The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack cross-country team has three runners who hail from Whitehorse: Jasper Martin, Zoe Painter and Kendra Murray. Over the weekend the three from Whitehorse and their teammates competed in the University of Victoria’s Invitational cross-country races, where the men ran ten kilometres while the women ran eight.

Competing in prime conditions, the race saw the runners doing two-kilometre loops on flat grass and gravel surfaces, with only slight rolling hills.

In the men’s race, Martin, who is in his first year at Thompson Rivers University, lined up against 46 other racers. He finished in a time of 38:44, good for 34th place overall. The rest of his teammates placed 27, 28, 30, 33 and 36th respectively. Martin finished 7:14 behind the winner from Trinity Western University, who had a time of time of 31:30.

In his last race, which was held September 29th in Kelowna, Martin raced in the President’s Cup, an athletic competition between the University of British Colombia Okanagan Heat and the TRU WolfPack. He completed the eight-kilometre race in a time of 34 minutes, finishing 10th.

In the women’s race, Painter and Murray took to the starting line against 48 other athletes. Murray, who is in her third year at Thompson Rivers, finished 24th, completing the race in 34:20. She placed 4:31 behind the winner from the University of Victoria, who came in with a time of 29:49.

Murray finished fourth in her last race in Kelowna, completing the 6-kilometre race in a time of 27:02. In an email from Larry Read, the sports information officer for TRU the WolfPack assistant coach Conlan Sprikerhoff said that, “Kendra is a strong runner with lots to give.”

Murray’s fellow Whitehorser Painter, who is in her second year at TRU, finished in 28th in a time of 35:19. She finished 5:50 behind the winning 29:49. The two girls from Whitehorse were the first TRU athletes to cross the finish line; their teammates completed the race in 31, 32, and 35th respectively.

In Kelowna, Painter’s last race, she came in fifth place, with a time of 27:33.

The WolfPack runners will have a week off before preparing of the BC Cross Country Championships, held in Abbotsford. The USPORTS (the national governing body of university sport in Canada) cross-country nationals will be held in Kingston Ont., in November.