For the first time in program history, both the men’s and women’s Thunderbirds cross-country teams won the U Sports national championships.
The men’s team finished with an 8-point advantage over second place Université Laval while the women’s team finished with a dominant 33-point lead over hosts Western University.
This is only the second time in program history that the men’s team has captured the national championship and it is the first time in women’s program history that they have triumphed at nationals. During the 2022/23 season, the women’s cross country team finished second at nationals losing by one point, while the men’s team finished fourth.
Third-year Katie Newlove made a massive jump in her results at nationals, improving her finals standing by 30 places this year to win the women’s individual gold medal.
“We knew we could do [win nationals], but to have it all come together on the day it was just like, really exciting and emotional and overwhelming," said Newlove. "And then I was just really happy I could make a contribution in that because it really is a team effort.”
She mentioned that training as a team, and with both the men’s and women’s teams, helped to build camaraderie and motivation around the common goal of winning a national title.
“Nothing was taken too seriously except for the work that was getting done in the workout,” she said. “It was a positive experience every time I was with the team, and I think it just created a good culture that helped both of us get the team titles.”
Newlove was especially gracious and stressed the importance of the UBC support staff. In particular, she named head coach Laurier Primeau, assistant coach Catherine Watkins and endurance coach Steve Weiler as critical to the team's success.
Primeau attributed the teams’ success this year due to their consistency in training and year-to-year improvement post-COVID.
“I think that this has been coming for a number of years," said Primeau. "Our women were second last year and only lost the gold by a single point. So we've been trending in the right direction in the post-COVID era and this was really the first time that we were able to show our wares on both the men's and women's side and what we are capable of.
Primeau was also keen to note that teams’ success was in large part due to their approach to maintaining their athletes's well-being.
“We care more about our athletes as people than we do as athletes … and I think that goes a long way towards improving mental health, improving physical well-being and an ability to detach themselves from the results,” he said. “We don't want our athletes to define their self-worth based on whether they win or lose.”
Although the cross-country season is now over, the track and field season is just around the corner and many of this year's runners are already gearing up again. Despite this, the teams's eyes are on the prize for next fall, hoping for a back-to-back national championship.