Graydon leads Redmen to third place at Laval Open

By Earl Zukerman

QUEBEC CITY, Que. – Mélanie Myrand, a freshman from Pointe Claire, Que., placed fifth of 104 women overall, leading the McGill Martlets to a second-place finish at the Laval Open cross-country running meet in Quebec City on Saturday.

St. Francis Xavier won the women’s division with 41 points, followed by McGill (44), Sherbrooke (66) and Laval (72).

Myrand, a first-year nursing major, completed the 4k course in 14 minutes and 25 seconds. Laval’s Catherine Cormier won the race in 13:44. She was followed on the podium by St.FX runner Gina Stewart (14:07) and Laval teammate Veronique Fortin (14:09).

Other scorers for the Martlets included freshman Brittany Therrien (7th; 14:35) of Victoria, B.C., junior Christina Lobasso (8th; 14:37) of Montreal, sophomore Arielle Beatty (13th; 14:55) of Sharon, Ont., and Charlène Puel (17th; 15:07), a freshman from France who is a daughter of Claude Puel, head coach of the Olympique Lyonnais soccer club, seven-time champions of the top league in France.

St. Francis Xavier won the men’s competition with 33 points, followed by Sherbrooke (50), McGill (61) and Laval (72).

David Gerych of St.FX was first of 124 entries completing the 8k circuit in 24:44, ahead of teammate Peter Doubravsky (24.52) and Dalhousie’s Russel Christie (25:00).

The Redmen were led by Montrealer Graydon Snider, a third-year transfer student, who was ninth overall (eighth in the team scoring) with a time of 25:49.

Joining Snider among McGill’s top five scorers was sophomore Sébastien Flynn (10th overall; 25:54) of Dartmouth, N.S., freshman Alex Duhault (12th overall; 26:16) of Calgary, senior Ryan Ouckama (18th overall; 26:44) of Baltimore, Md., and Daniel Kramer (27th overall; 27:16), a freshman from Salem, Mass.