Fanshawe's Clint Smith led the men's cross country team to a silver medal finish at the national championships on November 12. Smith also brought home individual silver, finishing the 8 km course in 25:41, close behind Andy Pohl of University of Alberta, Augustana Campus, who finished the course in 25:30. Peter Kayla from Lethbridge College placed third with a time of 25:52.

Smith established himself as team leader in his rookie campaign. In 2010, he led the team to its first-ever national championship, finishing third individually. He had a bit of a different mindset coming into his second season because of all the expectations for him to perform. "Coming into this season was actually completely different. Last year, coming in as a freshman, I didn't know I would be the lead runner on the team. This year coming in there was a bit more added pressure, but it was comforting being surrounded by such a great team."

It did not take long for Fanshawe to establish themselves as legitimate contenders for another national title. They dominated their competition in the first meet on September 24. "The confidence factor was great, to get those first two wins and to get the second win without me and (Josh) Lumani really showed how much depth this team had. It also showed all the rookies how hard they had to work to be one of the top guys."

Fanshawe was the provincial champion again this year and was the highest-ranked team in the country going into nationals. Smith described the course at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C. as deceiving. "I think it was a lot harder than most people thought. It had a lot of rolling hills that could really break strides. With our team's strength, we could power through them, while other teams seemed to struggle through 4 to 8 km."

Everything looked great for the defending champs. Smith came across the line in second place, and teammate Daniel Bright wasn't too far behind and finished in sixth. Runner Lumani was in great position to finish in the top 15, however it all went wrong for Lumani and the team when he collapsed 200 meters from the finish line.

Head Coach John Loney described the instant shift from focus to concern that the team experienced that day. "On the day of the race things were going according to plan and then all of a sudden we had a much more important thing to worry about," he continued, "As of right now I don't know exactly what happened, but we're just kind of waiting to see what the future holds for his running career."

Lumani was taken to the hospital and remained in B.C. until he was cleared to fly by doctors. He was reunited with his team a couple days later where he was presented with his medal at a team dinner.

Even with Lumani not finishing, Fanshawe only lost by three points to Quebec college Sainte-Foy. Smith has three more years of eligibility to get that gold and is no doubt a big reason why Fanshawe's men's cross country team should continue to see success.