Zone Cross Country 2007

Southern Zone

On the 19th of July, forty students travelled to Lardner Park in Warragul, to represent the school at the annual zone cross country championships. The conditions were perfect for a true “British” cross country event – raining, windy with thick mud on the course – I almost felt like putting on the spikes and having a jog myself!!!

The big highlight for the day (apart from the sun shining for just 20 minutes in the afternoon), was both the girls and boys under 21 team finishing in 1st place, and therefore qualifying for the state finals in a week’s time. The girls team have won the state title at this event for the past 2 years, and so they will be going for three in a row next Friday (3rd of August).

Results:

Age	Male	Female
U13	Austin Deneys* 7th James Knee* 8th Yotam Eren 38th Cameron Rodda 61st	Michelle Liacos* 8th Cindy Zhou 30th Camilla Kennedy 31st Jamie Binnion 35th Judith Rees 38th Jayde Gebbie-Mullan 40th Simona Giller 56th
U14	Ali Hameed 38th Patrick Walker 39th	Pamela Poon 40th
U15	Brendan Dawes 31st Jordan Stout 32nd Alex Papacostas 66th Shehzaad Peerbux 81st Jordan Fowles 82nd	Ellen Nougher 32nd
U16	Declan Frey 35th Andrew Leigh 55th Adam Copolov 72nd Andrew Thornton 73rd Liam Houghton 74th	Yael Boneh 27th Chrissy Chmielewski 31st Jordana Csoti 43rd Alex Anthony 51st
U21	Josh Ricketson* 20th Alistair McCooke* 64th Joss Holdsworth* 47th Dean Neal 51st Reuban McMahon* 17th Matt Foster* 49th	Madelaine Begala* 4th Heidi Begala* 11th Alex Garde* 14th Kirsty Landman* 33rd Emily Foster* 54th

*qualified for State finals

All 40 competitors did extremely well in the tough conditions, and should feel extremely proud of themselves. Watch this space for a report on how the 13 students go at the state finals!

Victorian All Schools

On the 21st of July (only 2 days after the zone championships), Maddie and Heidi Begala gave up their Saturday morning and represented the school at the Victorian All Schools Cross Country Championships. This was a great chance for 2 of McKinnon’s top runners to test themselves against some of the best runners from all the schools in the state.

The twins ran a superb 4km race, with Maddie finishing in 9th place, with Heidi not far behind her sister in 21st position. Maddie’s run was so impressive, she narrowly missed out on travelling to Perth to compete at the National School’s Championships.

With more training, the next year looks extremely promising for the Begala twins!!!

Steve Bustin
Cross Country Co-ordinator