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Jenkins and Woodland Top XC Field
by ACAC Sports Writer Curtis J. Phillips
10/28/2012... Camrose, Alberta - Five colleges placed two runners of more in the Top 10 for men’s and women’s cross country finishers at the 2012 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference cross country championships held in Camrose yesterday and hosted by the Augustana Vikings.
The Grant MacEwan Griffins had four women and one man, while Lethbridge Kodiaks had three men and SAIT Trojans has two men and one woman. Red Deer Kings had two men while the host Vikings had a female and male place in the Top 10 respectively.
The big news though was that the Concordia needed only one runner to crack the rankings and that was Marriya Jenkins (left) winning the women’s five kilometer run in a time of 19:14 which was more than one minute ahead of second place Vanessa Trofimenkoff from MacEwan with 20:15.
"She (Jenkins) is an excellent runner who has the combination of talent and work ethic," said Thunder coach Matthew Norminton, who added that Jenkins will be the lone school runner representing Concordia at nationals. "She was there last year and placed sixth and we see her doing well once again."
The surprise in the men’s eight kilometre race was that Lethbridge’s Solomon Ngetich did not place first but sixth.
He had been dominant during the previous Grand Prix races but clocked a 28:21 at provincials which were won by Kings Devin Woodland at 27:23.
The top seven finishers in each race qualify to go to nationals which will be held November 10, 2012 in St. Lambert Quebec and hosted by Champlain College. Also the ACAC may be represented by the top three teams in men’s and women’s competition.
“We are pretty pleased that the women did really well,” said Griffins coach Drew Carver who coached the Edmonton squad along with Linda Miller. “There was snow on the ground and it was cool bit overall pretty nice to run but the footing was a bit slippery and most of the athletes were not running as easily as they would normally but it was the same conditions for everyone.”
Of his women’s team chances at nationals Carver said: “Now that we have this race done we want to do better as a team at the next race. From what I see there are four really strong teams (in CCAAA) and on a good day we could be No. 1.”
