Baker wins by a dozen seconds
Whanganui High School junior girls winner Rebecca Baker keeps ahead of senior girls winner Caitlyn Alabaster in their combined 3000m race on Thursday.
The young ones showed their seniors how its done at the Whanganui Secondary Schools Cross Country along the Collegiate golf course on Thursday.
Organisers chose to combine the junior and senior grades into one race, with seperate placings, in order to create more competition for overall finishes.
Alec McNab said the decision worked a treat as several contenders to do well at nationals on June 17 in Christchurch, who would not normally race each other, got to elevate their performances.
"By combining grades, we've got a good race, there's no doubt about that."
Whanganui High School's 15-year-old junior prospect Rebecca Baker proved it as she beat out Wanganui Collegiate's seniors Caitlyn Alabaster and Jane Lennox in the dash to the line.
Alabaster, who was coming back from a stress fracture and will race 4km in Christchurch, stayed with Baker until they headed down the undulating back stretch on the final lap of the course.
Baker then turned on the gas to open up the gap and held on to win by a comfortable 12s.
"It's good to run in a bigger field," she said.
"I just sort of kept running and just dragged away, [Alabaster] just kept falling off."
While the combined senior and junior boys race did not have as many standout competitors, Collegiate's Liam Back continued to mark himself as a name of the future by dominating proceedings with a winning margin of one and a half minutes.
"That's not saying the seniors were pathetic - we've just got two outstanding juniors," said McNab.
"Liam Back's performance was remarkable, he won by the biggest margin of the day."
Notably, Back's finish beat the winning time at last year's nationals for the junior boys by 15s.
"He could have had a cup of tea by the time the next runner came along," said McNab.
WHS got to sweep the board in the senior version of the boys race with Liam Jones, Connor Munro and Travis Bayler taking the podium spots.
Collegiate managed two clean sweeps through the senior girls (Alabaster, Lennox, Sarah Lambert) and Year 9 girls (Ashleigh Alabaster, Ana Brabyn, Jessica Johnstone).
Around 178 athletes entered this year's championships, which were held in much better weather conditions compared to the monsoon rain of 2016.
The top three finishers in each grade secured automatic spots for the Christchurch nationals, with a further two runners to be added to each.
Titles are also awarded to the competing schools through the 3-to-score and 6-to-score categories.
Last year Collegiate won 10 of those 12 events, but Thursday saw a swing back towards some of the running talent from the other schools as Collegiate won seven while WHS claimed three and City College and Nga Tawa got one each.
WHS coach Greg Fromont was extremely pleased with the overall results for the day from his 42 runners.
Results
Year 9 Boys - 3000m: 1. George Lambert (Collegiate) 10:35.1; 2. Riley Zimmerman (City College) 11:39.3; 3. Blair Gowan (WHS) 11:54.8. 3 to Score Team: 1. City College 14; 2. Whanganui High School 15; 3. Collegiate 20. 6 to Score Teams: 1. Whanganui High School 62; 2. Collegiate 66.
Year 9 Girls - 3000m: 1. Ashleigh Alabaster (Collegiate) 12:04.6; 2. Ana Brabyn (Collegiate) 12:14.1; 3. Jessica Johnstone (Collegiate) 12:56.1. 3 to Score Teams: 1. Collegiate 6; 2. Whanganui High School 30; 3. Nga Tawa School 41. 6 to Score Teams: 1. Collegiate 23; 2. Whanganui High School 76; 3. Nga Tawa School 104.
Junior Girls - 3000m: 1. Rebecca Baker (WHS) 11:43.1; 2. Marseille Bowie (Collegiate) 12:37.8; 3. Georgina Bryant (Nga Tawa) 12:42.4. 3 to Score Teams: 1. Collegiate 11; 2. Whanganui High School 14; 3. Nga Tawa 28. 6 to Score Team: 1. Nga Tawa 85.
Junior Boys - 4000m: 1. Liam Back (Collegiate) 13:27.5; 2. Sam Thrupp (Collegiate) 14:47.5; 3. Ethan Cox (WHS) 15:29.0. 3 to Score Teams: 1. Collegiate 8; 2. Whanganui High School 15. 6 to Score Teams: 1. Collegiate 40; 2. Whanganui High School 44.
Senior Girls - 3000m: 1. Caitlyn Alabaster (Collegiate) 11:55.2; 2. Jane Lennox (Collegiate) 12:00.0; 3. Sarah Lambert (Collegiate) 12:05.4. 3 to Score Teams: 1. Collegiate 6; 2. Whanganui High School 34; 3. Nga Tawa 39. 6 to Score: 1. Collegiate 22; 2. Whanganui High School 95; 3. Nga Tawa 101.
Senior Boys - 4000m: 1. Liam Jones (WHS) 14:46.1; 2. Connor Munro (WHS) 15:10.3; 3. Travis Bayler (WHS) 15:19.0. 3 to Score Teams: 1. Whanganui High School 6; 2. Collegiate 19. 6 to Score: 1. Whanganui High School 33; 2. Collegiate 45.
By Jared Smith
Wanganui Chronicle 27/5/17