2010 Wolves X-C Team
Cross Country running is one of 5 varsity sports currently offered at Grande Prairie Regional College. The Wolves compete provincially in the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference, and nationally in the Canadian Colleges Athletics Association. Any academically eligible full time GPRC student is able to compete for the Wolves. The cross country running season starts in late August and runs to mid November.
The Wolves also offer an informal indoor track program from mid November to March. Each year the ACAC hosts an unofficial Alberta Colleges Indoor Championship in Mrach which includes the long sprints and middle distances (400m-3000m and the 4 x 400m relay).
2012-13 Wolves Cross Country Varsity Team Information
General Information and X-C Schedule 12teaminfo
13WolvesIndoorsRegular - (updated Dec.7 in more readable format.) This is a Winter 2013 training plan for x-c runners who want to run a bit of indoor track, but are more focused on road running or other endurance sports this spring/summer.
13WolvesIndoorsAlist – (updated Dec. 7 in more readable format.) This is a Winter 2013 training plan for x-c runners who are serious about indoor track and are focused on running track this spring/summer.
13JorenIndoors - This is Joren’s plan for 2013 indoors. It’s designed for a serious 400/800m runner who’s looking to run fast in the outdoor season.
13XCCircuit - This is a simple strength training plan for runners they can be doing 2 or 3 times a week during the winter months.
2011 Summer X-C Preparation Training Plan
2012 X-C Training Plan 12wolvesXCTrainingSched
Wolves Indoor Track School Records 13WolvesSchoolRecords(updated Mar 16, 2013)
Article about Stretching from Assistant Coach and Physio Brian Sherk 11RunnerPrehab
Article about choosing running shoes from Brian Sherk 11RunnerShoes
Training plan for Winter 2012 12WolvesIndoors
Team History
For the past 25 years, the histories of the Wapiti Striders/GPRC Wolves Athletics Clubs and the GPRC Wolves Varsity Cross Country Running Team have been closely related. Most track club members have also been part of the GPRC team at one time or another and coaches Bill Corcoran and Rick Scott have also performed double duty.
GPRC has had a cross country running team since its establishment in 1966. The pre-1990 history has not been well documented, but we do know that GPRC did not have an ACAC individual or team champion in this era. Terry Smith was very close to being the Wolves first-ever ACAC champion, losing out in a sprint finish to RDC’s Rod Palm in 1988.
Bill Corcoran
In the fall of 1990, Glen Chilton became the head coach of Wolves Cross Country and the program started on an upward trajectory. Current coach Bill Corcoran joined as an assistant coach in 1991. When Chilton left in 1992, Corcoran assumed the head coaching role and Rick Scott joined on as an assistant. In 1996, Corcoran and Scott agreed to become co-head coaches, an arrangement that continues to this day.
Chilton’s legacy was to increase participation. In his first year, one female athlete and five male athletes represented GPRC in x-country. By the time he left in 1992, GPRC was able to field a full teams of both six men and six women. Since then the team size has been as high as 25 women and 15 men in a single year. And as the numbers of athletes increased, the talent also improved.
ACAC medals were sparse in the early 90s. Keri Matson was the individual womens bronze medalist in 1991. The 1993 Womens Team achieved the team Bronze, which might have the College’s first-ever ACAC team medal.
The middle and late 90s were much improved. Andre Frenette struck individual ACAC Bronze in both 1996 and 1997. Frenette was also a part of GPRC’s first mens team to finish on the the podium. The 1997 Men placed third at ACAC’s hosted on their home course at Wapiti Nordic. The 1998 Men, led by Fred Setterington’s individual silver medal finish, ended up in a 3 way tie for the team championship, but were placed second on the tie breaker.
Tara Lee Stillwell
The 1999 ACAC Championship was the high point (at least to date) for the Wolves. Tara Lee Stillwell became GPRC’s first individual womens ACAC Champion. Minutes later Fred Setterington duplicated Stillwell’s feat, winning the mens race. Steph Ruch also hit the podium with a bronze in the womens race. The 1999 Womens team struck silver in the team completion.
In the year 2000, the Wolves were shut out of the ACAC podium, but they returned a year later when the 2001 Women captured the bronze medal.
2001 was also the final year of the Interprovincial Championships, a challenge race between Alberta and BC Colleges held in early November. GPRC’s Ryan Hicks was the last mens individual champion, winning the race held at Red Deer College. Other Wolves runners scoring notable performances in Interprovincials over the years included Fred Setterington (winning in 1998 and 1999) and Lori Ann Winia (silver in 1995.) In 2002, Interprovincials was replaced by the CCAA Open Cross Country Running Championship.
2002 was another great year for the Wolves, particularly the 2002 Womens Team.
2002 Wolves Women
Led by Jessica Schmidt’s individual silver, the women placed four in the top 12 to easily win the ACAC team championship, the first-ever team title for GPRC in x-country. Two weeks later, the feat was duplicated when Schmidt again finished second and the team won the inaugural CCAA Open Championship. The CCAA Gold was only the second-ever national championship gold medal won by a Wolves team in any sport.
While the 2003 Women were unable to duplicate the feat of 2002, they finished a close 4th at both the ACAC and CCAA Championships. The 2003 Men, however, were back on the podium for the first time since 1998, with a bronze in the ACAC team competition.
The women were back to their winning ways a year later when the 2004 Women again captured the ACAC Championship. Penny Thompson led the way with an individual bronze medal. Not to be out done, the 2004 Men captured a team bronze. Kyle Reynolds also managed an ACAC individual bronze. Co-coaches Bill Corcoran and Rick Scott were named 2004 ACAC Coach of the Year.
Two weeks later at the 2004 CCAA Championships, Reynolds scored a huge upset when he outleaned Augustana’s Carl Skinstead to become the CCAA National Champion. The GPRC women weren’t able to duplicate 2002, falling a bit short and placing second in the team competition.
2005 Wolves X-C
2005 and 2006 were also good years for Wolves Cross Country. The 2005 Women placed second at ACACs and third at CCAAs. The 2005 men were third at ACACs. Despite placing 6 runners in the top 12, the 2006 Men fell just short of the top rung at ACACs, placing second. The 2006 Women were third at ACACs. Both teams ended up 5th at the 2006 CCAA Championships.
The 2007 Mens team marked the end of a long run of team medals at the ACAC Championships, with their bronze medal effort. 2007 also was the year that Grande Prairie hosted the nation, putting on the CCAA Championships at Wapiti Nordic on the November long weekend. Many of the same people who organized the 2005 Provincial High School Championships on the same Wapiti Nordic course were back to help out in 2007. (Click video to see Andrew Seidl’s dramatic dive for 77th place.)
The Wolves were shut out of both the individual and team podiums in 2008 and 2009 at both the ACAC and CCAA Championships. However, the Wolves were proud to host the 2008 ACAC Championships on the same course as the 2007 CCAA Nationals.
Fiona Benson
From a team perspective, 2010 was again a lean year for the Wolves, but a talented individual runner, Fiona Benson, made it a year to remember. Like Reynolds in 2004, Benson went into the CCAA Nationals as an under dog, finishing second to Red Deer’s Jodi Sanguin at the ACAC Championships in late October. However, two weeks later in Fredriction, NB, Benson turned the tables outleaning Sanguin for the win and the national college championship. Benson then continued her season with a 7th place finish at the National Junior Championships on November 27, a result that qualified her for the National Junior Team. Running for Team Canada, Benson won the individual silver medal at the NACAC Junior X-C Championships in Trinidad in February 2011 and placed 64th at the World Junior X-C Championships in March 2011.
