with aspirations of a much higher finish after a third place performance at the University of Victoria meet in September followed by fifth at Trinity Western earlier in October.
Jamie Hennessey at the UVic Invitational (Photo: AP Shutter.com)
First-year Thunderbird Mackenzie Campbell is also a name to watch after she led the T-Birds' women's team at the TWU meet with a third place finish.
The men's side looks as strong as they have for several years as they search for their first conference banner since returning to Canada West Cross Country in 2018. Led by Thomas Nobbs, who earned first place individual finishes in both previous school meets this season, the 'Birds' men's team also has threats by way of veteran Tyler Dozzi and freshman Spencer Hardy, both of whom finished in the top five in Victoria and Abbotsford.
"With targets on Canada West, I think Jaimie will be in a group of UBC athletes that will include Mackenzie Campbell and Glynis Sim, so that's a really strong three athletes up front," said UBC Head Coach Laurier Primeau. "Probably the names we're familiar with being our top male athletes in Thomas, Dozzi, and Hardy. We've got some significant performers for sure on the men's side so this is a good opportunity for them to show their wares."
Always aspiring for the best performance at the optimal time, the Thunderbirds are certainly already looking down the road to the U SPORTS National Championship meet set for the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City on November 20
th. Typically, there's a much tighter turnaround between the conference and national meets meaning a different strategy to ensure the best performance at the biggest stage. But with extra time in between in 2021, the T-Birds are gunning for multiple banners.
"It's a unique circumstance there are three weeks between conference and nationals, usually there's only one open weekend between them," explained Primeau. "When that's the case it's much more difficult to peak for both and still consider nationals as being the highest priority. But with that additional week, there is some facilitation for being able to come off some of the volume from this week and being able to pick it up before nationals again. So I don't know if you call it a double peak, but it's more similar to that than in previous years when there's only been two weeks between those competitions."
The women's Canada West championship race begins at 11 a.m. PT with the men's set to follow at 12:00 p.m. PT.
