Scott Radley: The brainiest team in running goes for a national title

The recently crowned Ontario university cross-country champion was chatting about running when a question about his studies caused the conversation to take a detour. Suddenly instead of talking about training, racing strategy, McMaster finishing 1-2-3 at provincials or even this weekend's USports nationals, he was trying to explain something called mechatronics.

Mechawhat?

Basically," Max Turek explains, it's an engineering program that combines mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and software engineering."

Wow. OK. He can run like the wind and he's the smartest guy on Mac's team.

Maybe.

His teammate, Andrew Davies - who finished second at provincials - is planning to head to law school next fall. So he's no slouch in the brains department. Alex Drover came third. He's finishing a masters in mechanical engineering during a one-year leave of absence from medical school. Dylan Alick crossed the line sixth. He's finishing a master's of engineering with a specialty in automation and smart systems. And Sam Nusselder was ninth. He's also in mechatronics.

The rest of the roster is filled out with integrated sciences, various engineering disciplines, kinesiology and other high-brain-power majors.

The maroon and grey? More like the maroon and grey matter.

I could not study what they study," says head coach Paula Schnurr.

Few could. Even fewer could balance the demands of those courses with the time needed to train to be the top-ranked cross-country team in the country. A group that carries huge expectations - mostly self-imposed - into this weekend in Halifax. Not to mention a huge desire to update some history.

John F. Kennedy was still a few weeks away from visiting Dallas when Mac won its only Canadian title in 1963. Forget about the team members not being born yet, most of their parents probably weren't around then.

Oh, they've been close. In 2014, the team finished fourth. Same the next year. And the next. And the one after that. In 2018, it climbed onto the podium in third. Then improved to second in 2019. After a year off for COVID, the Marauders were back in third last year.

That's a lot of success. But when you're talking about the kinds of people who expect the absolute best of themselves in everything they do, it's not quite enough. Something is missing. They all say it's time to take that final step and finally win.

So even a strong second wouldn't be enough?

To be frank, no," Drover says. We'd be displeased with second."

I agree with him," Turek says.

That's for sure," Davies adds.

It's not bluster. They've had four races this year including the provincials. The team has won all of them. Turek has finished first in all three he's run. Davies has a first and two seconds in his three. Drover has a second, a third and a fourth.

The women's team is pretty amazing, too. It's been third, fourth, third and second. It took provincial silver and is ranked fifth in Canada going into the weekend. Another year, it'd be the story. But it's the men who, this year, have been entirely dominant.

What's extra amazing about all this is that none of these guys arrived at Mac as high school running stars. They were OK when they got here. Hardly the cream of their recruiting classes, though.

But in the four or five years since joining the team, they've benefited from training with each other every day, great coaching - Schnurr was just named OUA coach of the year again - and being incredibly competitive.

They're high achievers in everything they do," Schnurr says. They're not settling for 80s."

She's talking grades. But it's the same on the course. There are times in practice she's had to send them out in different groups because they can't help but get hypercompetitive and go at levels that aren't ideal for training.

Still, you take that over the alternative.

All of that has aligned for this one shot. Her senior stars graduate after this year. This is their last chance. Seven runners will start on Saturday. The top five finishers count. First place counts as one point. Second is two, third is three and so on. Lowest total score wins. They expect to.

I don't like to lose," Schnurr says. They don't either. They are extremely motivated."

That's pretty clear.

Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com