The Kodiaks women's cross-country team are ACAC champions (Photo supplied by Paul Kingsmith, Lethbridge College)

By Justin Goulet

ACAC championship for Kodiaks women’s cross-country team, men place fourth

Oct 28, 2019 | 7:10 AM

CALGARY, AB – It was a great weekend for the Lethbridge College Kodiaks cross-country teams.

Sophia Nowicki won her second straight ACAC championship on Saturday in Calgary. The win brings her Canadian college win streak to 10 races.

The meet was hosted by the SAIT Trojans and Nowicki managed to finish the 6-kilometre course at Confederation Park in 24:04, 24 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Emilie Mann (of SAIT).

Sophia Nowicki with her trophy (Photo supplied by Paul Kingsmith, Lethbridge College)

Nowicki is only the eighth woman ever to repeat as ACAC champion. She was also named ACAC runner of the year and placed on the ACAC all-conference team.

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She’ll compete and look to repeat as CCAA national champion on November 9 in Grande Prairie.

Her success also helped lead the women’s team to a second-straight ACAC championship over the University of Alberta-Augustana.

The squad will look to improve on the silver medal they earned at nationals last year.

MEN’S TEAM FINISHED FOURTH

Connor Jackson finished fifth in the 8-kilometre race with a time of 27:51. He was named to the ACAC all-conference team. Cooper Cheshire placed ninth with a time of 29:09, while Justin Fisher finished 11^th.

As a team, the Kodiak men placed fourth, only missing the podium by eight points. This means the team barely missed out on qualifying for the CCAA national championship.

COACH HONOURED

For the strong performances from the team, Simon Schaerz was named ACAC coach of the year.

This is his first season as head coach of the cross-country team, after joining the Kodiaks as an assistant in 2015. He was promoted to co-coach in 2017 and was named the official head coach last January.

This is the third time a Kodiaks coach has been named ACAC coach of the year, after Bertil Johansson earned the honour in both 2003 and 2015.