After an early October snow-storm hit the area and forced the Horizon Central Athletic Association District Cross-Country Championship to be postponed, the meet finally took place on Oct. 11 in snowy, cold conditions at Rowan’s Ravine in Strasbourg.
Each of the four Humboldt area schools sent runners to the meet with HCI finishing fifth with 21 points, St. Augustine finishing ninth with 32 points and St. Dominic finishing 11th with 42 points.
Due to HPS only sending three runners to the district championship they were unable to compete in the team championship.
The team competition sees the top five finishers from each school receive the same number of points as their finishing position, with the team with the fewest points being the winner.
The Mohawks 21 points came courtesy of a second place finish in the junior girls race, a third place finish in the midget girls race, fifth place finishes in the senior girls and boys race and a sixth place finish in the senior boys race.
After qualifying all of their runners for the district championship the HCI Mohawks enjoyed a great deal of success at the meet as five or their six runners qualified for the provincial championship including two senior boys, one senior girl, one junior girl and one midget girl.
The lone Mohawk to miss out on qualifying for the provincial championship came in the midget boys race, where the runner finished 11th, just seven seconds behind the final qualifying position.
With the provincial cross-country meet featuring only athletes who compete in midget, junior and senior races St. Augustine, St. Dominic and HPS all failed to qualify any runners for the meet due to the schools not having runners old enough to qualify.
Despite the fact that their runners could not advance to provincials they all still enjoyed varying levels of success at the meet.
The St. Augustine Hawks sent a total of 11 runners to the district championship with their top five runners finishing in first in the peewee boys race, fifth, eighth and ninth in the wee pee boys race and ninth in the wee pee girls race.
The first place finish in the peewee boys race was their lone podium finish but the Hawks did finish with five of their runners finishing in the top ten, six in the top 15 and seven in the top 20.
The St. Dominic Chargers meanwhile sent seven runners to the meet finishing with a total of 42 points courtesy of a sixth place finish in the wee pee boys, seventh place finish in peewee girls and eighth, tenth and eleventh place finishes in bantam girls.
Despite not having a runner finish in the top three and having only four runners finish in the top ten the Chargers managed six top 20 finishes, with their only other runner missing out on a top 20 finish by just six seconds.
The HPS Panthers rounded out the contingent of Humboldt based schools at the meet as they sent the aforementioned three runners.
The Panthers still enjoyed some great success at the district meet as they finished second in the bantam boys race, seventh in the bantam girls and fourteenth in the wee pee girls race.
After a small break the Mohawks traveled to Delisle for the Provincial Cross-Country Championship on Oct. 15.
The Mohawks enjoyed a great deal of success at the provincial championships as they improved upon last year’s 87 point seventh place finish with an 80 point fifth place finish in the team event this year.
The provincial championship team competition works a little differently from the district team competition as the top four runners from each team instead of the top five runners count towards the team points race.
The Mohawks finished with four real solid runs as they finished 11th in the junior girls race, 17th in the midget girls race and 25 and 27 in the senior boys race.
Overall the Mohawks sent five runners to the provincial championship and finished with one top 15, two top 20’s, four top 30’s and five top 35’s.
Thanks to a number of spectacular results from runners from all schools, Horizon Central finished in the top four in each of the six categories in the district competition including second in the midget boys, third in the junior boys, senior boys and senior girls and fourth in the midget girls and junior girls.
