Not a bad weekend for Red Deer College’s cross country running teams.

Up in Edmonton this past Saturday for the Grant McEwan University Open Cross Country Races, the Queens’ runners finished in second place overall, and they did it without their top runner.

Jodi Sanguin, who is almost guaranteed to finish in the top three in every race she takes part in, had to take the weekend off to deal with some school work.

Filling her shoes was Jesslyn Begin, who ran the five kilometre race in just over 21 minutes.

Begin finished second amongst college runners and in fifth place overall.

Alesha Miller finished in 13th place overall, with a time of 23:01, while Melissa Cable came in 16th at 23:24.

“Miller had her third consistently strong race in three weeks,” said RDC cross country running team coach Brian Stackhouse.

“Cable had a strong run as well this week, including a sprint finish.”

Kate Blackett (42nd), Christa Miller (46th), Elyse Richards (50th) and Erin Connell (57th) rounded out the RDC women’s squad.

The men’s team, meanwhile, was incomplete, and while they didn’t rank in the overall standings, runners Cliff Long and Steven Gill placed 36th and 71st respectively.

“Approximately half of the RDC team, including our top female runner (Sanguin) did not compete for a variety of reasons, including school work, family commitments and injuries,” said Stackhouse, who also pointed out that Dylan Hackenbrook, who finished in third place overall, competed as an open runner but has previously laced them up for both RDC and the University of Alberta.

“Both of the RDC teams will be stronger when our full teams compete.”

Augustana College, in Camrose, will host the next set of cross country races before the ACAC Championships are held in Edmonton at the end of October.

Weldon