KELOWNA, B.C. – The UBC Thunderbirds capped off the 2024 Cross Country season in fine form Saturday afternoon in Kelowna with the women's team earning a second place finish while the men led all Canada West teams in sixth at the U SPORTS National Championships.
Finishing top-two at the national race for the third consecutive season, the T-Bird women were led by fourth-year
Rachel Mortimer's sixth place individual time of 27:29, earning first team All-Canadian status while teammate
Holly MacGillivray was just two seconds and two spots behind.
The UBC women amassed 85 total points, 25 back of the gold medallists from Western.
Jaiveer Tiwana topped all UBC men with a sixth place finish of 23:46, improving upon his tenth place performance at the 2023 national championship. Second-year T-Bird
Maximilien Filion earned a tremendous 17
th place time of 23:57 as the next T-Bird to cross the finish line on the eight kilometre course.
"Across the board we're really happy with what we were able to do today," said UBC lead endurance coach,
Steve Weiler. "On the men's side, despite a setback, we were able to maintain our ranking and be the top Canada West team which is a good showing. On the women's side they were able to have a very, very strong day, improve on their fourth place ranking coming in and place top two for the third year in a row which is quite impressive."
Aside from their silver team performance, the UBC women's squad were also the only U SPORTS program to boast two top-eight individual finishes on the day.
"The majority of our athletes finished with a smile on their face and knew they gave it their all," said UBC assistant coach, Catherine Watkins. "That's all you can ask for as a coach, that your athletes come out of there feeling they've had a successful day overall."
With the top five finishers from each team contributing to the counting total, the real strength of any finish often comes from those not right at the top of the board.
Amelia Pfohl was the third T-Bird women's competitor to finish on Saturday with a time of 28:15 for 25
th out of 126 total entries.
"I've got to say it was really fun to watch Amelia execute her race today," said Watkins. "She went out with the pack she should have gone out with and she held strong as she was able to move up as the race went on. That was an awesome race to see."
Mackenzie Campbell and
Abby Ylipahkala were the final two counting towards the T-Bird team total, finishing just four seconds apart in 31
st and 34
th, respectively.
Despite a very different looking UBC men's squad compared to last year's championship winning team, the 'Birds had a very strong day at Mission Recreation Park. Following on their fourth consecutive Canada West title two weeks ago, the T-Birds were not only the top Canada West team on Saturday but finished 70 points ahead of the ninth place Victoria Vikes as the conference's second best finishers.
Dylan Uhrich was the third Thunderbird to cross the finish line with a 37
th place finish out of 152 competitors and a time of 24:25.
Third year T-Bird
Sacha Schimmelpenninck was just four seconds behind Uhrich while rookie
Calvin Brain completed the UBC scoring five, finishing in 25:22.
"I think one of the really cool things was this was the first time I've been there that we haven't had Masters students come in on the men's side who have been really able to decrease our overall score," said Watkins who was impressed with the team's ability to rise to the occasion. "So to watch the guys come together, I think that adds a really nice element to the whole experience."
The Thunderbirds showed their impressive depth in Kelowna, both with veteran performances in the likes of Mortimer,
Holly MacGillivray, and Tiwana as well as up and coming leaders like Filion. In short, both the men's and women's teams have plenty to look forward to come 2025 and beyond.
COMPLETE RESULTS
