Matt Hulse
Cross Country
It’s been an unusual cross country season for Matt Hulse since an injury kept the fifth-year runner on the sidelines for the first few weeks of the season. However, it all came together when it counted last weekend at the CIS Championship, where Hulse attained a career-best 13th place finish in the men’s 10 km race, helping the Gaels to a fifth place finish overall.
Hulse started the season training individually. His first race with the Gaels was the Queen’s Invitational on Oct. 16.
“I was training separately from the team,” he said. “I’m doing a lot of track work. I needed a lot of time to get in the appropriate miles. I took my time getting into the racing season.”
Unfortunately, Hulse came out of that first race with patellofemoral syndrome. Essentially, his knee cap was grinding against a bone, which prevented him from running for more than five minutes and forced him to miss the OUA championships.
“I didn’t run for three weeks, and [I] didn’t run at OUAs,” Hulse said. “I was just cycling, going to athletic therapy at the ARC, doing rehab every day.”
Two weeks ago, Hulse started running again and came out of the championship with a tremendous result.
“I was pretty pleased, shocked actually because I was happy just to be there,” he said. “[The team] did great. They’ve all improved … Everyone from the first man to the seventh man stepped up and it was pretty competitive for those five, six, seven spots on the team.”
Right now, Hulse said he’s focused on what’s coming next.
“I’m working towards the track season,” he said. “I’m also working towards that summer season again, next year, and keeping my hopes up for the national team in the future.”
Hulse said he would like to represent Canada in an international competition, like the annual IAAF World Cross Country Championships or the Pan American Games.
— Benjamin Deans
Elena Corry and Chantel Marson
Women’s Soccer
Goalkeepers Elena Corry and Chantel Marson approached the CIS Championship with a one game at a time mentality. The pressure is heavy on the goalkeeper as the final line of defence in soccer. With tight games against the country’s best, Marson and Corry acted cool under pressure and came through for their team when it counted with three straight shutouts.
Marson, who made a game-saving stop in overtime of the gold medal game, said going into extra-time in PEI was nerve-wracking.
“[There was] definitely a lot on the line,” she said. “[I] just kept trying to be positive, give good communication [and] then all of sudden we were up 1-0, it was just kind of like hold on for 10 minutes and obviously the result was good.”
Elena Corry, who recorded shutouts against the Cape Breton Capers and the Fraser Valley Cascades said the Gaels’ excitement over midfielder Riley Filion’s goal in the 107th minute extended to the sidelines.
“Everyone on the bench just almost ran onto the field,” she said. “Blankets and jackets were going flying. It was sweet.”
Marson said she ran out of the net to the half where the team was celebrating with Filion.
“We kind of had 30 seconds of celebration and then reality kicked in,” she said. “It was like we have to focus for 10 more minutes, it was like we were so close so we were almost there.”
Marson said the team needed to concentrate on playing the full game.
“Once we did put the goal in the net, everyone was really on the same page,” she said. “We really had to focus for the last 10 minutes.”
Corry said winning a national championship is proof of the team’s hard work.
“Over the four years both of us have progressed from like not playing to dressing and then playing,” she said. “It’s just been like really cool to see that all our hard work has paid off, four years of hard work and it’s just the greatest feeling.”
— Kate Bascom
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