PHOTO COURTESY OF RATTLERS
The Medicine Hat College Rattlers women's cross country team poses with their trophy after winning provincial gold last Saturday in Edmonton. The Rattlers team of Annika Marshall, Becky Ross, Madison Scrimger, Pyper Gill and Cheldynn Molnar holding the trophy.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat College Rattlers women’s cross-country team had a lot to celebrate about last weekend.
The Rattlers five-woman team won the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference title for the second time in history and first time in 41 years. They beat the St. Mary’s team after being tied at 47 points apiece. The Rattlers took the title based on a better position by the team’s final scoring runner.
MHC coach Bill Corcoran says it was a but of a surprise because of how close the two schools were all season but was happy they came out on top.
“It was just so close, so close and it’s nice to come out on the winning side of the tiebreaker,” Corcoran said.
Becky Ross led the team with a fourth-place finish with Madison Scrimger right behind her in sixth place. Cheldynn Molnar (16th), Pyper Gill (21st) and Annika Marshall (41st) also chipped in for the MHC win.
Ross says the women’s team is a ragtag group and don’t take themselves too seriously while competing.
“We’re still into it obviously but it’s not stressful,” Ross said. “The point is that this should be a stress reliever and that’s a helpful way to treat it. We look at this team therapeutically, it’s not something that is making our life harder. It’s something that’s making our whole experience more enjoyable. Which has been lovely.”
Ross was also honoured individually at the ACAC season ending race in Edmonton, she was named rookie of the year, runner up in the ACAC Grand Prix and an all-conference runner.
These are honours the 35-year-old runner says she never expected entering her first season ever competitive running.
“I know that I’m fit but not knowing at all how I would stack up against other people – certainly other people that are sometimes literally half my age,” ross said. “I had no real concept of how I was going to compare. I had never even ran in an organized race until the Rattler Run back in May. So I was delighted to realize that I’m actually really good.”
Scrimger was also named all-conference and placed third in the ACAC grand prix. Corcoran was happy to see two of his runners get rewarded for their seasons.
“It’s always nice to have somebody be up near the front, being all conference, but as a coach, the team, competitions are the really important one,” Corcoran said. “The fact that we were able to prevail in that is really important, to me anyway, and important to everybody else.”
Corcoran also received some personal honours, being named ACAC coach of the year, an award he acknowledged with a humble response.
“We we’re so close to St. Mary’s, so if we lose the tiebreaker it’s probably the St. Mary’s coach who gets coach of the year, it was just that close of a race,” Corcoran said. “It’s always nice to be recognized by your peers.”
With the ACAC win, the Rattlers women’s team qualifies for the 2022 CCAA Cross Country National Championship, hosted at MHC on Nov. 11-12. Corcoran says they will have two team representatives, six women and six men. The Rattlers men’s team finished fifth at the ACAC championships.
Ross says she feels like everything in her life is falling into place at the right time with joining the Rattlers team, their success and getting to host nationals in the same year.
“It’s like I was meant to run this year. I’m just along for the ride, I didn’t expect this. I thought I’ll just run and now it’s turned into this bigger thing and it’s very exciting,” Ross said. “It’s just cool to be part of it because I’ve never been part of it before and I keep telling people it’s like I’m living in my youth.”
Corcoran says they will be hosting a community race Nov. 12 ahead of nationals. Any interested runners in a 3 km or 6 km race on the same track as the national race starting at 9:30 a.m., need to register by next Wednesday at racepro.ca.
