GUELPH, Ont. - Two Gryphon teams will look to close out their 2019 campaigns with national titles, while a third U of G team looks to take home an OUA banner. We get you set for another busy weekend ahead as the Gryphons cross country, men's lacrosse and men's rugby teams all look to add to their championship history this weekend (Nov. 8-10). 
 

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CROSS COUNTRY
 
U SPORTS Cross Country Championships
Saturday, November 9
Kingston, ON
Women's 8km Race @ 1pm                                                   
Men's 10km Race @ 2pm
Broadcast:  usports.live

Looking for a strong finish to wrap up what has been a very successful 2019 season, both the women's and men's Gryphon cross country teams are off to Kingston on Saturday (Nov. 9) to race in the 2019 U SPORTS Cross Country Championships. With both teams ranked No. 2 in the final U SPORTS Top 10 polls of the year, they will both look to run their best times of the season as they try to earn their spot at the top of the podium.
 
On the men's side, they are just one year removed from their U SPORTS gold medal and are ready to reclaim the top prize. Led by fourth-year mechanical engineering student, Mitch Ubene, who was recently named the U SPORTS Male Athlete of the Week (Oct. 20-27), the Gryphons will head to Kingston with plenty of momentum from their gold medal finish at the OUA Championship two Saturday's ago.
 
With Ubene hitting the top of the podium in the OUA 10km title race with a time of 31:00.6, the rest of the Gryphon's team followed suit claiming a gold medal together. With the Gryphon's finishing first individually and as a team, they also secured an individual bronze medal thanks to Mark Patton's run of 31:12.6, finishing just ahead of teammate Kalum Delaney who crossed the finish line with a time of 31:13.8.
 
All season long, the Gryphons have been putting forth tremendous performances building up to their first place run at the OUA's. At Penn State for the Spiked Shoe Invitational, Ubene was first to finish the 5.2 mile race with a time of 25:36.0, while John Perrier finished sixth and Delaney in eighth, with the team coming in first. At the Bill Salter Western Invitational in London, the positive results continued to show. With Ubene finishing first among collegiate runners, Patton came in fifth among collegiate runners, and Perrier finished eleventh among collegiate runners, helping the Gryphons team finish in second place. The Gryphons also managed an 11th-place finish in the Men's College Gold 8k at the Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh University.
 
"We had three guys on our squad that we thought could win at OUA's just based on their performances so far this year, but we knew that we had to go head-to-head with McMaster's big three as well," said Gryphon's associate coach Kyle Boorsma, who was named OUA Coach of the Year following the men's team title at the conference championships. "What I really liked about the way our guys ran is that, deep in the race McMaster put a move on us, and we had talked about just keeping our cool and whoever stayed calm the longest would win. Our guys did not panic, they kept their cool and that's what got them where they did."
 
In a very similar fashion to their male counterparts, the Gryphons women's cross country team is ready and poised for a big performance at the U SPORTS Championship. Throughout the 2019 campaign, the Gryphons have constantly been either at the top of the podium or very close to it. With strong team runs at Penn State (3rd), Western (1st) and Lehigh University (8th), the Gryphons have proved to be, as they have been for the past two decades, a force to be reckoned with.
 
This season, a Guelph rookie has been one of the best runners for Guelph. In her first year with the Gryphons, Cameron Ormond has been blazing a trail everywhere she runs. The Aurora, Ont. product had a 1st-place finish at the Bill Salter Western Invitational in London, to go along with a 7th-place finish at the Spiked Shoe Invitational hosted by Penn State.
 
Despite Ormand's youth, the Gryphons still boast plenty of experience on their team. With the likes of fifth-year Danielle Jossinet, fourth-year Hannah Woodhouse and third-year Kiana Gibson, Guelph's team will feature plenty of runners who know exactly what to expect heading into a national competition.
 
Just this past weekend at the OUA Championship, as a team the Gryphons raced to a 2nd-place finish. Led by Woodhouse's 6th-place run, Guelph had six different runners finish in the top-16 (Gibson 10th, Ormond 12th, Sadie-Jane Hickson 14th, Annika Ariano 15th and Olivia Roussel 16th).
 
"Our women ran really well on Saturday in Hamilton at the OUA Championship," said Boorsma. "If I compared what we had talked about doing before the race started to the way they ran their race, it was perfect across the board. Everyone did their job."

Along with their excellent performances as a team, the Gryphons have also collected quite a few individual OUA honours as well. Mitchell Ubene was named the 2019 OUA Men's Cross Country Championship MVP. Ubene, Mark Patton and Kalum Delaney were all named 1st Team All-Stars as well, while John Perrier was named to the 2nd-Team. On the women's side, Hannah Woodhouse was named a 1st Team All-Star, while Kiana Gibson, Cameron Ormond and Sadie-Jane Hickson were all named to the 2nd Team.

The Women's 8km race is scheduled to get underway at 1pm on Saturday, with the men's 10km race to start at 2pm.

"I think our best team performance of the year will happen Saturday in Kingston," Boorsma said.
 
