Owen Guenette is the stick to it type of athlete
by ACAC Sports Writer Curtis J. Phillips
Be it cross country running or indoor track, the Grant MacEwan Griffins student/athlete has been running since his junior high years.
"My dad (Dean) was an ultra-marathoner," said Guenette, 19. "It was always difficult to keep up to him but as I got older I was able to blow by him."
Attending Edmonton's Archbishop MacDonald High School, at the 2016 Edmonton Zone final Guenette clocked a 2:16.20 in the 800 metre and a 4:44.77 in the 1,500 metres.
He said the highlight of his career to date was traveling to Pocatello, Idaho for the 2018 Simplot Games where he ran a 2:09.09 800 metre.
While his cross country efforts are U Sports based for the Griffins, his indoor track deeds are Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference based.
The 6-foot-3 Guenette, who also competes in steeplechase, fared well at the opening ACAC indoor track meet held January 26, 2019 and hosted by Grant MacEwan. In the 3,000 metre he placed fourth, 9:45.36 and also fourth in the 1,500 metre with a clocking of 4:31.13.
Of the transition of middle distance running outdoors to indoors Guenette replied: "Personally, I do not like running indoors on the tight track but the jostling and stuff makes it interesting and I am up for the challenge."
"Coach Drew Carver always tells us to try to stick to the inside as running on the outside you are running more. So move quickly and get into the place you want to be."
With 15 laps for the 3,000 and 7 ½ for the 1,500, Guenette admitted that, "I have had trouble with that before until I got used to looking at the lap counter."
Sticking to his studies (Bachelor of Science), Guenette is now stuck on stickers.
Sticker labels that you see adorning fruit.
"A couple of months ago I thought it would be interesting to collect them," said Guenette of his new found hobby. "Just whenever I buy a fruit I will take the sticker and put it in a notebook. I want to see how many different ones I can collect."
Of the joy of running gained he said: "It's great to be able to pursue something that provides a hard effort. It also gives me time to relax and think."
Guenette said his goal is to "Hopefully go into biological sciences....something in agriculture."
The second meet of the season was held this past Saturday and hosted by Concordia University of Edmonton Thunder but results were not available at the time of this writing.
The ACAC Indoor Track Championships are scheduled for March 15-16, 2019 at the Repsol Sport Centre in Calgary, Alberta.