Zone 13 Cross Country Champions

The Zone 13 High School Cross Country Championships took place Tuesday at the Pine Falls golf course.

Abbey Harms, Abebu Lehman, Anastasia Werner, Brooklyn Kornelsen, Dakota Gigolyk, Julia Stang, Paige Heide, Kyana Brown and Riley Brandt of Steinbach Regional won the Junior Varsity girls championship banner.

Denis Dorge, Torin Frith, Alex Byra, Joshua Mackay and Corwin Eckert of Lorette took the Junior Varsity boys.

The best individual times were recorded by Brown and Justin Kroeker of Edward Schreyer School in Beausejour.

Both varsity boys and varsity girls championship banners went to Gabrielle Roy.

Mathieu Senecal, Joel Delorme, Shawn Cianflone, Nicholas Stevenson, Justin Benjamin and Dominic Balcaen finished first as did Elena Chammartin, Emilie Dornez, Katerine Aminot, Emily Tremblay, Melanie Turman and Julie Senecal.

Benjamin and Dornez had the best individual times.

"They were very excited," said Les Roys cross country coach Colin Tetrault. "I think they didn't expect much and winning was a great surprise."

Tetrault says his runners enjoyed near perfect weather conditions on Tuesday as it rained for just a couple of minutes and then the sun came out.

"It was a little slippery at some points and a little muddy but they were very cautious at those points and they sprinted when it counted at the end."

"We practiced twice a week and they run the 5K just to practice," added Tetrault. "We don't have many hills in southern Manitoba so it's kind of tough to get used to hills when you go elsewhere but they train hard. They trained against themselves and that translates into results in the Zone's. I'm very proud of them."

The Provincial High School Cross Country Championships take place next Wednesday in Winnipeg and Tetrault says his varsity teams looking forward to competing against the best.

"They didn't expect to do this well in the Zone's and now they're very excited to go. I'm going to book the bus and we'll be ready to go."