Steve Boyd thought this was going to be the year for men’s cross country.

The cross country team’s head coach believed Queen’s had a shot of catching the Windsor Lancers in team standings of the OUA championship race. Instead, they earned their second consecutive OUA bronze medal — once again behind the untouchable Guelph Gryphons and Lancers.

The Queen’s runners earned 86 points to the Lancers’ 63. Boyd said the 23-point difference was the closest margin in recent memory.

“It would’ve been great to grab second and really make history in the program but we came up 23 points short,” Boyd said. “We’ll head into the CIS [finals] and see what can happen there.”

The Queen’s men were ranked third among Ontario schools by the CIS going into the race.

Third-year Jeff Archer led the team with a 10th place finish in the 10km event, with all six of the Gaels other runners also placing in the top 33.

Boyd hasn’t ruled out a podium finish as a possibility at nationals.

“[It’s] a matter of what the guys are able to do on the day,” he said, “but we might be able to produce something in the top two or top three in the next two weeks, and that would be great for the program.”

The women’s team was ranked eighth nationally and fifth among Ontario teams before the 5km event. They claimed sixth overall, after the un-ranked Lancers upset the field with a fourth-place finish.

First years Julie-Anne Staehli and Charlotte Dunlap placed sixth and twenty-fifth respectively in the individual standings, but no other Gaels finished within the top 30.

Boyd said the finish was disappointing, as the goal for the women’s side was to challenge for fourth overall.

“Our other runners were about 10 spots behind where we thought they could be,” he said. “Our spread between first runner and fifth runner should be about 75 seconds or so, and it was about two minutes, so our back end really just didn’t hold up.”

Boyd said the rainy conditions slowed down the pace for certain runners looking to avoid falls.

“I think they were worried about falling and making contact with a tree, which is a legitimate concern,” he said.

Both cross-country teams will compete in the CIS championships on Nov. 10 in London, Ont.