All Schools PSA 3 man x 3km Relay hosted at Hale 8th August

Today’s race was tough course, made all the more tougher by the conditions however, every one of you again ran very well. 

Once again our fastest team was highly competitive and after a blinding start from the Captain , Declan White, our first team sat in second place. Christ Church were on fire this morning and their team ran from strength to strength to take the overall line honours, from Hale. Ben Armstrong, still recovering from a chest infection, demonstrated  great fortitude in holding on as long as he could and working over the very testing course before handing over the Bailey Gillam, who despite a valiant effort could not close on Hale but pulled away from Aquinas’s first team.

If we can contextualise the improvement that this team has made in 2015, last year our top team placed 18^th . The third place this year is not just an improvement , it’s an improvement within a vastly improved level of competition. Further to this , and what makes this exciting from a coach’s perspective is that despite Ben and Declan graduating at the end of this season, Bailey Gillam, along with Cameron Adams and Liam Stacey have the potential to run , as a group even better than this.

Even more promising this year was the fact that our younger runners and new squad members were not just gusty but performed exceptionally well in a senior competition. Rory Adams continues to show untapped potential, while Heath Collins and Jake Manolini ran out of their skins. Young Manolini looked to have been beaten today in the run for the line, only to dig into that hidden reserve we call intestinal fortitude with a squirt of heart and gain the upper hand.

Nick Rollo put in a blinder in conditions that tested everyone setting up vice-captain, Marcel Niutta , for a great final leg which saw the second team over the line in 20^th place. Heath Collins, Aiden McLaughlin and Dylan Foppa combined for 34^th place.

The times below are unofficial split times that may need to be adjusted once I finalise who changed over due to Jack Grant rolling his ankle and tagging the next teams runner. Despite obvious discomfort Jack , completed the course to change over with our next Guildford runner. His effort today epitomised the principle of finishing what you started. Knowing that we would be a team down if he withdrew he stayed the course and completed the change. 

Team 1
Name	Split
Declan White	0:16:17
Ben Armstrong	0:16:15
Bailey Gillam	0:16:24
Team 2
Name	Split
Rory Adams	0:17:59
Nick Rollo	0:18:05
Marcel Niutta	0:18:04
Team 3
Name	Split
Heath Collins	0:19:40
Aiden McLaughlin	0:18:44
Dylan Foppa	0:19:01
Team 4
Name	Split
Blake Hillier	0:19:09
Jasper Sharp	0:19:14
Jake Manolini	0:19:51
Team 5
Name	Split
Sam Simba	0:19:46
Jack Grant	0:19:48
Bailey Bartholomeusz	0:21:29
Team 6
Name	Split
Jack McClean	0:20:56
Sebastian Boyd	0:19:54
Caiden Alexander	0:21:19

Team Rank	Name	Split	Distance	Time	Pace/km
1	Ben Armstrong	0:16:15	4.7	16:15	3:27
2	Declan White	0:16:17	4.7	16:17	3:28
3	Bailey Gillam	0:16:24	4.7	16:24	3:29
4	Rory Adams	0:17:59	4.7	17:59	3:50
5	Marcel Niutta	0:18:04	4.7	18:04	3:51
6	Nick Rollo	0:18:05	4.7	18:05	3:51
7	Aiden McLaughlin	0:18:44	4.7	18:44	3:59
8	Dylan Foppa	0:19:01	4.7	19:01	4:03
9	Blake Hillier	0:19:09	4.7	19:09	4:04
10	Jasper Sharp	0:19:14	4.7	19:14	4:06
11	Heath Collins	0:19:40	4.7	19:40	4:11
12	Sam Simba	0:19:46	4.7	19:46	4:12
13	Jack Grant	0:19:48	4.7	19:48	4:13
14	Jake Manolini	0:19:51	4.7	19:51	4:13
15	Sebastian Boyd	0:19:54	4.7	19:54	4:14
16	Jack Spark	0:20:25	4.7	20:25	4:21
17	Jack McClean	0:20:56	4.7	20:56	4:27
18	Henry Van Den Wall Bake	0:20:58	4.7	20:58	4:28
19	Caiden Alexander	0:21:19	4.7	21:19	4:32
20	Bailey Bartholomeusz	0:21:29	4.7	21:29	4:34
21	Wei Ngo	0:22:53	4.7	22:53	4:52
22	Guy Taylor	0:23:46	4.7	23:46	5:03
23	Liam Cowie	0:24:28	4.7	24:28	5:12
24	Thom Schoenauer	0:24:39	4.7	24:39	5:15
25	David Ashenden	0:26:47	4.7	26:47	5:42
26	William Van Den Wall Bake	0:27:07	4.7	27:07	5:46
27	Gabriel Littlefair	0:27:09	4.7	27:09	5:47
28	Daniel Brecich	0:30:37	4.7	30:37	6:31
29	James Holmes	0:36:27	4.7	23:27	4:59

Place	School	Team
1	Christ Church	1
2	Hale	1
3	Guildford	1
4	Aquinas	1
5	Aquinas	2
6	Hale	2
7	Aquinas	3
8	Aquinas	4
9	Aquinas	5
10	Scotch	1
11	Trinity	1
12	Christ Church	2
13	Trinity	2
14	Hale	3
15	Trinity	3
16	Wesley	1
17	Scotch	2
18	Trinity	4
19	Trinity	5
20	Guildford	2
21	Scotch	3
22	Wesley	2
23	Hale	4
24	Aquinas	6
25	Hale	5
26	Hale	6
27	Christ Church	3
28	Scotch	4
29	Christ Church	4
30	Wesley	3
31	Scotch	5
32	Wesley	4
33	Guildford	3
34	Christ Church	5
35	Hale	7
36	Christ Church	6
37	Wesley	5
38	Christ Church	7
39	Guildford	4
40	Guildford	5
41	Guildford	6
42	Scotch	6
43	Scotch	7

School	Score
Aquinas	33
Hale	70
Trinity	76
Christ Church	103
Scotch	107
Guildford	135
Wesley	137

So where does that leave us on the day. Overall we finsihed in 6^th place , narrowly ahead of Wesley but the individual runs demsotrted that we are sontinuing to grow as a team and our day in the sun will not be too far away.

The squad now has one more race to contest, this being the Ray Brown 8km event in Kings Park next Saturday. For many of the team this is an opportunity to challenge  their personal bests for the new lads to the squad its an opportuniyt to see how they handle the longest PSA distance the season.

Well done today lads…. You have continued to grow as a squad and are starting to see yourselves as a competitive team

Barrel on wombats