A hardy team of 8 girls travelled with coaches Craig Motley and Gaela Kilgour to the New Zealand Secondary Schools Cross Country in Nelson recently. Whilst it should have been a fast and flat track around Stoke Park, the heavens had turned the course into a challenging mud bath for all concerned.
With a mixture of experience and novices, the girls performed extremely well in this National event, a highlight being Year 9 Ruby Laming who came in 16th out of a field of 68 of the best runners in the country. Other results were Niamh Motley (Year 12) who placed 24th out of 103 competitors in the Senior Girls race and Faith Coffin (Year 10) who placed 37th out of 84 in the Junior Girls race. These three along with Madeline Thomas (Year 12) and Grace Brydges (Waitaki GHS) formed the Aoraki team that competed in the Senior Girls Relay on the Sunday and were placed a very creditable 8th out of 16 regional representative teams. Other Craighead team members: Marissa Shannon (Year 11), Orla Motley (Year 10) and Lucy Murphy (Year 12) ran for a Canterbury team.
With all of our Craighead team returning next year, this experience will hold them in good stead for the 2023 event in Palmerston North.
Any other runners who would like to be involved in cross country should email Mr Jones at jonesan@craighead.school.nz.
