Ashley Tymkow, right, seen on the closing stretch at the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Sled Dog Open last month, where she finished 25th, will be looking to rise up the rankings even further in Victoria on Saturday (getmyphoto.ca).

October 12, 2018

Young Griffins cross-country team hits Victoria with rising expectations

Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – Drew Carver will find out even more about his young MacEwan Griffins cross-country team this weekend.

They surprised him with better-than-expected results at the season-opening Sled Dog Open in Saskatoon last month.

Now, how will they follow it up?

The Griffins will wade into the fray against the top B.C. Canada West institutions at the University of Victoria Invitational on Saturday and expectations are rising.

Rookies Emma Steele and Ashley Tymkow raised the bar for a young women's team with top-10 and top-25 finishes, respectively, in their university debuts the Sept. 29 University of Saskatchewan race.

"The goal times are even faster," said MacEwan's head coach. "I hope Emma can break that 31-minute barrier. And I'm hoping Ashley gets closer to 32-flat. These things are all dependent on weather conditions on this race if they haven't thrown something really difficult in there."

Steele and Tymkow will be joined by Shehzadi Abdul, Daniella Wasielewski and Cassandra Mastel-Marr in the women's 8K race on Saturday, while first-year teammates Bailey Stang and Delaney Cruickshank will compete in the women's 6K event.

"Three of the girls are solidly ready for the 8K," said Carver of the longer distance dependent on where they're at in their training cycle. "Daniella and Cassandra are still steadily improving. Knowing that they're on the upswing on this, I'm happy to have them run 8K. This also gives us a full women's team, comparable to what UVic and Trinity Western will have.

"Those are solid teams. All these rookies going up against them, it's going to be a little bit tough, but at the same time, I'm pretty happy with what we're getting out of our athletes."

Scott Kohlman, who was nine seconds shy of the MacEwan University men's 8K record in Saskatoon, will again run the distance in Victoria as he continues on pace to eventually run 10K at U SPORTS nationals. First-year teammate Owen Guenette will also run the 8K this weekend.

"This way they're in the training stage that they're at right now; the 8K distance would be optimum for training," said Carver. "I want to see a good time in Victoria, improving upon their last 8K race. If that's the case, then we're right on stage for going to Stewart Cup and running the 10K. So, training and where they're at, this should be a good test."

Stewart Cup, set for Calgary on Oct. 27, is MacEwan's final test before they head to nationals Nov. 9-10 in Kingston, Ont. Victoria's race will also go a long way in their preparation for next month's event that doubles at the Canada West championship.

"The first race, they were very excited, happy to be there as a team," said Carver. "So that adrenaline was getting them going. Now, the second race around, they kind of know what they're in for, so we'll see."

Follow the race results here.

"Everybody this year has seemed to come out with a strong team," Carver continued. "My first-year rookies took it on the chin, being fifth at the Saskatchewan race. But I think we're going to improve.

"If we can jump on that and just move up the rankings a little bit, that's where we're headed."