BARRY’S BAY – A recent Toronto cross-country invitational had two Madawaska Valley District High School students compete. Laura Yantha, a Grade 12 student, and Jonathan Stoppa, a fifth-year student, headed to Etobicoke on April 28 to compete in the 45th annual Nike Rowland Games at Centennial Stadium. The meet includes an invitational 3,000-metre race, which pits the best high school distance runners against each other. Former winners of this race include Kevin Sullivan and Nate Brennan, who are considered two of the greatest Canadian distance athletes ever produced. Both Yantha and Stoppa came in fourth in last year’s Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association (OFSAA) cross-country, which earned them an invitation to this recent prestigious meet. Both MV students competed in the 3,000 race this past weekend. It was Stoppa’s second time competing there and Yantha’s first invite. Stoppa said he wasn’t too impressed with his results, coming in 19 out of 29 runners. “I could have raced a little more strategically. I could have tucked in a little more. It just wasn’t my race. I wasn’t feeling it,” he said. Pick up a copy of the May 2, 2018 paper to read the full story.