KELOWNA, B.C. – For the third straight season, the UBC Thunderbirds have swept the Canada West Cross Country Championships as both the men's and women's teams dominated the field at Kelowna's Mission Recreation Park Saturday afternoon.
In a remarkable show of dominance, the first four finishers in the men's race were all wearing blue and gold, led by Andrew Davies gold medal winning time of 23:40.
The women's team earned their fifth straight Canada West banner on the strength of five Thunderbirds in the top seven, with third-year Katie Newlove taking individual gold on the eight kilometre course in 28:12.
"It was fantastic, we're really happy across the entirety of the team," said UBC lead endurance coach, Steve Weiler. "This is a large and talented group, but we work really hard at individualizing needs so they can develop a lot of the success we're seeing today. Coupled with some high-end grad students, it's just proving to be an awesome combination."
One of those grad students, Andrew Davies, was followed closely behind by men's silver medallist John Perrier who improved upon his 2022 Canada West bronze.
Jaiveer Tiwana and Dylan Uhrich rounded out the top four while Riley Miller and Sacha Schimmelpenninck crossed the finish line just one second apart to claim eighth and ninth, respectively as six T-Birds were counted in the top nine.
"It was a great race for the whole team today and I was so happy to be able to round off the ubc 1-4 sweep in the men's race," said Uhrich. "This is the race I knew I had in me all season but it just took some time and patience to get to this level. Really excited to keep building on this and see what our team can do at nationals."
"On the men's side, they just wanted to get after it off the start and make a statement," continued Weiler. "Andrew and John and Jaiveer, they wanted to show the rest of U SPORTS what they're capable of. Dylan Uhrich is really coming along and really good to grab that fourth spot. They're pumped but focussed for what's to come."
Newlove's gold medal time was a clear ten seconds ahead of the women's silver medallist, Calgary's Chloe Turner. After Saskatchewan's Kaitlyn Harrison took bronze, it was a torrent of T-Birds as Jennifer Erickson, Kyla Becker, Holly MacGillivray, and Rachel Mortimer rounded out the scoring five completing the course in fourth through seven places, respectively.
"I think one of our team's greatest assets is our ability to work together with our training partners during races to strive for the best performance together," said Mortimer. "It's pretty special to be able to look to your side mid way through an eight kilometre race and see your teammates around you. We all really buy into the team aspect of cross country where we uplift and support one another rather than compete against each other. I think this really showed this weekend and largely contributes to our success."
"It's been a great experience training and racing with the UBC girls this season and this race was no exception," added Erickson who finished 15th at the 2022 conference meet while competing with Victoria. "I really enjoyed working together as a team throughout the race and running as a pack. We've put in a lot of hard work and it's great to see that pay off."
All told, the women have now won 12 Canada West championship titles and all five since returning to the conference in 2018, The men have now 10 in their history, their first coming back in 1972.
Having conquered the conference, the T-Birds will shift their focus to the upcoming U SPORTS National Championships which take place on Sunday, November 12 in London, Ontario.
FULL RESULTS
