On a bright and calm day, the Craighead Cross Country team began the secondary school season with a complete display in the annual Aoraki event held over the challenging Ashbury Park course in Timaru. With Craighead athletes winning all three races and the associated teams also gaining first place, Craighead continues to be the place to foster young athletes in the Aoraki region.
There were a number of exciting prospects on display in the junior grades to compliment those more experienced athletes on show. Charlie Nicol held off a charge from the Geraldine High School runner to win the Year 9 race, with Lily Crosbie finishing a creditable 5th place.
However, at the U16 level there is a cluster of athletes that dominated with Ruby Laming (Yr 11) , Kayla Allington (Yr 10) , Ruby Mahuika (Yr 10) and Brooke Thompson (Yr 10) placed first , second , third and fourth respectively, with Megan Alexander (Yr 10) placed seventh.
Completing the sweep was Lydia Giles (Yr 13) with a powerful sprint finish over the Roncalli runner and Faith Coffin (Yr 12) coming third. The key to a complete team performance is the ability to cluster places and with Marissa Shannon (Yr 13) finishing fifth and Emily Caird (Yr 12) eighth, the teams title was Craighead’s.
This was a great start to the season, with the team competing in the Southern Schools Cross Country on Sunday 26th May over the Ashbury Park course once again, before the team travels to Christchurch for the New Zealand Secondary School event on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 June.