Highlanders sweep midget

Four girls from Sir John A. take top spots in 2,000m

CAMBRIDGE — The Sir John A. Macdonald Highlanders couldn’t have asked for a better start to their competitive cross-country schedule.

With Tegan Morrison leading the way, the Highlanders swept the top four positions in the midget girls 2,000-metre race at the Shade’s Mills Conservation Area. Morrison finished in nine minutes and 22 seconds, ahead of Holly MacGillivray, Vanessa Goodman and Marly Verhoeve.

“It’s really exciting. We train really well as a team, we push each other to be better each day and we have great coaches to help us with that,” said Morrison.

“I’m a little surprised (with the sweep) but hopefully we can keep improving, keep winning races and make it to OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championship) as a team.”

SJAM cross-country coach James Sniatenchuk was obviously delighted with the midget girls result and said he was fortunate to have such a strong group of multi-sport athletes show up for the cross-country team when the call went out.

Morrison plays soccer outside of school, Goodman is a skier, MacGillivray plays hockey and Verhoeve is a soccer and volleyball player.

“There is very tough competition out there in the midget girls race and we’re very fortunate to have six girls (Ellie Lang and Jocelyne Murphy) in the race today that have worked very hard,” he said.

“It says a lot about our team spirit and what you can do when you train hard and are dedicated to improving in your sport.”

Claudia Heeney of Rockway won the 3,000m junior girls race in 12:37.15, Juliette Davies of Cameron Heights won the 4,000m senior girls race (timing malfunction), Adam Huras of Waterloo-Oxford won the 4,000m midget boys race in 15:48.96, Korbett Cator of Grand River won the 5,000m junior boys race in 16:27.05, and Zach Frangos won the 6,000m senior boys race in 19:32.

The Waterloo District Invitational is at Bechtel Park on Thursday.