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Crossley rolls to 15th straight Zone 3 cross country crowns

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The E.L. Crossley Cyclones continued their run of excellence at last week’s Zone 3 cross country championships held at Firemen’s Park in Niagara Falls.

The Fonthill school captured the overall girls, boys and and combined team awards for the 15th straight year.

“The coaches were very proud of this dedicated group of athletes who understood the pre-meet speech on legacy,” said Maryann Mergl, who coaches the team with Marty Edwards. “Even though this is an individual event, the coaches instil team to all athletes, as points are awarded for teams by individual results.

“Each of the runners will be proud to see their championship team listed on the school gym banner for Cross-Country 2017.”

The midget girls and boys, senior girls and boys and junior boys all won Zone 3 team titles and the junior girls earned silver. Earning individual gold medals from Crossley were Tessa Jeffery in the midget girls division and Kate Knafelc in the senior girls division. Jeffery finished first among all Zone 3 and 4 runners by 20.13 seconds while Knafelc was more than a minute and 37 seconds faster than the next closest Zone 3 and 4 runner.

Next up for the team is Thursday’s Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association meet at Christie Lake Conservation Area in Dundas. At stake is a berth in the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championships Nov. 4 in Petawawa.

Members of the team are Willam Hamilton, Jacob Martin, Owen Metler, Lauren Knafelc, Tessa Jeffery, Crystal Coyne, Colton Sawatsky, Patrick Fidler, Donovon Fenton, Ethan Hawkins, Evan VanVliet, Sam Nawrocki, Claire Rabb, Chloe Grabell, Ridley Giammarco, Kieran Inaba, Mason Sterr, Drew Colangelo, Jack Dodd, Matt DiRaddo, Cam Whitley, Sean Grabell, Derian Free, Davis Shepherd, Jacob Gula, Zach Pasma, Aidan Clarke, Elliott Song, Kate Knafelc, Amy Gilmore, Kora Curtis-Masse, Emilie Hamilton, Valerie Belanger, Cate Gualtieri, Alexa Goedee, Kaelen Partridge, Julia Labriccossa, Jessie Fennell, Kaitlyn Palmateer, Paige Clements, Sydney Grummett, Jake Nunn, Brock Deba, Harmon Narbonne and Nick Longo.

Bernie Puchalski, a graduate of Brock University and Niagara College, worked in journalism in Niagara for more than 27 years before taking a voluntary buyout from The Standard at the end of 2016. He started his career as a news reporter for the Niagara Falls Review before switching to sports reporting. He was a sports reporter and sports editor at the Niagara Falls Review before joining the Standard's sports department in 1996. He was named the Standard's sports editor in 2000 and became the regional sports editor, in charge of the Niagara Falls Review, Welland Tribune and Standard, in 2015, a position he held until he left the company. During his time in newspapers, he was a multiple winner and finalist for numerous Ontario and Western Ontario Newspaper Awards for sports reporting, spot news reporting and humour writing. He was a member of the Standard Boys Basketball Tournament committee and co-chair of the Standard Girls Basketball Tournament, helping to raise tens of thousands of dollars for bursaries presented to participants in the tournament. He also served on countless local sports committees both in Niagara Falls and St. Catharines.

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