By Larry Moko
St. Mary Crusaders ran away with the 'Triple Crown' at the 2025 Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference cross-country championships.
Entrants from Hamilton St. Mary finished first in three of the six age-category races during the meet at Bronte Creek Park Tuesday. No other school from Halton or Hamilton could accumulate that many individual gold medals.
In addition, the Crusaders qualified a boys' junior team for next month's OFSAA championships in Brampton.
"The Triple Crown for us was really impressive with Anna (Ptaszek) and Karmyn (Porco) also winning," said St. Mary's Simon Castelli, first-place finisher in the junior boys' 5-kilometre event. "We ended up executing very well."
Castelli's time was 17 minutes, 32.5 seconds.
A member of Crusaders novice OFSAA cross-country team last year, Castelli gained extra self-motivation during Tuesday's run.
"I thought about how far I've come to this point," he said. "All the training and all the hard practices that I've done. That's what truly helped me stay strong in the middle of the race."
Castelli was out front with two other runners until the 3K mark when "dropped the hammer and kicked it in."
He came third at GHAC in novice last year and helped St. Mary place 28th as a team at provincials.
Teammate Ptaszek's victory was her second-straight as a senior girl at GHAC. Her time was a personal best 20:35.6 for 6K.
Ptaszek, who has qualified for both OFSAA cross-country and track for the past four years as a Crusader, last week committed to accept a four-year full scholarship offer to the University of Arizona.
"I love the coaches and the girls on the team are really nice," Ptaszek said of her recent official visit to the Tucson-based NCAA Division I school. "I like the program and the facilities. My grandparents live just down the street, so that was a big thing, too.
"I'm going into a business program."
The 3,000m and 1500m specialist heard from other recruiters and took visits to Florida Atlantic and Miami of Ohio.
Ptaszek's long-time high school rival Maya Markowska of Burlington Central placed second at this year's GHAC. She, too, is headed to the NCAA on scholarship -- to the University of Michigan.
Said Ptaszek: "I raced at pre-GHAC a couple of weeks ago and, there, I got a 45-second PB. Today, I think I cut 10 or 15 seconds more off."
Ptaszek was 16th as a first-year senior at OFSAA in Ottawa last year.
As for Porco, she finished the novice girls' 4K in 15:04.6.
"Karmyn has been a solid, elite runner," St. Mary coach Robert Zaccaria said. "She reminds me a lot of Anna personality-wise and for athletic ability. She'll probably carry the torch for St. Mary cross-country for the next four years."
Third-place St. Mary narrowly missed (by two points) gaining one of the two team berths for OFSAA in the novice girls division.
The Crusader junior boys team which came second to Georgetown, was led by Castelli, Thomas Garner (12th) and the brother combination of Jude (10th) and Luke Heinrichs (24th).
Two other Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic teams punched their ticket to OFSAA. The Cathedral Gaels came second in senior boys and the Bishop Ryan Celtics ended up second in novice boys.
The Gaels got a third-place individual finish by Natnael Mulugeta on the 6K senior boys' course. His time was 19:32. Cathedral's next fastest clockings were by Fredrik Dreise (19th), Terrance Kersteins (24th) and Tristan Moniz (25th).
The Bishop Ryan delegation got a second-place finish by Marcus Bodo (13:44.3) in novice boys 4K. His fastest teammates were Mohamed Abbass (fourth), Alexander Bodo (fifth) and Jaxon Sooch (68th).
Other HWCDSB individuals to advance were Ben Casey of St. Jean de Brebeuf (eighth in senior boys, 20:24.7).
John Paul Santroni of Bishop Tonnos also qualified for OFSAA on Nov. 1. He was fifth in the boys' Para I race.
