Mustangs repeat senior girls' title at OFSAA cross country while Knights claim junior girls crown

Author of the article:

Jim Parker • Windsor Star

Published Nov 05, 2023 • Last updated 8 hours ago • 3 minute read

Freshman Anieu Chan helped the Massey Mustangs defend its team title in the senior girls’ division at the OFSAA cross-country championships on Saturday in Etobicoke. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor Star

It was a title defence for the Massey Mustangs and a first for the Holy Names Knights on Saturday.

The Mustangs repeated as team champions in the senior girls’ division while the Knights claimed the school’s first-ever division title taking the junior girls’ title at the OFSAA cross-country championships at Centennial Park in Etobicoke. St. Joseph’s Anthony Cigan earned the area’s third gold medal by taking the mixed para 4km race.

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“To do it again is amazing,” 17-year-old Layla Masse, who was the first Massey runner across the finish line, said of the repeat. “Everyone was so dedicated to pushing and meet expectations of last year.”

Three Massey runners returned from last year’s championship team in Masse, who placed 23rd over the 6km course in 23 minutes and 14.11 seconds, Ella Heredi, who was 30th in 23:24.94, and Julia Scarrow, who was 55th in 24:08.54. Massey’s other scoring runner was Grade 9 student Anieu Chan, who was right behind Masse in 24th in 23:14.67. Vivian Hu, who was 207th, rounded out the team.

“The biggest challenge at being at OFSAA was the completion and the course and I couldn’t have done this without my amazing teammates,” the 14-year-old Chan said. “I just feel like we’re a team and we just wanted to keep pushing. I’ve never experienced an event like this.”

In a race that started with 275 runners, Masse said it was a matter of team members picking each other up along the way.

“Anieu and I helped each other,” Masse said. “There was a point where I caught up to her and she was hurting and I said, ‘Do it for the team’ and then, when I started hurting, Anieu pushed me on. It was great that we pushed each other to the end of the line and Ella came up and pushed us, too.”

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Massey’s team score of 132 was 72 points ahead of its closest rival and the Knights were just as dominant winning the junior girls’ title with 115 points, which was 79 points ahead of the second-place team.

“I was hoping for this to happen,” said the Knights’ Sophia Prantera, who led the team with a sixth-place finish overall over the 5km course in 17:26.43. “We were fifth last year (in the novice division) and were hoping for it.”

The 15-year-old Prantera called it a challenging course.

“The course was so hard,” Prantera said. “There was so much gravel, my feet were killing me.

“You never know how a race is going to go and I’m super excited. Usually at the start, you can tell how it goes. At the start, I got out in third place and I knew it was going to be a good race.”

Kacie Gelinas was 23rd in 18:24.51, Makenna St. Louis was 39th in 18:50.81 and Emily Owen completed the team’s four scoring runners with a 47th-place finish in 19:10.74. Lyla Mascaro, who was 191st, rounded out the team.

“It means so much because I’ve been training,” Prantera said. “I could never imagine this happening. My team, they worked so hard to get us first place, which is amazing.

“Honestly, I was so tired (at the end) I just laid on the floor and as teammates came through, someone said, ‘We won’ and we all started jumping around.”

Cigan was able to defend his title over the 4km race in a time of 14:39.96, which bettered his winning time of 17:53.53 from a year ago.

Meanwhile, the Villanova Wildcats finished seventh in novice boys’ team competition led by Colin Antonucci, who was 48th over the 4km course in 14:02.08.

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