Ewert joins fellow American Stevens in winning three in a row, with U.S. men achieving first victory in series since 2016; Canada prevails in back-to-back team competitions for first time in more than two decades

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

Beavercreek OH senior Taylor Ewert made history Saturday at the 31st annual USA vs Canada Junior Racewalk match, winning the women’s 5-kilometer road event for the third straight year.

Ewert, representing Southwest Ohio Track Club, clocked 23 minutes, 25 seconds at Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, Penn., joining fellow American Robyn Stevens (1999-2001) in earning three consecutive victories.

But since Ewert raced as a guest competitor and didn’t factor into the team scoring, Canada prevailed against the U.S. by a 14-8 margin in the women’s team battle in which each country scores three athletes based on a 7-5-4-3-2-1 margin.

Despite the American men earning victory for the first time since 2016, Canada edged the U.S. 24-20 in the overall competition, achieving back-to-back team wins for the first time in more than two decades and just the country’s eighth title in the overall series. Canada’s most recent win before last year was 2009 and the U.S. still leads all-time by 22-8-1 margin.

Ewert, who set the American U-20 record on a 5-kilometer road course last year by clocking 23:07.07 in Toronto, achieved the sixth consecutive individual victory for the U.S. women, following Katharine Newhoff (2014) and Anali Cisneros (2015-16). Her performance was the fastest this year by an American U-20 athlete and ranks No. 39 in the world, with Ewert now shifting focus to her final cross country season at Beavercreek, beginning Aug. 24 in Ohio.

Although the next closest competitor was more than two minutes behind Ewert, Canada had five of the next six finishers, led by Joean Lu (25:34), who placed runner-up to Ewert for the second year in a row.

Westfield NJ junior Grace Endy took third for the U.S. in 25:39, with Pittsford Mendon NY graduate Chloe Engin finishing eighth (28:13), James Logan CA senior Rithika Vatturi placing ninth (29:24) and Westhampton Beach NY graduate Natalie Ehlers (29:48) taking 10th.

Tyler Wilson became the third consecutive Canadian athlete to win the men’s 10-kilometer event, following Kenny Ho and Alger Liang. Wilson, who took second last year, clocked 49:42 to finish in front of a trio of Americans.

Missouri Baptist sophomore Jordan Crawford was second (50:25), Downington East PA junior Jacob Lawson finished third (50:36) and Kingsway Regional NJ senior Samuel Allen placed fourth (50:46). Greenon OH senior Sean Glaze took eighth (55:25) and guest competitor Paine Gronemeyer of Wakefield VA was ninth (1:06:04) for the U.S. men.