Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Jack Gregory capped off a perfect cross country season on Saturday by capturing OFSAA gold in Uxbridge.
The Grade 9 NDSS Golden Hawk finished the course in a time 13 minutes and 57 seconds, giving him a clean sweep of every major race he took part in this season.
A few weeks prior to the provincial finals he had a chance to run a ‘pre-OFSAA’ race held on the same course as the actual OFSAA championship, which proved to be a major benefit before lining up for the final event.
“It helped a lot. I knew what turns I had to go up hills, how close I was to the finish line, it was really helpful,” said Gregory. “That finish (was the most challenging part of the course). How long the hill felt, it just felt like it was never ending.”
He was able to push through however and claim the top spot. Gregory knew heading into the race if he wanted gold he’d have to improve on his preliminary run.
“My goal going into was just to break 14 minutes,” said Gregory. “I told myself this is what I have to do since my time at pre-OFSAA was a time of 14:07.”
Those 10 seconds he shaved off his time proved to be enough to claim the top spot and put a nice finishing touch on an extremely successful rookie high school season. Before even reaching high school however he had plenty of long-distance running experience as he has enjoyed the hobby while in elementary school. That built up endurance was a huge benefit, though there were still opportunities to learn during the KASSAA calendar of races.
“Play it smart and work as hard as you can,” he said of the lessons learned this year. “It doesn’t really matter how you feel in the moment. I’m trying to think long term.”
That long-term goal is to earn a scholarship for long-distance running. In the meantime, even though his high school season is complete, he has a few more races lined up this month-one another provincial meet followed by a national event-before the cross-country events are shelved for the winter. Outside of the Golden Hawks season he trains with Belleville-based coach Kevin Beattie.