Charlie Bender of St. Marys DCVI won the novice boy's division at the WOSSAA cross country championships on Thursday.
Bender's time of 15 minutes, 49 seconds was 16 seconds ahead of second place finisher Hudson Imrie of Listowel DSS.
Bender paced the Salukis to the novice boy's team title and the group will move on to the OFSAA championships in Etobicoke, on Nov. 4.
The team also includes Abe Bender, Nic Brintnell, Ben Robson and Zach Matheson.
Top two teams in each age division and top five individual finishers not on those teams qualify for the provincial meet. With that format, some runners who finished out of the top five individually still move on to OFSAA.
Kaleb Dingman of St. Marys finished second in the junior boy's division, while teammate Myles Clinton finished in fourth spot. Both are headed to OFSAA.
Noah Feltham from Stratford DSS also qualified in junior boy's via a 7th place finish.
Other runners to qualify include Sebastian Voros of St. Michael CSS, who finished 6th in the novice boy's division. Teammate Jayda Houben was fourth in novice girl's. Charlotte Richardson of St. Marys, in ninth spot, also qualified for the provincials in the novice girl's division.
In senior boy's, Daniel Ogilvie of Stratford DSS qualified to move on with a fourth place finish.
Charlotte Clinton of St. Marys qualified in senior girl's after a third place finish.
