By Earl Zukerman
Jessica Porfilio of Longueuil, Que., finished fourth overall and led the McGill Martlets to victory at the Laval open cross-country running meet on the Plains of Abraham, Saturday.
The Martlets finished first of eight teams with 41 points, based on runners who finished fourth, seventh, eighth, ninth and 13th overall. Sherbrooke matched McGill’s point total but the Martlets were declared meet champions because their fifth-place runner finished higher than Sherbrooke’s.
Porfilio, a third-year nursing major, completed the 4.5-kilometre circuit in 16 minutes, 29 seconds, four seconds shy of missing the podium.
Laval’s Frederique Latraverse finished first of 82 runners to win the race in 16:19, followed by Sherbrooke’s Gabrielle Label (16:24) and Laval’s Pamela-Ann St-Pierre (16;25).
Also scoring for McGill was junior Jullien Flynn (7th, 16:39) of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and sophomore Alison Barwick (8th, 16:45) of Pte. Claire, Que., plus freshmen Erin Rivers (9th, 16:47) and Emma Norman (13th, 17:02) of Ayers Cliff, Que..
On the men’s side, Laval was first of seven teams with 60 points. They had the top 10 finishers in the 7.5k race.
Charles Philibert-Thiboutot was first of 80 entries, clocking in at 22:45. Rounding out the podium finishers were Laval teammates Emmanuel Boisvert (23:15) and Jean-Daniel Labranche (23:28).
McGill was fourth, led by Vincent Parent-Pichette, a physical education sophomore from S. Paul de Joliette, Que., who placed 14th overall in 24:24.
Other Redmen scorers were Ian Richardson (19th, 25:09), Christian Favreau (45th, 26:30) of Vancouver, B.C., Louis-Erik Demers (51st, 26:54) Montreal and Cody Roundtree (57th, 27:28) of St. Bruno, Que.