Extracted from the excellent coverage by Bernie Puchalski in The St. Catharines Standard:

KORSMIT BACK ON TRACK

Laura Korsmit knew something was wrong during spring’s high school track and field season.

“I ran very slow at track,” the Grade 12 student at Holy Cross said.

She discovered she was battling the same iron deficiency issues she had in Grade 9, and was able to resolve the problem.

“I’ve been really building, and I have been having a good season so far,” said the 17-year-old, who won the Zone 4 senior girls individual cross-country title Wednesday at Burgoyne Woods.

The multiple Zone 4 champion, who has made it to OFSAA on three previous occasions, ran a comfortable race Wednesday.

“It felt good,” she said. “I was running in a big pack with all my friends and it was nice to get out and run with them again. It has been a while.”

It was a relaxing run, with so many runners moving on to SOSSA next week.

“There’s not a lot of pressure, so it is mostly going out at my own pace.”

Niagara Olympic Club coach Sharon Stewart was expecting Korsmit to do well.

“Laura is really strong right now. She has had really great preparation for cross-country and she’s running with more confidence,” Stewart said.

Korsmit has been getting pushed in practice by Ridgeway-Crystal Beach’s Kristen Kuhn, who has joined the NOC.

“It is really nice to have someone my age to train with,” Korsmit said.

This is her final year of high school running and she is open to both American and Canadian scholarship offers.

“I want to go into accounting and I don’t know if I can do that in the States,” she said. “And I like a lot of the schools here, too.”

McMaster and Queen’s are on her radar, although Brock isn’t.

“I don’t know if I want to be that close to home,” she said with a laugh.

Before she thinks of university, there’s a high school season to complete.

“I don’t think there is any pressure, because I don’t think it will affect what will happen in my future,” she said. “I can make it happen without it, but I really want to do well this year.”

She has no specific goal for OFSAA.

“I want to run a really good time and push myself,” she said.