VICTORIA, B.C. – Facing rough weather and an incredibly deep field of athletes Saturday afternoon, the UBC Thunderbirds earned a pair of podium team finishes at the 2025 Canada West Cross Country Championships in Victoria.

Fifth-year Mackenzie Campbell earned individual bronze, leading the T-Bird women to a second place team finish while Maximilien Filion claimed silver, helping the men's squad to third place while the host Victoria Vikes took both conference banners.

"This was a great race on the way to U SPORTS. We're not peaking specifically for this one, we're aiming for two weeks from now, that's the way the training is designed so to have a really solid result where the majority of the team had great days was really encouraging to see," said UBC assistant coach, Catherine Watkins. "Our depth was great to see, having so many women near the top was fantastic for us, so we're really happy."

Claiming second place for the second straight season, the women's squad had all five racers counting toward the team total finish within the top 15 of 63 total competitors, the only team to accomplish such a feat on the day.



Campbell's time of 29:35.8 on the eight kilometre course was a full eight seconds ahead of fourth as UBC earned women's conference individual bronze for the second straight year.

Sarah MacGillivray finished ninth in 30:20.1 while Elysse Fleming, Abby Ylipahkala and Amelia Pfohl claiming 13^th through 15^th, respectively, all three named conference second team All-Stars.

"I'm really proud of us, we've worked so hard together. We've been able to lean on each other and work together and I'm just so proud we were able to put it together in a race," said MacGillivray who improved 16 places from the 2024 Canada West race. "I'm pretty excited I was able to pull it together today. I'm really proud I could go out, follow my own intuition of how I should race and really put it out there the last lap. I definitely went to the well but it paid off."

The T-Bird women finished with a score of 54, 17 back of the gold medallist Vikes and 17 ahead of third place UBC Okanagan. It was an impressive overall performance for the blue and gold despite only Ylipahkala and Pfhol repeating as counting times from last year's silver medal squad.



"The objective was to work with your teammates, get as much ground as you could together and then in the last laps if you felt good, that's when you could pull ahead," Watkins said. "We emphasized the word control for the first two laps – stay in control, evaluate your effort and then go, and I think they all did that really well today."

Filion's silver medal finish in 25:42.0 had the Candiac, Quebec native improve six places from his race at last year's Canada West championship. UBC's total score of 83 was just seven ahead of fourth place Saskatchewan as both Filion's and fifth-year Dylan Uhrich's 15^th place finishes critical to UBC securing a podium for a seventh straight year since returning to Canada West in 2018.

"It's been really impressive to see him talk about how we perform as a team and not individuals," Watkins said of Filion's leadership. "He's really stepped up into that role to guide the younger athletes. "He may be the fastest on the team but he's certainly doesn't come across as better than anyone else, he's definitely a team player."

Uhrich's final Canada West championship time of 26:49.0 was impressive one to say the least given it was his first competition of the season having worked back to racing form due to injury.



"My A-plus goal today was top 14 and I got 15^th, it's not often you almost get an A-plus goal so I'm really happy with that," said Uhrich who finished 17^th at last year's conference championship. "If I hadn't been injured this season, top 14 would have been the goal so the fact I was able to come back and almost hit my season goal coming off injury, I'm really proud of that and just excited to see what I can do at U SPORTS building on that momentum."

The final three counting scores for the T-Birds men were all courtesy of either first or second year athletes.

Steven Brittain finished 20^th, just two tenths ahead of fellow second-year T-Bird Kai Martland.

Andrew Corbeil claimed 26^th, crossing the eight kilometre finish line in 27:19.7 to earn Canada West All-Rookie Team status.

"I'm really proud of the team today," Uhrich continued. "Especially the younger guys, considering it was the first Canada West race for a lot of them, they all did a really great job and ran a really smart race. I'm especially proud of Steven and Kai because the three of us worked together really well. They're only second years and they ran very smartly today, they were able to have great results."



Mazy McFarling and Clare Goodison were both named Women's All-Rookies.

The Thunderbirds will now turn their focus to the U SPORTS National Championships which take place on Saturday, November 8 in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

"All season we've had our eyes on U SPORTS as our big moment so I'm excited we've held it together kept our heads down as we work towards that as a group," said MacGillivray. "If we all have a great day, we can hopefully have a podium finish, I know it's in us, we just all have to keep working together, believe in ourselves and I know we can do it."

 FULL RESULTS
 
2025 Canada West All-Stars

Men's First Team

Jaxon Kuchar, Victoria
Maximilien Filion, UBC
Ian McAllister, Victoria
Anthony Antaya, Saskatchewan
Ian Teichler, Regina
Alexander Webster, Saskatchewan
Henry Bristol, Victoria



Men's Second Team

Brett MacLean, Regina
Owen Lloyd, UBCO
Ethan Meyer, Calgary
Alec Teichler, Regina
Max Cook, Calgary
Nico Stockwell, Victoria
Adonia Downes, Regina




Women's First Team

Lauren McNeil, UBCO
Meldelyn Eybergen, Victoria
Mackenzie Campbell, UBC
Erin Owens, Victoria
Olivia Cooper, Alberta
Marisha Thompson, Victoria
Chloe Turner, Calgary



Women's Second Team

Ella Lane, Victoria
Sarah MacGillivray, UBC
Sophie Hamilton, UBCO
Tori Bouck, UBCO
Natalie Boston, Alberta
Elysse Fleming, UBC
Abby Ylipahkala, UBC
 



2025 Canada West All-Rookie Team

Men's

Henry Bristol, Victoria
Alec Teichler, Regina
Nico Stockwell, Victoria
Luc Fillion, Manitoba
Andrew Corbeil, UBC



Women's

Jenna Conrad, Calgary
Mazy McFarling, UBC
Maraid Johnson, UBCO
Clare Goodison, UBC
Ella Ballard, Victoria