Siona Chisholm and Andrew Peverill are golden

Siona Chisholm of the St. Francis Xavier University X-Women and Andrew Peverill of the Saint Mary's University Huskies are the women's and men's 8km champions of the Atlantic University Sport Subway Cross Country Championship. They are also the athletes of the year. 

Chisholm and her X-Women teammates also won the gold medal, banner, and trophy in the women's team championship in Saturday's races at the Moncton campus. Siona Chisholm is also the women's rookie of the year. The men's gold, banner and team championship trophy were won by the Dalhousie University Tigers. The women gold medalist posted a time of 29m19 on the 2km course, a lead of more than a minute over Kelsey Hogan of the Dalhousie University Tigers (silver) and Paige Chisholm of the University of Prince Edward Island Panthers, (bronze) in third place with 4 seconds behind second position. There were 48 participants in the race. 

In the team standings, StFX was first, Dalhousie University Tigers (silver) were second followed by the University of New Brunswick Reds, (bronze) and third. The University of Prince Edward Island Panthers, Memorial University Sea-Hawks, Acadia University's Axewomen and Université de Moncton's Aigles Bleues followed. Dalhousie had won the last seven team championships and StFX last win was in 2012.

In the men's race, Andrew Peverill posted a time of 25m22, 8 seconds ahead of Jacob Benoit of the St. Francis Xavier University X-Men with silver and Will Cox of the Dalhousie University Tigers, bronze in 25m53. In the team standings, the Tigers won gold, banner, and championship trophy for a second year in a row. The X-Men finished second with silver and the University of New Brunswick Reds finished third with bronze. The Saint Mary's University Huskies, Memorial University Sea-Hawks, UPEI Panthers and Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus followed. 53 athletes took the start. 

There were about 120 athletes enrolled with the participation of nine universities. The all-star team women's members are Siona Chisholm of StFX; Kelsey Hogan of Dalhousie; Paige Chisholm of UPEI; Mairin Canning of StFX; Eileen Benoit of StFX; Jade Roberts of Memorial and Julia Cameron of StFX. Andrew Peverill of St. Mary's dominates the men's all-star selection with Jacob Benoit of StFX; Will Cox of Dalhousie; Graydon Staples of StFX; Jared Howse of UNB; Nick Robertson of Dalhousie and Hudson Grimshaw-Surette of Dalhousie. 

Natasha Vatcher of UNB and Levi Moulton of Memorial are the recipients of the Student/Athlete Community Service Awards. Eric Gillis of StFX and Kevin Heisler of Saint Mary's are the female and male coaches of the year. UNB's Jared Howse is the men's rookie of the year. 

"I had planned to take the lead and it was good to be pushed by Jacob on the last lap," Peverill said. "It was a fairly flat course, but with difficulties. I'm glad I did well. In preparation for the U SPORTS Championship, I will do what I have been doing for months and I will be ready. » 

For Siona Chisholm, "the conditions were very good on flat ground. I was able to run the way I wanted. I wanted to finish first and I was thinking about my teammates. The course was what I expected, and I felt good. At the U SPORTS Championship, I'll will see how everything goes for me." 

RESULTS

Recap and Photo: UdeM Athletics Communications