Leading Secondary School Cross Country Athletes Shift Focus to Nationals
After completing the CSW Wellington Relays event at Wakefield Park, Berhampore last week and the Regional Championships at Harcourt Park, Upper Hutt on Wednesday local school athletes will shift their focus to NZ Secondary School Championships in three weeks’ time at Massey University in Palmerston North. Last week 264 athletes competed in 65 relay teams and on Wednesday over 300 athletes toed the line in muddy conditions.
Wellington College and Wellington Girls College look set for bold showings at Nationals as they dominated the 3-person and 6-person team races across all three grades on Wednesday and individual honours were taken by Ben Brunner in Senior Boys over 6km and Kate McHardy respectively in Senior Girls over 4km. McHardy had a grand battle with teammate Ava Sutherland who lead for the first half of the race and held the fastest lap last week at the relays. Similarly Brunner took control over the final stages from Max Doherty [Onslow] who lead for a large portion over the muddy and technical course.
In the Junior [Under16] grades Lucy Hannah [Queen Margaret] took the Girls title ahead of Juju Moorhead [Wellington Girls] who placed in Year 9 nationals last year while Logan Hopfler [Wellington College] beat last years Year 9 national boys champion Desmond Reddy [Rongotai]. Year 9 Girls honours went to well performed Madison Wos [Sacred Heart College] while Xavier James [Wellington College] took Year 9 Boys title.
Para athlete races over 2km were well supported with over 5 contestants and strong team results were seen or Wainuiomata in the Boys and Mana College in Girls. Boys’ division winners were Regan Jarvis [Newland College] and Tony Ireland [Wairarapa College]. Top Para girl home was Keira Scott-Smith [Wairarapa]
Top Three results
Para Athletes Boys (ID) Race distance: 2km
1 11 Regan JARVIS Newlands College 0:12:09 2 13 Eddy JOHNSON Onslow College 0:12:45 3 33 Nigel WAENGA Wainuiomata High School 0:13:22 Boys (PD) Race distance: 2km 1 41 Toby IRELAND Hutt Valley High School 0:09:20
Girls (ID) Race distance: 2km Start time: 12:05 Individual Results Placing Race # Name School Time 1 59 Keira SCOTT-SMITH Wairarapa College 0:11:47 2 54 Ruby LASINI Wainuiomata High School 0:15:11 3 62 Izzy TANIRAU-TAIAPA Wainuiomata High School 0:15:11
Girls – Jnr (Year 9 and under) Race distance: 3km
1 154 Madison WOS Sacred Heart College (Wgtn) 0:11:20 2 150 Hannah WADE Wellington Girls’ College 0:11:31 3 123 Zoe HILTON Upper Hutt College 0:11:40
Boys – Jnr (Year 9 and under) Race distance: 3km
1 241 Xavier JAMES Wellington College 0:10:31 2 260 Hugo MILLAR Hutt International Boys’ School 0:10:38 3 238 Jack GREGORY Kapiti College 0:10:50
Girls – Int (U16) Race distance: 3km
1 315 Lucy HANNAH Queen Margaret College 0:11:37 2 330 Juju MOORHEAD Wellington Girls’ College 0:11:47 3 317 Maia HOLDEN Wellington Girls’ College 0:12:10
Boys – Int (U16) Race distance: 4km
1 430 Logan HOPFLER Wellington College 0:13:01 2 448 Desmond REDDY Rongotai College 0:13:11 3 441 Blake MISCALL St Patrick’s College, Silverstream 0:13:33
Girls – Senior (U19) Race distance: 4km
1 532 Kate MCHARDY Wellington Girls’ College 0:14:18 2 543 Ava SUTHERLAND Wellington Girls’ College 0:14:25 3 521 Poppy HEALY Queen Margaret College 0:15:03
Boys – Snr (U19) Race distance: 6km
1 606 Ben BRUNNER Wellington College 0:19:38 2 614 Max DOHERTY Onslow College 0:19:53 3 652 Max POLAND St Patrick’s College, Silverstream 0:20:02
