Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
Fresh off a top 10 finish at provincials, Napanee cross-country runner Carter Free will now set his sights on the national stage.
The Grade 12 NDSS Golden Hawk placed eighth at last week’s OFSAA, which saw the top high school athletes from Ontario compete at Petawawa. That was a strong finish to the high school season, which saw him placed first at KASSAA (Kingston area) and second at EOSSAA (Eastern Ontario) championships.
He’s not quite ready to call it a season just yet however as he will now run as a member of the Quinte-Frontenac Track Club in the Nov. 25 Canadian Championships, which will be held at Kingston’s Fort Henry. He’ll be running in the U-18 division.
“I’m pretty confident running on the hills,” Free said of the Fort Henry course, which he ran during his Grade 9 and 10 seasons. “At OFSAA there was a lot of hills and I did really well at OFSAA so I feel like coming into this race I should place pretty well.”
His strong showing at OFSAA back on Nov. 4 has already garnered the attention of post-secondary schools, with coaches already attempting to recruit him for their college. He’s not concerned with that at the moment, instead focusing on the upcoming national race.
“I’m just trying to improve as much as I can up until nationals,” said Free.
“(After that) it’ll be winter training up until track and field.”
In the spring he’ll once again representing the Golden Hawks, running in the 3,000 metre race.
Elsewhere NDSS’ junior boys volleyball team saw their season come to an end on Thursday as they were swept in three sets by the top ranked Regi Panthers in the KASSAA semifinals.
Despite the loss it was still an extremely successful season for the Hawks.
Regi went on to top KCVI in the finals on Sunday.