St. Tims graduate Sophia Nowicki placed third in the College Cross Country Nationals in Quebec this past weekend.

Nowicki was one of St. Tim's track superstars and is continuing her success as she runs for post-secondary. Nowicki is studying nursing at the U of L and says balancing school work and training has been difficult at times.

Having fairly high personal expectations for herself, Nowicki, went into the race with a goal of placing top ten. "I was pretty busy with exams and the only thing on my mind was how much studying I would have to do on the plane. This might have been a good thing because it kept my mind off my nerves. However, I felt like I had to push myself to earn a bronze medal at provincials this year; because of that, I was worried about high competition."

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One of 130 girls that made up 21 teams, Nowicki, wasn't too surprised but also was not expecting the third-place ranking. "The course was very flat, and I like to think that my strength is hills, as I do mountain running all summer. I didn’t think the course would be to my advantage due to this. I decided to view the race as a track race rather than a X-country race, as it was only 1km longer than what I do on the track. I focused on my form a lot of the race and ran it with more of a track stride, which gave me a lot more speed. I think because of my years of track the course was advantageous to me and that allowed me to earn third."

Continuing to build on her skills, Nowicki will head indoors as she preps for next season's outdoor track and X-country season. "I plan on working on my speed with indoor and focusing my training towards my future 5000m competitions in outdoor track which I will do after school in Calgary."