Cross Country Report | Meet 2 – Sydney High

The contrast to last week’s weather and geography could not be greater: green not brown, sand not mud, sun not rain, flat not hilly! Even our coaches could not but enjoy such beautiful running weather, turning up for the local Centennial Park Parkrun at 7am. (Of note in this “pre-show” event was Patrick Cantlon, last year’s captain, who won the race in a new course record, as well as impressive runs from Mr (Benjamin) Bishop, Mr Raptis and Mr Currer.)

But the main show was our current students. Once again our team showed up with both enthusiasm and strength, beating every other CAS and GPS school in two of the three age categories (U14s and Opens) and placing a commendable 6^th in the third (U16s). But it is the depth of our squad, not merely the top end, which is enabling such consistency; each of our runners, by pushing himself, spurs on a teammate or two and the team as a whole benefits. Moreover, as will become evident over the course of the season, there are myriad individual stories in which our performance and experience consist, not all of which have to do with places, victory or visible glory.

Our U14s team was missing last week’s individual winner, Matthew M. (9WJ), with an injury, but Kobe S. (8Yo) ran a brilliant solo race to place 1^st, finishing with characteristic speed. Joshua L. (8Ta), who seems to be improving continuously, ran an outstanding last lap to place 4^th, while Sam R. (8WJ) demonstrated how to transfer skills from snow to dirt as he placed 22^nd and Michael S. (8St) was not far behind in 24^th. There were many other noteworthy performances from this age group, some of which included Jaemin Y.’s (7St) grit, Joshua R.’s (7La) and Marcus K’s (7Ho) impressive first races for the school and Divesh G’s (8Mu) and Aravinda C’s (7Du) teamwork to push each other along. If you are wanting a more detailed recap of this particular race, it may be best to avoid asking Mr Bishop, who managed to find a way to lock himself in a toilet cubicle for its duration.

Our U16s in particular benefit from a group of strong athletes who compete at a high level in other sports and have chosen Cross Country as a means to improve their fitness and therefore bolster their performance. Once again Ashwin S. (11Hi), known for his Water Polo prowess, ran a strong race to place 22^nd as the first Trinity runner. Elite basketballers Jed M. (10WJ) and Myles B (9WJ), in their first races of the season, came 25^th and 34^th respectively, both good results and boding well for the rest of the season as their fitness improves. Ethan M. (9Ho), despite his becoming known for cheerful grins as he passes the crowd each lap, is certainly devoting energy to his running as well as his smiling, finishing a very solid 43^rd to round out our point-scoring team.

Our Opens team seemed to enjoy running this week on a course which had not been utterly disfigured by the previous two races! We were glad to welcome back Luca G. (10St), who ran up an age group because of earlier football commitments, starting conservatively and finishing a very good 8^th. Joseph C. (11Du) in 11^th, James S. (12WJ) in 12^th and Zachary P. (12Ho) in 19^th rounded out our point-scoring team, all running consistently and using other runners as motivation through the four laps. Again Jack W. (11Ke) ran conservatively as he recovers from injury but still finished in 21^st, while Matt L. (12Ta) in 33^rd, Ryan G. (11WJ) in 46^th, Oliver W. (12Fo) in 48^th, Keelan S. (12Hi) in 50^th and Oscar M. (12Sc) in 56^th all ran very good races to place well in a large race. Regan C. (11He) had been missing in training during the week due to a work placement, but demonstrated the benefits of his pre-season training to run a consistent race.

Well done to all runners! We look forward to our next race tomorrow at The King’s School.

In running,

Phillip Mugridge | Co-ordinator of Cross Country