Excitement and anticipation were buzzing through the air as high school students from all across the Toronto District School Board prepared for the Cross Country City Championships. On the morning of 23 October, students from Grades 9-12 gathered at Centennial Park to race.

OFSAA3

Ella Plante represents MGCI at OFSAA. Photo: Jenna Wong

According to cross-country runner  and Grade 11 student Ella Plante, the overall atmosphere of the meet was competitive but there was a lot of positive support and team spirit. The students of Garneau “put their best efforts and had good races!”

Of the twenty four that were on the cross country team, eight individuals from Marc Garneau qualified for the City Championships. However, only six competed. They were Faustin Obedi, Ella Plante, Shela Qiu, Ahmad Raaba, Eric Su, and Jenna Wong. Scholar Sun and Michael Shu qualified for the meet but were unable to attend.

Mr. Pearce and Ms. Tharshan were the coaches of the team, and very impressed with MGCI’s performance at the meet. “This has been a remarkable year for cross country,” said Mr. Pearce, “We’ve had the biggest cross country team that we’ve had for years, and the best race results at the city championships.”

Though all the competitors put up a good effort, Jenna Wong and Ella Plante placed remarkably well. Jenna, in Grade 9, came in 7th place and Ella came in 19th place in the City Championships.

The two competed in the province-wide Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) meet in Sudbury, Ontario on 2 November. With a course length of 3.1 kilometers, Jenna came in 58th place. The senior girl’s race was 5.21 kilometers long, and Ella finished in 154th place.