NCXC25: Grade 9 call-up clinches city title, OFSAA berth for Immaculata junior boys

October 28, 2024

Thank you very much to Orienteering Ottawa for presenting the Ottawa Sports Pages’ XC Week! Orienteering is like cross-country running, with a few extra exciting twists and turns. Find out about the adventure that awaits you here.

By Isabella Disley

Novice-age runner Joshua Roseman (left) placed 24th in the junior boys’ 5 km race to help Immaculata win the team title at the 2025 NCSSAA cross-country running championships on Oct. 23 at the Hornets Nest. Photo: Dan Plouffe

The Immaculata Saints junior boys’ cross-country running team wouldn’t be heading to OFSAA if it weren’t for their 24th-place finisher, Joshua Roseman. The Grade 9 runner competed against athletes a year older than him, and ultimately became the difference-maker in the Saints’ charge to the championship at the high school city finals on Oct. 23 at the Hornets Nest.

“I was really nervous at the start. I was almost shaking. That was definitely my hardest race,” Roseman recalled. “Especially at the end, I saw a guy right behind me. I was sprinting as fast as I could.”

Roseman finished a few seconds and a few places ahead of two runners from their school’s main challengers for the city crown. His 24th-place performance sealed the crucial advantage for his Saints’ 61-64 placement point victory over Glebe.

Aleks Scullion. Photo: Dan Plouffe

Aleks Scullion led the way for Immaculata in fifth place, followed by Colden Davies (13th) and Scout Cronkwright (19th), while Henoc Libutu (73rd) will join the team as its fifth runner at OFSAA.

In addition to the age difference, Roseman also combatted the undesirable cold and muddy course.

“Over there in the forest, it was crazy muddy. I saw people slipping, and I was slipping a little bit badly,” he recounted.

NCSSAA 2025 junior boys’ XC champion Theo Hurst. Photo: Isabella Disley

With race winner Theo Hurst, Adrian Rivers (eighth), Myles Durant (27th), Nicholas Behrand (28th) and Nate Pilkington (33rd), runner-up Glebe will also send its full junior boys’ team to OFSAA.

Hurst is a cross-country skier who joined the running team as a form of cross-training and “just kind of fell in love with it,” he explained.

The Nakkertok Nordic athlete completed the five-kilometre course in 17 minutes on the dot to win the individual gold medal, creating just under a 20-second gap between last year’s novice boys’ winner, Onyx Sineus of Canterbury.

Theo Hurst. Photo: Dan Plouffe

Hurst finished one-minute and 10 seconds back at last year’s city finals for 12th place. He said a big reason for his improvement, and the Glebe program’s success, is the team’s coach Kirk Dillabaugh.

“It’s a privilege. I mean, the school has kind of got a lot of success in its history, obviously, so nice to kind of continue that,” Hurst highlighted. “It’s probably a lot to do with our coach. I mean, we run a lot, and it just happens to be a neighbourhood where a lot of people have the privilege to kind of start sports early in their life.”

Onyx Sineus. Photo: Dan Plouffe

Sineus, whose preferred running events are one or two laps around the track, improved his spot for most of the race around the top-five with a jump up to second place in the last 600 meters.

With his ninth-place showing, Onyx’ twin brother Zain was the top individual outside the top-5 who earned OFSAA tickets.

Onyx and Zain are both visual art students at Canterbury, and started cross-country in Grades 6 and 7, after first trying basketball and track and field. Even though Zain was just one spot out from qualifying for provincials, the twins treasure running alongside each other.

Zain Sineus (right). Photo: Dan Plouffe

“I’m blessed to have a twin brother who looks just like me, who does the same things as me, so it’s great that I have someone to train with and compete against. We always keep each other accountable,” Zain highlighted.

Onyx, who was fifth in the his OFSAA track 800 m debut last spring, concurred.

“It’s great,” Onyx added. “He pushes me during practice, and then I push him too, so it’s just a continuous battle between each other, but also uplifting each other as well.”

Also representing the national capital at OFSAA will be St. Francis Xavier’s Brody Charbot (third) and Paul-Desmarais’s Tristan Von Teichman (sixth), while Colonel By will have two entries thanks to William Saikaly (fourth) and Lucas Seshadri (seventh).

The Ottawa Sports Pages will be posting race-by-race recaps and photo galleries each weekday leading into the Nov. 1 OFSAA XC Championships. Find them all on our XC Week webpage, presented by Orienteering Ottawa.