A strong team showing at the Canadian Cross Country Championships capped a great fall season for the London Runner Distance Club. Taking place November 26th in Vancouver, BC, on the muddy Jericho Park course, the Canadian Championships were also the selection trials towards the 2012 NACAC Cross Country Championships.

Masters runner Paul Roberts started the day off for the group, competing in the Masters 8k Champion race, followed soon after by the Junior Girls 5k, in which Madeline Yungblut (25th) led the way for LRDC. The Junior Boys race included outstanding performances both by the team (4th overall) and Aaron Hendrikx, who captured the bronze medal and qualified for the Canadian Junior XC team that will head to Trinidad in March.

The Senior races were kicked off with the duo of Becky Pieterson and Leslie Sexton placing 22nd and 26th, respectively. The LRDC Senior Men returned to the podium, improving on their 2009 Bronze medal performance with a silver medal showing in a very tight team race. Racing in tough conditions at the end of the meet that saw several athletes drop out of the race, the 4 LRDC men stayed strong with Kyle O'Neill (15th) and Ryan Huff (17th) leading the way.

Photo (l to r): Ryan Huff, Brent Smith, Kyle O'Neill, and Matt Suda