Stingers Cross-Country Preview

Team Looks To Run Away From The Competition

SportsChanel Jacques — Published September 1, 2014

The first notable change is the addition of a recreational cross-country squad to the current competitive cross-country team, increasing the number of runners.

“They are not limited to training, they can actually race,” said cross-country head coach Simon Driver.

“The idea is that we want to grow the club within the university. We don’t want people to think we’re exclusively elite, it’s open to anyone who wants to run.”

Training will be a major focus for the cross-country team this year, and the team has added a former cross-country Olympian, Michelle Valentine of Jamaica, to aid the runners in training.

“She’s going to work with our higher-end runners twice a week,” Driver added.

“We’re going to put a focus on our core workout,” said the women’s cross-country team captain Valerie Sicard.

“We’re going to do a lot of injury prevention and reinforcing the specific muscles we need to perform better.”

With these changes, the cross-country team believes they will be a much stronger force on both the men’s and women’s sides.

“Val [Sicard] is definitely a runner to look out for, she has been making her way steadily up in the last year,” Driver said.

“There’s also [Mahbubuzzaman] Kazi, who has been making a major breakthrough, and we have Francis Dumoulin and James Coltin, who are our top runners,” Driver added.

The Stingers cross-country team will participate in its first event of the year, the McGill Open, on Sept. 14 at McGill University.