Thirteen-year-old Desirae Ridenour has a simple race strategy.
“I just sort of run, and see if anybody’s ahead or behind me, and just keep up with them,” said Ridenour, a Grade 9 student at Francis Kelsey Secondary in Mill Bay.
On Wednesday, Ridenour didn’t spend too much time worrying about runners in front of her, as she outran the competition to claim her second straight Vancouver Island high school cross-country championship in 15 minutes 55 seconds.
Ridenour was among 500 young athletes taking part in the Island meet, being held around the looping trails at Elk/Beaver Lake Park. Erik Evans of Reynolds took the boys race, while the Oak Bay girls and Dover Bay boys won the team divisions.
“She’s really fast,” said second-place girls finisher Chloe Hegland, a Parklands senior, who led the 4.5-kilometre girls’ race early, then stayed right on the heels of Ridenour for the distance. Hegland’s time of 15:59 beat her previous personal best by six seconds, and Madison Heisterman of Queen Margaret’s was third in 16:26.
“It was kind of hard, because it was a winding [trail], but it was good,” Hegland said. “I was happy with it.”
In the boys race, Erik Evans of Reynolds surged into the lead on the third lap of the 6.7-kilomtre course, winning in a time of 21:08. Evans and runner-up Peter Oxland of Nanaimo’s Dover Bay (21:19.00) paced each other, as they gradually moved to the front.
“I out-strengthed him on the hill, and I managed to survive,” Evans said, adding he’d never won a race with all the “fast guys” in it. “It was very fun.”
Liam Kennell of Oak Bay, one of the pre-race favourites, led the first two laps, but faded to finish fourth behind Evans, Oxland and Sean Miller of Nanaimo’s John Barsby (21:19.95). Kennell later told his coach he hadn’t been feeling well.
“I did notice his gap was less than it usually is,” Evans said. “Sometimes I can’t even see him after the second lap.”
Before the race, Evans’ coach Brad Cunningham told Evans that today was his day, and Cunningham couldn’t have been happier to see the Reynolds captain come out from under the shadow of some of the other runners.
“He’s been a phenomenal captain this year, rallying this team all summer,” Cunningham said. “This should legitimize him as one of the top runners in the province.”
Evans, along with the rest of the top 20 finishers in the girls and boys divisions, will move onto the B.C. cross-country championships at Aldergrove Lake Park in Langley on Nov. 2, as will the top four teams in each division.
Following perennially strong Oak Bay in the girls team standings, were Nanaimo District, Mount Douglas and Frances Kelsey. In boys, Dover Bay, with five runners in the top-10 (including twins Peter and Thomas Oxland and Anthony and Chris Serban), was followed by Oak Bay, Campbell River’s Carihi and Reynolds.
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