   
 
MEN'S RUGBY
 
OUA Final
Sunday, November 10, 1pm
Nixon Field - Kingston, ON
Guelph Gryphons (6-1) vs Queen's Gaels (7-0)
Broadcast:  OUA.tv
 
Death, taxes and the Gryphons and Gaels meeting for the Turner Trophy. For the sixth straight season, the OUA Men's Rugby Championship will be decided by two powerhouse programs, the Guelph Gryphons and the Queen's Gaels. In what has essentially become an annual tradition, the Gryphons and Gaels will square off Sunday afternoon at Nixon Field in Kingston.

For the past two seasons, Queen's has been able to get the better of the Gryphons in the title match following Guelph's thrilling 2016 victory over the Gaels that went to a second round of penalty kicks. However, this year, the Gryphons believe they just might have the squad to take down the two-time defending champion Gaels.

The Gryphons will head into Sunday's OUA Championship on the heels of a 53-7 victory over the Trent Excalibur in the semi-finals. Led by a three-try performance from Quenton McLean Lavado, and two tries from Collin Smibert, Guelph's squad had their offence flying high, which they will look to continue in Kingston.

Earlier this season the Gryphons and Gaels met once during the regular season. Going back to September 20, the Gryphons kept Queen's close at Varsity Field but did not quite have enough in the end, dropping a 21-10 decision.

"I thought we tackled very well," said Gryphon's head coach Cory Hector when asked for his thoughts about that match against Queen's. "We made well over 90% of our tackles. The problem was that we allowed them to have too much ball, which didn't allow us to attack enough. We will look to even those numbers out this week, but still maintain a high number of tackles."

Fly-half Aria Keshoofy has taken on a major leadership role in his second year with the Gryphons this season. While also taking on the full time kicking duties, Keshoofy has provided a reliable veteran presence all season for the Gryphons, and Guelph will look to lean on the Alliston, Ont. native against the Gaels. Continuing through the Gryphon's roster, they boast plenty of talent throughout. Expect the Gryphons to turn to veteran players like Julian Crowe (fourth-year), Riley Di Nardo (fourth-year), Dalton Campbell (third-year) and Guerschom Mukendi (second-year) as they try to use their experience to their advantage on Sunday. Obviously, the experience the Gryphons have is a tremendous asset, but for Hector, youth and inexperience can also be favourable as well.

"A little over fifty-percent of our group played in this game last year," he said. "For a lot of our guys it will be new though, which removes any expectations and I think plays into our favour."

Both teams will come into Sunday's final on winning streaks. With the Gaels going undefeated, they have won seven in a row, while the Gryphons have won their last four matches.

"If we minimize our errors and stick to playing a fast game with a high number of minutes of ball in play, I think we'll be in good shape," Hector said. "If we start making errors and have to go toe-to-toe with them in the set-piece it could be a longer day. We will try to make as few errors as possible, make all our tackles and see who comes out winning in the end."

"We don't have to say much to the guys going into this game. This is a game that they are always excited for, so in a lot of ways this week almost becomes easier than other weeks. From earlier in the season, the guys built a lot of belief in our ability and have grown from there, so we are very excited for the weekend." 
 
MEN'S LACROSSE

Baggataway Cup  (Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association - National Championship Tournament)
Friday, November 8 - 6pm
Montreal, QC                                                                   
Guelph Gryphons (7-4) vs Trent Excalibur (8-2)
Broadcast:  live online

For the first time since November of 2017, the Guelph Gryphons and the Trent Excalibur will oppose each other on the lacrosse field Friday night in Montreal. Oddly enough, Friday's game will be under the same circumstances as their 2017 meeting. The Gryphons and Excalibur will battle in the Baggataway Cup Quarter-finals, with a spot in the semi's versus Brock on the line.

Friday, November 3, 2017, the Gryphons tied their quarter-final match against Trent 10-10 with just three seconds to play, before Alec Simons scored a pair of overtime goals to propel the Gryphons past Trent 12-11. Now, fast forward two years to where Simons and the rest of the Gryphons will be looking for some more of that magic against their foes from Peterborough.

Having finished fourth in the West Division, the Gryphons had to win a play-in game to get themselves to the Baggataway Cup. Taking on the Toronto Varsity Blues, who had just defeated Guelph to end the regular season, the Gryphons were able to find a way to win when it really counted downing the Blues 7-4 in Toronto last Saturday. As he has all season long, Mark Wilson continued to help lead the way on offence for the Gryphons on Saturday. Following up a 14-goal season, Wilson tallied four goals in Saturday's must win contest. Matthew Sykes, Cohen Campbell and Noah Glass each added a goal in the game as well, while goalie Hayden Walsh only surrendered four.

The Excalibur will enter the match having finished second-place in the East Division with an 8-2 record. The Gryphons will have to be aware of Trent's Adam Kitchen who finished fourth in scoring in the CUFLA with 33 points.

"We are going to work hard, and we've been doing that all season," said Gryphon's head coach Sam Kosakowski. "There are no super-stars with us, and we won't rely on one guy to win it for us. Everybody on our team knows that they have to be pulling in the same direction."

The "everyone in" mentality of the Gryphons will become even more important when they try to take down Trent on Saturday, with multiple Gryphon's players attending NLL camps over the weekend.

The Gryphons and Excalibur are scheduled to get underway at 6pm Saturday night in Montreal with the game broadcast live online.
 

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