OTTAWA — The junior girls with the Superior Gryphons cross country running squad took home silver from the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championship meet on Nov. 4 in Ottawa.
“I’m just so proud of the team. They’re all just so good,” said Marilyn Ailey, cross country running coach for the Gryphons.
At first, Ailey was focused on how each of her team’s runners were doing individually. But as the meet went going on, she soon found out what those watching the livestream back in Thunder Bay were hearing: that girls team was in the running to make the podium.
“One of the commentators said that our junior girls team was two points out of the gold medal and that we were a team to watch,” Ailey said.
“The parents at home were texting us at the meet to tell us this and that I needed to go on the live results to check it out.
“I didn’t want to believe that we were in the mix until it was official on the results page and it was super exciting when we found out how we faired.
Ailey said the the Gryphons' silver medal placement is 'historic'.
The records for OFSSA cross country meets aren’t the most readily available, but through her own research, Ailey believes that this was the best result for a Thunder Bay school at the event since 1987.
“We’re competing against schools that are twice the size of us,” Ailey said. “It’s pretty wild for a small school like ours to have such a historic result.
They were joined on the podium by the gold medal winning St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic High School from Aurora and the bronze medal winning École Secondaire Catholique Thériault from Timmins.
The Gryphon's junior girls team featured Olivia Vinet, Britton Vander-Vegte, Sammy Sdao, Grace Lee and Laine Hupka.
Vander-Vegte led the way for Superior as she finished in 28th place on the five-kilometre course.
"The night before the race we were anxious about meeting our goals for the season and then we just ran our best and pulled through as a team to win the silver medal,” Vander-Vegte said.
Vinet came home in 40th with Sdao, Lee and Hupka crossing the line 76th,85th and 138th respectively in a race that features 264 runners.
"Standing on the podium felt amazing, after all our hard work this season,” said Vinet, who is the team’s captain.
“Running at OFSAA is stressful,” Hupka added. “There are so many people in the race … in the end, we persevered and feel really proud.”
In addition to running on the busy course, the runners also had to deal with changing weather conditions.
“As soon as the girls started running, they were facing hail, ice pellets and rain,” Ailey said. “By the time our senior went out on the course, it was pretty much a mud bath.”
“With our kids, you could really see the agility work they put in and how much being multi-sport athletes helps them. They were able to stay upright while a lot of the runners weren’t.”
While the Gryphons have enjoyed recent success on the NorWOSSA stage, this accomplishment is easily the biggest for the program.
“It’s something that our whole coaching staff has been working towards for years and we knew all along that we had a chance of maybe doing well at OFSAA one day,” Ailey said.
“Now that it’s happened, it’s a pretty phenomenal feeling for everyone on the team.”