As he’s done all season, Aden Haywood led the MHC men on Saturday, with a 31st place finish in the CCAA National Cross Country Running Championships in Calgary. The 18-year old rookie from Estevan, SK started strongly and gradually moved through the field of 89 runners. He recorded a time 28:17 over the hilly 8 km course on the grounds of St Mary’s University.

Four other MHC runners also contested the men’s race. They included Brannon Sumner (65th), Carson Schiller (66th), Keveen Gonzalez (82nd), and Shintaro Iwata (86th). Collectively, the Rattlers men finished 12th in the team standings.

Pyper Gill and Cheldyn Molnar had the best MHC results in the women’s 6 km race. Gill clocked a time 26:46 for 55th place, 3 spots and 3 seconds ahead of Molnar. Angela Bunn (92nd), Huimei Huang (94th), and Jisoo Lee (96th) also took part in the race. The quartet combined for a 14th place finish among the women’s teams.

The Rattlers, who returned to ACAC Cross Country this year after a 20-year hiatus, made great progress over the course of the season. Of the 35 colleges who qualified athletes for Nationals this year, MHC was one of only 10 schools who fielded both complete men’s and women’s teams.

Coach Bill Corcoran was happy with how the season played out. “We had very inexperienced teams. Carson Schiller was our only runner who had previous ACAC/CCAA experience; over half of our team members were brand new to competitive running. On Saturday, they all came to race. Everyone of the 10 recorded a season’s-best time!”

Both races on Saturday featured dominating wins by Alberta runners. Concordia University of Edmonton’s Leonard Cheeso defended his 2019 CCAA title by scorching the course in a time of 24:44, 28 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor. SAIT’s Makenna Fitzgerald stopped the clock at 21:40, for a massive 63-second victory.

London’s Fanshawe College won the men’s team title; Sherbrooke finished first among the women.

Full race results are posted at Race Pro Timing.