ST PAUL, MN – Sports – The Lakehead University Thunderwolves continued their season on Saturday September 29th at the Roy Griak Invitational in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Griak has a reputation of being one of the most competitive races in North America and this year was no different. The meet features over 4000 runner and six university races with teams being divided into men’s and women’s divisision 1, 2, and 3. This year, Lakehead competed in the maroon division II race, moving up from the D3 races they have run in the past. Part of the reason for the meet’s popularity is its challenging course with lots of rolling hills.
The women’s race began at 9:50am and the Lakehead girls went to battle against 400 other women. Overall the women ran a smart race going through the roller-coaster 6km course. Danielle Thiel led the ladies team once again finishing in 29th with a time of 23:37. After the race she said, “It was a good race but I need to be more confident in the last two kilometres and pass more people.” Hilary Quirion and Callie Roelfsema came in a short time after Danielle in 45th and 48th place with times of 23:51 and 23:56 respectively. Senior Lisa Alaimo battled illness throughout the race and finished 168th. Elora Beitz and Cassie Ostrom finished off the race for the women, placing in 323rd and 380th. Overall the women’s team came a respectable 17th out of 38 teams.
The men’s 8km race took off at 11:30 and the ten Thunderwolf men went out strong but conservative. It was a hot day and the men were not used to such temperatures coming from Thunder Bay and were caught by surprise. This affected many but some pulled through and had great efforts. Dylan Brown ran a fast race and finished the difficult course with a bronze medal finish out the 500 who started the race. Dylan ran a time of 25:38 and was only sixteen seconds behind the winner. Second across the line for Lakehead was Senior Travis Roske in 106th with a time of 27:19. Next to finish were Dominique Aulagnon in 110th place and Chris Brown in 135th. Freshmen Kevin Tree, Tyler White, and Kenny Groop came in next in 183rd, 198th, and 244th. Slightly after Geoff Chambers and Ben Belluz came in 288th and 294th. Brenden Randall finished off the team coming in 371st. The men’s team came in 15th out of 36 teams.
As coach Kip Sigsworth explained, overall it was not the Thunderwolves’ best day. “It was tough out there today. Our top three women ran solid and Dylan had a sensational race but we need to be a lot better overall. We are training very hard right now and had a fair amount of illness but we need to compete better and find a way to get it done when things aren’t 100%. We are a young team and it will be important that we bounce back from today and learn from this adversity.”
The Thunderwolves have two weeks of hard training before their next race in Guelph on October 13th. That day will be their debut race in Canada this season and their first chance to show their OUA competition what they’ve got.