The United States and Canada runners shared the spoils in the North American, Central American and the Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) Cross Country Championship at the Queen's Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain yesterday.

The Canadians took the top three individual positions in the Under-20 Women and Men three-lap and four-lap events respectively.

In the opening 6k event for girls u-20 runners, Taryn O'Neil and her compatriots Charlotte Wood and Makenna Fitzgerald opened up a sizeable lead on their opponents on the final lap to complete a one, two, three finish in impressive times of 22 minutes, 22 minutes and 10 seconds, and 22:14 respectively.

The Canadians who dominated the event for the past years showed their superiority again by taking the overall team win ahead of second place the USA, whose top runner Samantha Corman crossed the line in sixth position in a time of 22:45 seconds. Puerto Rico was third overall among the teams, a position that was led by Isamerie Arroyo Umpierre who came home at 12th in 24:18.

The Canadians were also in a class of their own in the boys u-20 event, taking the first, second and third places through Evan Burke, Nicholas Mota and Andrew Davies in (27:20, 27:30 and 27:37) that earned them the over team win.

They were followed in second by USA, whose runners commanded the fifth, seventh, eighth and 10th places from Colin Baker, Graydon Morris, Adam Dayni and Matthew Scrape, while Puerto Rico's team of Carlos Ortiz (third in 27:43), Hector Ortiz (11th in 28:17) and Arnaldo Reyes (12th in 28:17) earned them third.

The Women's and Men's 10k events that followed were dominated by the USA. The Canadians women again threatened to take the title after dominating for most of the race, but the USA's Breanna Sieracki produced a gutsy drive from behind to overtake leader Canada's Jessica O'Connell for the win in a time of 35:57. Sieracki took the runner-up spot in 36:00.

The win assured the US women the overall win ahead of Canada. T&T's Tonya Nero battled home for the 12th position in 37:34 while compatriot Samantha Shukla laboured home in 18th place in 40:40. Nero came third in the event in 2012 but yesterday she failed to reproduce her form, as he suffered badly from the humid conditions, she said.

The USA also claimed the top four places in the men's race with Abbabiya Simbassa (31:49), Frankline Tonui (31:49), Reid Buchanan ( 31:49) and Evans Kirwa (32.08) securing the first, second, third and fourth places respectively for the overall team title. Team Canada stormed home for the second position.

Matthew Hagley was the first T&T runner to cross the line in 20th position in a time of 35:22.