Southland runners tested nationally and locally
A group of Southland runners headed to the New Zealand Secondary Schools Cross Country Championships and the results were...well...pretty impressive we don't mind saying.
Four top ten placing certificates, an individual medal, two relay medals and, one in the NZ team – not a bad showing for Southland runners at the national secondary school champs in Palmerston North last weekend.
Southland’s successes were across all age grades, from the year 9 races to seniors.
The Year 9 grade was particularly successful with St Peters Gore representative Max McGregor (coached by Ricky Gutsell) placing 3rd (out of 136 finishers) and earning a bronze medal.
In the girl’s race Abby O’Boyle (Verdon, Lance Smith coached)) came in 7th of 85, her placing earning a top 10 certificate.
In both races, the Southland athletes stuck with the leaders, with Abby fading slightly over the last few hundred metres while Max held on to win a frantic sprint that was the difference between a medal and a no-medal-4th.
The Junior Girls 3k was another St Peters Gore triumph with Millie McFadzien (Hannah Miller coached) just missing out on the podium with her 4th placing, just 3 seconds away from bronze.
Expect to see Millie on the podium in the future; a bit more experience at this level will have her amongst the medals one day.
The same goes for Abby and Max in their first national secondary schools championship, and while Max is already a medallist his bronze is bound to be upgraded in future championships.
Max’s bronze may have been even better if he hadn’t been laid low by a virus a week earlier.
Millie and Max surely make St Peters the most successful of the Southland schools.
The senior girls’ 4km race gave Southland another NZ rep with the top 10 automatic selections for the NZ Secondary Schools team to the Australian schools champs. Kennedy Taylor finished 9th (of 116) to cement her place in the team.
The SGHS, Lance Smith coached runner started conservatively and proceeded to work her way through the field to finish just a fraction behind last year’s winner Zara Geddes of Otago. Next Southlander was Siena Mackley (WHS, Neville Britton coached) in a well-run 15th place.
The following day was the relays and the Southland athletes again fared well. The senior girls team of Kennedy Taylor, Millie McFadzien, Siena Mackley and Sammy Fookes grabbed bronze while the junior mixed team of Lewis Blay, Bea Christie, Keira Redden and James Weber stormed home to take the silver medal. The senior boys team finished 6th.
James McLeay who finished a very creditable 24 th (of 184) the previous day had the fastest team relay lap time, in fact faster than many who placed ahead of him in the individual race.
James was well supported by Ben Scott, Lucas Huia and Jude Deaker.
Not often is a national event a prelude to a local competition. In this case it was, with the Southland school champs at Te Anau coming after the NZ champs, thanks to a weather-related deferment.
With a couple of exceptions, the best performed at Palmerston Northwere the best performed at Te Anau.
The most significant exceptions were Abby O’Boyle who was off to Ireland on a family holiday and Max McGregor who was ill, both missing Te Anau, and Kimberley Iversen and Hudson Roy who weren’t at Palmerston North.
Abby and Max’s absence opened up the year 9 races to WHS’s Kiera Redden and Aidan Barclay of SBHS both winning by more than comfortable margins.
Junior boys and girl’s races were dominated by Southland’s best placed runners at Palmerston North. In fact, more than dominated. Millie won by close to 1 ½ minutes with Bea Christie and Micaela McRae taking the minor places, while James had a good half minute on well performed Hudson Roy (Menzies).
Both senior grades went the way of Palmerston North form with Kennedy Taylor heading Siena Mackley and Kimberley Iversen (JHC) in the girls and the boys repeating their Palmerston North finishing order of James McLeay, Jude Deaker and Lucas Huia.