After a thrilling House Athletics Carnival on Friday, and with many of the Cross Country boys representing their Houses in the 800m and 3,000m events, we all turned up on Saturday morning, enthusiastic and ready to race. This week’s venue was The King’s School, possibly the most challenging course of the year thus far. The course featured a relatively flat start across multiple football fields, followed by multiple tight switchback corners, before shooting down a steep fire trail down the back of the school.
This downhill was a treacherous, rocky uneven descent, and at the pace that the boys were travelling, mistakes were bound to happen. At the bottom of this descent, a sharp hairpin pointed straight back up the even steeper opposite side of the hill. As the morning progressed, this gruelling hill laid waste to multitudes of competitors across all schools. However, it did not faze our Waverley boys.
The Juniors had an amazing start to the day. A particularly fast start saw Evan Robowtham position himself in the front pack. As the race continued, he made sure to work hard effectively on the flats and in the hills, overtaking numerous competitors with each stride. As a consequence, Evan prevailed with the win; placing 1st out of 165 competitors. Fantastic work, Evan.
The Intermediates race was quite an entertaining race to watch. Three times up the hill proved challenging for many of the competitors. However, Waverley took this in their stride, and used the hills to improve their positions. This showed in the results of each of the boys at the end of the race, and consequently their weekly totals — notably Christian Miletec, who has gone from 75th in the first week to 31st this week. This level of improvement is characteristic of dedication, hard work and consistent training, something we hope the boys will continue throughout the season.
The Open race started hard and fast, with many runners burning out after one or two laps — 8km is a long race. The senior boys were not fazed and remained patient. They used the hills to take positions, and the downhills and flats to recover and regroup. We’ve seen improvement from our Year 12 boys, notably James Crowle and Jay Briggs, who have both improved significantly since the beginning of the season. Well done boys, keep up the hard work. Further, congratulations to Campbell Groves who finished 7th (1st CAS).
We look forward to next week’s racing at Sydney Park for CAS vs GPS in the Junior and Intermediate races, as well as CIS selection trials in all races.
Waves to Win!
Campbell Groves and Hugo Morgan (Co-Captains 2023)
Waverley College Cross Country
