The first week of national competition in the CCAA's Return to Play for the 2021-22 season is well underway, and it continues in Calgary with the CCAA Cross Country National Championship, hosted by the St. Mary's University Lightning.

For one runner representing the ACAA, the national championship will represent a homecoming as Calgary native Sophia Hrycak will represent the Dalhousie Agricultural Campus Rams in the women's race.

Hrycak qualified after finishing sixth in the women's individual competition at the ACAA Cross Country Championship hosted by Dalhousie Agricultural Campus at Victoria Park in Truro, and she is excited to for the opportunity to not only represent her school on the national stage, but also to race in front of family and friends.

Also competing in the women's race will be Mary MacLean of the Crandall University Chargers, a second-year runner from Valley, N.S. who finished third in Truro. MacLean, who studies Sociology at Crandall, was also recognized as a CCAA Academic All-Canadian for the 2019-20 season.

Meanwhile, Crandall's men's team will also compete after making history in Truro, capturing the school's first ACAA banner in any sport since 2003.

Leading the charge for ACAA Coach of the Year Brandon LeBlanc's squad will be Oromocto, N.B. native Sean Finnigan, who won all three races he entered, including the eight-kilometre ACAA Cross Country Championship. The rookie History student is an accomplished athlete outside of running, which he's done in his training as an internationally-competitive boxer, as well as being the Canadian Armed Forces Male Athlete of the Year in 2020.

The championships will also be a sort of homecoming for Chargers team captain Charles Taylor, as the Edmonton native, who is doing a double major in History and the Bachelor of Theology articulation with Acadia Divinity College, will compete in Charger blue in his home province after finishing 23rd individually in Truro.

Rounding out Crandall's men's team contingent are rookie and English major William Ross of Margaree, N.S., who finished seventh at the ACAA Cross Country Championships, and veteran Aaron Reimer from Moncton, as the third-year Biblical Studies major came home ninth in Truro.

The course itself is a two-kilometre loop of the St. Mary's University campus in the southwest region of Calgary, incorporating elements of nearby Fish Creek Park into the lap. The women's race will consist of three laps for six kilometres, while the men's race will be contested over eight kilometres, or four laps of the circuit.

Following the opening ceremonies on Saturday morning, the Women's race will start at 1 p.m. local time, followed by the Men's race at 2 p.m. local time. The championship will conclude with a special awards presentation where the medalists, CCAA All-Canadians and the Coach of the Year will be recognized.

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