Burlington Central's Markowska nabs GHAC cross country gold

For almost five kilometres, Burlington Central’s Maya Markowska and St. Mary’s Anna Ptaszek battled back and forth exchanging the lead, each trying to pull away, but each time being answered.

The two have built a good, friendly rivalry during their high school careers since finishing 1-2 at last year’s cross-country championship. While Markowska is a middle-distance specialist in track, Ptaszek’s forte is in longer distances.

Knowing that, Markowska needed an edge and she found it down the stretch at the GHAC championship at Hilton Falls Conservation Area in Milton.

“In cross-country, I try to use the downhills to my advantage,” the Grade 10 student said. “In the last 200 metres, the final downhill, I was just sprinting down that. No brakes. I saved a little bit for that last kick.”

The strategy paid off as Markowska pulled away to win by nine seconds and claim her second straight GHAC title. She now heads into Saturday’s Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association’s championship in Etobicoke looking to add to an already impressive medal collection. Markowska won OFSAA gold in the 800 metres and silver in the 1,500m during the spring track season.

Markowska just missed out on an OFSAA cross-country medal after finishing fourth at last year’s provincials.

“I’m hoping my chances are pretty good,” she said of this year’s race, “but looking over the results, there are a lot of girls having very good seasons. It will be a tough race.”

Count Markowska among those excelling this year. In August the Burlington Track and Field Club member earned two silver medals at the Legion National Youth Championships in Sherbrooke, Que. and in July knocked two seconds off her personal best in the 800m at a meet in Toronto

Notre Dame’s Michael Schmalz was also a repeat winner, claiming his third straight GHAC title by taking the senior boys’ six-kilometre race in 21 minutes 12 seconds, He won by 35 seconds over Loyola’s Romain Sordet.

Despite having last year’s GHAC bronze medalist David Crighton sidelined and moving two runners up from the junior ranks, M.M. Robinson defended its senior boys team title. Landyn Cooke-Bithrey led the Rams with an 11 th place finish, followed by Keegan Brudnjak, in 15th. Grade 10 runners Ben Wallace (16th) and Jake Morash (23rd) helped seal the victory.

M.M. Robinson also qualified its novice boys’ team, placing four runners in the top 20 to finish second.

Connor Thwaites and Joshua Kupecki were eighth and ninth respectively while Nathan Campbell was 15th and Connor Little 18th. Again, MMR was shorthanded with Finley Cormier, their top finisher at the previous two meets, unable to compete.

M.M. Robinson coach Joel Zinn said the novice team should be competitive at OFSAA, having finished fourth at the Birchmount Invitational which was run on the same Etobicoke course.

“It’s a really good group of runners,” he said. “We’ve seen most of the speedy teams in the province. They could finish top-five at OFSAA.”

M.M. Robinson’s Faith Magyar won the para girls race, while teammates Nathaniel Kavanagh-Shields (second) and Marcelo Dinicolantonio (third) also qualified in the para boys’ race.

Other OFSAA qualifiers from Burlington were:

• Senior girls: Ella Sorge, Nelson, fifth; Bridget Cobham, Burlington Central, sixth
• Senior boys: Nolan McGregor, Assumption, third; Christian Jarosz, Assumption, fourth; Nathan Parkes, Corpus Christi, fifth
• Junior Boys: Jackson Bedford, Hayden, second; Dylan Tuck, Aldershot, fourth; Burlington Central, Ben McElroy, fifth, Joshua Rice, sixth, Mac Rawson, 15th, Andrew Giles, 19th
• Novice girls: Notre Dame, Melanie Freire, second, Audrey Daoust, 12th, Charlotte Tays, 29th and Natalie Delazzri, 31st

The OFSAA meet takes place Saturday (Nov. 4) in Etobicoke.