Wiebe happy with trip to podium
Nov. 16, 2009 - Regina Leader-Post
By Tim Switzer
Twelve months after standing around with an injured knee while watching the CIS cross-country championships, Kelly Wiebe was standing on the podium.
Wiebe, a third-year member of the University of Regina Cougars, won a bronze medal at the national championships Saturday in Kingston, Ont.
It was the first-ever individual medal for the Cougars in cross-country and led the U of R to a first-place finish in the Canada West conference, another first for the team. Regina was fourth overall in the CIS behind the Guelph Gryphons, Windsor Lancers and St. Francis Xavier X-Men.
"I can't really describe how I feel right now," Wiebe said from Kingston. "We accomplished our goal as a team, finished fourth in the country and first in Canada West -- that was our main goal -- and I managed to pull off a personal goal. I can't really ask for anything more."
Wiebe finished the 10-kilometre race in 30 minutes 49.8 seconds -- behind only Matt Brunsting and Kyle Boorsma, both members of the Gryphons -- and was named a first-team all-Canadian and Canada West all-star.
The awards didn't stop there for the Cougars.
Wyatt Baiton was 13th overall (31:59.9) and was named the CIS and Canada West male rookie-of-the-year as well as a first-team conference all-star and second-team all-Canadian.
Dale Wig was next across the line for the Cougars in 21st place (32:25.1) and was a first-team Canada West all-star while Iain Fyfe was 30th (32:46.9) and was named a second-team conference all-star.
Eric Benjamin rounded out the Regina finishers in 119th place (35:52.5) despite battling a sore foot in the last few weeks. Graeme McMaster was named the Canada West coach-of-the-year.
"Once my foot started hurting and I was getting passed a lot, I thought our chances for winning Canada West were done," said Benjamin.
"I thought, 'What if someone else drops out too? I have to keep going.' Turned out it was a good thing I did keep going."
The conference title is the first for a Cougars team since the women's basketball squad won Canada West in 2004.
"We've come such a long way even since my first year and it's just a great feeling to see our team growing up and getting stronger every year and hopefully one day we can be in contention for a national title as a team," said Wiebe.
Just a few years ago, such a performance by the Cougars men's team at a national championship would not have seemed possible. The U of R program was at or near the bottom of the Canada West pack in 2002, 2003 and 2004, didn't have enough high-calibre runners to field a five-person team from 2005 to 2007 and was on the cusp of being cut entirely in 2006.
"Our starting point three years ago was quite far down the ladder and to see that we finally accomplished what we wanted to do is extremely gratifying," said McMaster.
"I'm quite pleased that things have happened so quickly."
A pair of Cougars runners also competed in the women's five-kilometre race. Melissa Petersen was 77th at 19:14.3 while rookie Karissa LePage was right behind in 78th at 19:15.8.
