Griffins jet to Victoria for key litmus test race Saturday in preparations for Canada West championship
Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – With their first taste of top-flight Canada West competition coming this weekend, the MacEwan Griffins cross-country teams will soon get an idea where they stand a month before the conference championship.
Head coach Drew Carver is taking eight women and three men to Victoria for Saturday's Vikes Invitational.
Expected competition includes many of the Canada West titans – Calgary, Victoria, UBC and Thompson Rivers University.
"This is the side of the mountain we don't get to see very often," said Carver. "This will give us an idea of what we have to do to be in the top three at Canada West.
"If everything goes according to plan – even if we finish second or third in this event – it will tell us who our competition is and how close we are. So that's the main point. We need to get in there and see it."
Rookie Kiana Row is coming into the event off a stellar debut, finishing as the top student-athlete at the ACAC Grand Prix #1 earlier this month in Edmonton, but this will be her first taste of going against higher-levelled Canada West competition.
Carver is also anxious to see the response from his top veterans – reigning Canada West second team all-star Emma Steele, ACAC indoor track athlete of the year Ember Large and talented Ashley Tymkow – who have the potential to be among the top runners in the conference, too.
"The other girls are feeling a little bit more comfortable now," said Carver. "It's still pretty exciting for Kiana going through this. The other girls now, they're all second-year athletes, they're almost veterans, but it's still novel to them.
"Hopefully, they have the best race, and if that happens, we should be looking like a good, solid team."
On the men's side, rookies Evan Haddock, Thomas Williams and Jay Megic will be getting their first taste of Canada West competition on Saturday.
"They're going to get their feet wet and see how fast the other guys are," said Carver. "They're excited. They want to see what it's like racing on the other side of that mountain.
"Evan and Thomas are pretty experienced. They're triathlon athletes, so it's nothing new to them. It's solid cross-country, so they're looking forward to putting the uniform on and going for it."
The races will be contested on a course Carver is unfamiliar with – at Elk Lake and Beaver Lake – so the team will adjust on the fly once landing on the island.
"I told them to bring all their shoes, everything they can, and we'll decide (once there) what footwear to use and how we're going to do it," he said.
The women's 6K race begins at 12 p.m. local time, while the men's 8K starts at 1 p.m.
