Kodiaks lacing up for cross-country nationals

The Lethbridge College Kodiaks men’s and women’s cross country teams will be legging it east in two weeks.

Competing at the Alberta College Athletic Conference Cross-Country Running Championships Saturday in Red Deer, the women’s team of Sophia Nowicki, Emily Spencer, Vildana Rekic, Salma Moreira, Janelle Graham and Brooklyn Vogel raced their way to the bronze medal in the six-kilmetre race, which seals their berth at the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association Nationals Nov. 10-11 in Lionel-Groulx Blainville, Quebec.

The men’s team of Evans Korir, Spencer Jackson, Durell Rots, Daniel Robdrup, Dayton Jans and John Krause tied for third overall with Red Deer College in the eight-km run, but narrowly missed out on the ACAC bronze medal on the tiebreaker scenario.

The Kodiaks lose the tiebreaker with Red Deer’s fourth runner placing two spots ahead of Lethbridge’s.

The Kodiaks missed a medal, but not a trip to nationals as the Kodiak men still qualified for the third-place tie.

The honours didn’t stop there as Nowicki’s time of 24:53.86 earned her the bronze medal among the women’s runners, landed her on the ACAC Women’s All-Conference team and also earned her the ACAC Female Rookie of the Year award.

In addition to Nowicki’s third-place finish, Spencer ran a time of 25:06.26 to place sixth in the individual rankings, also putting her on the ACAC Women’s All-Conference team.

Rekic finished 22nd to round out the Kodiaks efforts.

Korir posted the top Kodiaks men’s time in the eight-km race with a time of 30:10.56.

Jackson wasn’t far behind with a time of 30:32.10 to take 15th and Rots took 16th with a time of 30:43.35.

Red Deer won the ACAC women’s team gold, while the SAIT Trojans women earned silver.

On the men’s side, SAIT emerged as the gold-medal winners and the the University of Alberta-Augustana Vikings captured silver.