Roman Justinen is a Dinos men's track and field/cross country alumnus (2012-17).
Before getting into the details, let me be clear that I am not making this out to be a storied matchup between Guelph and Calgary men's cross country teams. For the better part of the past two decades it has been a lopsided affair in the Gryphons' favour. However, Calgary has unfortunate history related to the origins of Guelph's dominance, and that's what I'll focus on.
For those unfamiliar with the sport of cross country (XC) running the scoring works as follows: in U SPORTS, each team sends seven runners to nationals and the top five placers on each team score. They calculate points by adding up each of the top five scores, and the lowest combined score wins. For example, if runners on a team placed 10th, 25th, 30th, 45th, 50th, 69th, and 78th, their team score would be 160 points (10+25+30+45+50).
The first 14 places earn All-Canadian distinction and are coveted among runners. To avoid confusion, CIAU, CIS, and U SPORTS will all be used interchangeably to mean national championships, as the name has changed a few times over the last 20 years.
To the story.
1999
Back in 1999, Calgary's men cross country team had finally become varsity in 1998 so this was their second time sending a team to CIAU's. They had sent individuals in the past, including individual champions Jeremy Deere and Peter Butler. Guelph had recently gotten a new coach, now famous in Canadian runner circles, Dave Scott Thomas (DST). In 1999 CIAU's were hosted by Kingston.
The Dinos' top runner was Lanny Mann. Lanny was fifth at CIAU's the previous year and was looking to win the race outright. With 300 metres to go Lanny was in first place and the rest of Calgary's runners were in good spots to score low and the Dinos looked poised to secure the championship.
Out of nowhere, Lanny collapsed and crawled in the final 300 metres, finishing way back in the field. Calgary's sixth and seventh runners were not strong enough to make up for Lanny's collapse, and they did not win the team title. Guelph, who remarkably had no All-Canadians, won with a team score of 92 points and in a close team race Calgary missed out on the podium completely, finishing fifth overall. The Calgary team was obviously disappointed but seeing as they were a young team and had
won the first Canada West title in program history there was still lots to be proud of.
(Editor's tongue-in-cheek note:
the Dinos website in 1999 was definitely one of those things to be proud of!)
The 1999 title was Guelph's first win with DST as their coach. They would go on to win the next 14 of 19 CIAU, CIS and U SPORTS national championships, including a nine-year win streak. During the same stretch, the Dinos men were average at best (shout out to the Calgary women's team for winning in 2003); they did not make a team podium at nationals until 2017.
There were great individual performances during this time – notably Nathan Kendrick coming second overall in 2003 and Geoff Kerr winning Nationals outright in 2006 – but no team was able to put it together to reach the podium. Team culture steadily grew and found a reasonable balance between running and having fun making Calgary a great team to be a part of. Coach Lamont was very adept at taking inexperienced individual athletes and developing them into national-level calibre (see Brad Bickley), but no group of strong athletes ever accumulated to run well at nationals.
2014
In 2014 the Dinos were aptly meme'd "Nice Guys, Work Hard, Love the Game" on the running forum Trackie.com. Given the last 15 years, this phrase summed the team up quite well. Ironically, 2014 was also the year things started to change in Cowtown.
Ryan Grieco and Alex James were recruited and
Russell Pennock chose to come back to Calgary after spending a year in Victoria – a questionable decision by Pennock as Victoria went on to win silver in 2014 and became national champs in 2015, ending Guelph's winning streak at nine years. Pennock stuck it out as Calgary was still mediocre in 2014 and, despite adding
Stefan Daniel in 2015, they did not perform up to expectations.
In 2016, a solid group of rookies joined the squad, but performance lacked as Pennock was out with injury, Daniel had just finished the Paralympics and did not compete in XC, and James was contemplating whether he would ever run again. The breakthrough came a year later.
The Dinos men finished second at the U SPORTS championships in Victoria, the first team medal in Dinos men's XC history, and had three All-Canadians: Pennock (fourth), James (fifth), and Daniel (14th). The national champions in 2017 were – again – the Guelph Gryphons.
HILL ROUTE
Back to the history of Lanny Mann. Every Sunday in April, Calgary does a tempo training run on what is called Hill Route. It's around 8 km through the streets of neighborhoods and it is incredibly hilly. The team has been doing the exact same route for more than 20 years, so times are kept and known by athletes. Through all that time, Mann has held unofficial record despite plenty of better runners going through the system. Athletes have gotten close – James missed it by a second in 2017 – but no one had cracked it since Lanny set it.
This past spring Pennock smashed the hill route record by 30 seconds. In the rain.
BACK TO KINGSTON
In the leadup to U SPORTS XC in 2018, neither Guelph nor Calgary had anyone graduate. Calgary lost James due to unlucky injury that persisted into the XC season. They added Maximus Thiessen as a solid rookie, but losing their No. 2 runner and guy who placed fifth the previous year at nationals made a tough matchup even harder against Guelph. Adding another challenge to the season, Coach Lamont suffered a minor stroke in September and was unable to travel with the team for their first two races. Things were not looking great for Calgary, but a persistent underlying belief that they could pull off the upset remained.
The race unfolded as you would expect any comeback story to. Daniel and Pennock were at the front of the pack and Grieco was hovering in the 20s. Sandwiched between them were all seven Guelph guys. Halfway through the race, Lutz – who was 27th the year before – had worked his way into the top group and ended up finishing ninth overall. This was completely unexpected from Lutz, seeing as he hadn't finished the previous race due to a strain in his calf.
To put his performance in broader sports terms, it was similar to someone coming off the bench in basketball and putting up 30 points.
Tyler Kiyonaga was attending his first U SPORTS cross country race and stepped up on the day as Calgary's fifth scorer. As Guelph runners fell back in the pack, he outkicked Guelph's fifth scorer to help secure the victory for the Calgary boys. Pennock led the Calgary boys with a third place finish overall and the ever-consistent Daniel and Grieco finished 10th and 21st, respectively. Calgary avenged Lanny Mann's collapse and got revenge against Guelph 19 years later, beating them by 14 points, 75 to 89.
On the same course in Kingston where it had all fallen apart in 1999.
(Full results can be found
here)
Next year it is looking to be another close matchup as Calgary loses Pennock and Grieco but may return James, while Guelph also loses two of their scorers. U SPORTS will once again be battled out on the fields of Kingston.
DINO DASH
To support the Dinos Men's & Women's Track and Field/Cross Country teams, you can sign up for the Dino Dash road race. It is a major fundraiser for the team and is hosted by Run Calgary and Dinos XC Alumni. Proceeds go towards scholarships, gear, and travel expenses for the Dinos track and cross country teams.
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