Three locals win NOSSA cross country

Three local runners claimed victory on Friday at the Northern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (NOSSA) Cross Country championships at Kinsmen Park.

Rocky Robitaille of St. Mary's, Karen Alexander of White Pines and Sir James Dunn's Reg Peer all won their respective races.

Sudbury Lockerby won the overall aggregate team championship while North Bay's West Ferris won the boys team championship and Chippewa won the girls title.

Robitaille captured gold in the seven kilometre senior boys division in a time of 23:57:18. Sir James Dunn's Peter Lachowski finished fourth in a time of 25:20:64.

Alexander won the most exciting finish on the day by edging out Sir James Dunn's Brittany Shamess by 26/100ths of a second for the midget girls 3 km gold. Alexander clocked in at 14:33:21 while Shamess finished in 14:33:47. Korah's Amanda Maione finished fourth in 15:03:51.

Peer captured the midget boys 5 km championship in a time of 18:15:50. St. Mary's John Harvey finished third in 18:34:60 while Sir James Dunn's Joey Lachowski finished fifth in 18:47:38.

Elliot Lake's Meghan Jutti won the senior girls 5 km in a time of 19:44:15. SJD's Marnie Smith finished in third place at 21:19:96 and Heather McLeod fourth at 21:23:89.

Lockerby's Kyle Caverson won the junior boys 6 km race in a time of 21:45:49 ahead of Central Algoma's Corey Marques in third at 21:50:18 and SJD's Matt Cuddy in fourth at 21:56:86.

Manitoulin's Kaitlyn Tallman won the junior girls 4 km race in 18:13:83. SJD's Kristen Johnson finished in fifth place with a time of 19:21:54.

The top six finishers in each division now advance to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) championships November 1 in Renfrew.