DUNDAS, Ont. – The pinnacle event of the UBC Thunderbirds Cross Country season is just hours away as the teams have made the trek to Dundas, Ontario for Saturday's U SPORTS National Championships.

On the heels of a terrific showing at the Canada West meet in Calgary little under two weeks ago, the T-Birds are progressing as expected – if not better than expected – with hopes for some serious hardware come Saturday afternoon.

"We're really hoping to execute well across all seven women and seven men who are racing and if we can significantly outperform our ranking, that would be lovely," said UBC lead endurance coach, Steve Weiler. "We just need continued buy-in and execution on the training to get to where we're capable of being."

So far, that execution has led to strong showings in all four previous competitions this autumn, including a silver team finish for the UBC women's squad in Calgary along with men's bronze.



While both teams finished the Canada West meet where they were ranked going in, respectively, both the women and men managed to give a serious scare to the teams immediately ahead of them – all of which bodes extremely well come race day in Ontario.

"We gave both the University of Victoria on the women's side and Regina on the men's side a really good run," said UBC head coach, Laurier Primeau. "The finish of our third through sixth runners on each of those teams was very encouraging.

"It's easy to get out in a race where there are more than 100 on the start line and get wrapped up into a pace that is not sensible for you as an individual. What I observed (at Canada West) was that our athletes were incredibly disciplined running the first half of the races which allowed them to be successful in the second half."

Max Filion has been, in a word, superb. Winning each of the three races he's entered in 2026, including the Canada West Championship, the fourth-year from Quebec will be eyeing a top seven finish at the least, while helping the men to an improvement on their 12^th place team finish last year.



"Max knows he's in shape to be an All-Canadian in U SPORTS and that's what he's going to do," said Weiler who also sees this weekend as key experience for some of the younger members of the squad. "There's pretty good depth on the men's team and the vast majority of them are returning next year and a decent amount for two or more years, so we certainly have the potential to build toward something. Thankfully, having someone like Max walk the talk, he's leading the way for the rest of them."

UBC's women have proven to be one of the most consistent threats to make the podium over the past handful of years now, finishing top three as a team four years running. Bronze medallists at U SPORTS in 2025, the T-Bird women were just four points shy of the Victoria Vikes – widely regarded as the top team in the country – at this year's Canada West championship, making for an interesting showdown Saturday afternoon as UBC aims for a different colour medal this go around.

Another positive for the 'Birds heading into southern Ontario is the timing of the 2026 championship, the team not being overly taxed with competitions well spread out over the past number of weeks.



"I like this week for us because coming off a midterm break and a Remembrance Day holiday has meant our athletes haven't been sitting in classes with 300 students who may be sick and exposing us to unnecessary risk," said Primeau. "Our athletes outside of the training environment have had the opportunity to get additional rest and visit with family while staying out of places that might result in sickness. I think that really bodes well for us. I think all of these little things add up to big things on race day."

The 2026 U SPORTS Cross Country National Championships get underway with the eight kilometre men's race at 10:07 a.m. PCT Saturday at the Christie Lake Conservation Area in Dundas. The women's race follows at 11:07 a.m.

Live results will be available HERE while the races will be streamed live on CBC Gem.