Ray Brown Kings Park All- schools PSA 8km Cross Country

I was sitting on the plane, heading to Melbourne for a work conference, while I was thinking about this morning’s race and came across an article on running and successful business people. The author stated that   “For many – writers, business people, artists, actors – running offers a gift of simplicity. For all the gadgets , hype around new trainers and technical  claims of big brands, the reality of running is this: your feet carry you, as fast as they can, as quick as your lungs allow you, for as long as you can. You cannot ‘buy’ your way to faster times – there is no equivalent of a fancy racing bike or a better engine. If you want to run faster you must work harder. There are marginal gains: drop a kilogram or two, get some lighter shoes, improve your form – but mostly it’s a simple equation: put in the kilometres and get the results” (Virgin Australian In Flight Magazine, 2015, p. 133). Today’s results from our boys epitomised the final statement.

Saturday morning greeted our lads, as it did all the competitors, with clear skies and a fantastic day for the final PSA Cross Country event. This race has traditionally been the final race of the cross country season calendar however since 2012 it has been known as the Ray Brown Memorial Event. Ray Brown was a previous coach at Aquinas College as well as the Technical Drawing teacher and a house Master. Ray played a big part in the creating the culture that exists within the cross country team at Aquinas. On a personal note he was also a friend and my fierce competitor in the many distances races that we both contested in Western Australia. I travelled with Ray to Japan back in the 90s to contest the half marathon championships and on that day it took everything I had to stay ahead of him such was his tenacity as a competitor.

Ray died in Kings Park during a Friday run, known as the constitutional which leaves from the UWA boatshed every Friday afternoon having just returned from his climb of Mt Everest where he summited. It seems fitting that the toughest single distance race for the boys is named after him.

For many of our younger squad members this race was a baptism by fire in terms of distance and the competitive nature of the event. Today did not disappoint with many of the clear favourites getting into trouble and either stepping off the course or blowing up after the first sustained climb and dropping well back through the field. In addition to this our lads were contesting the E.J Warren Cup for 5 miles (8km for the uninitiated)

Our boys had been warned of this and Jackson and I were extremely pleased to see that while they raced aggressively, they ran strategically. This resulted in some fantastic runs for the line and tight finishes. My only disappointment and one shared by others was the finish. Since 2012 when we established the current circuit when the boys exited the bush for the second time they headed back up towards where they started, completed a hairpin turn then ran down to the finish shoot. This made for a very exciting finish but more importantly made the race an 8km event. Today’s format resulted in the course being 500m short of the 8km so direct comparisons to previous races prove difficult and mean that the boys who have run this course previously will need to look at their km pace to compare their runs.

We speak often of building a culture within the team and around the endurance discipline; once again we witnessed this on multiple levels this morning. Darryl White and his wife Wendy were on hand to support the boys. Darryl, our previous head coach, still watches the boys with interest and to have him on hand to speak with the boys was wonderful. Many of who were quite excited to see him. Further to this old boys Sean Brown, and previous Captain and Vice Paul Harcus and Fraser Sewell were also out on the course. Our parent contingent was the icing on the cake and I know the boys are very appreciative of their support.

On another level the team mentality and focus for today’s event was brilliant. To see the squad being taken for the warm up by their captain Declan White, be taken through their stretching routine by Jas Bowie-Jarvis and then their run through drill by vice-captain Marcel Niutta and finally coming together as a group to hear their leadership team’s final motivational focus words was awesome. It set the tone for the morning and helped all the squad come together as one unit.

From the gun is was a great race. Trinity’s Mickey Martin  and Aquinas’s Luke Bate took it out and set the scene for the first lap however as we had warned the boys, the favourites often falter on this brutal course and Mickey was the first. He was shortly followed by Hendry Louden from Christ Church and suddenly the race was opened up. Declan and Bailey were well placed and after the first lap sat in 9^th and 10^th place. Niutta had again taken the race by the scruff of the neck from the get go and was right up with Ben Armstrong in 31^st and 30^th place as they passed through the timing gate for the first time.

Young Rory Adams was the first of our year 7s through the half way point and he was sitting in 64^th place in a 200 plus strong field.

Foppa, Manolini, Sharp, Frant, Simba and Hillier were all fairly tightly grouped at this point in the race and it was great to see them running as a team rather than working against each other.

Despite the race being shorter (500m) than last year it was still very evident that a great deal of the team were running at a faster pace than they did in 2014 and in time I will provide this detail to the boys but to get 19 boys under the 40 minutes was a great result and helped us finish ahead of Wesley at the end of the day.

First over the line for Guildford was Bailey Gillam who took 10^th place and hot on his heels  27seconds later was Declan. While it was Bailey’s first outing over this course Declan ran at such a rate that he was well under his personal best from last year and even with the distance difference Rollo and Hillier, Niutta, and Miles were all running in new territory with huge time improvements on last year. This can be seen in the second table provided on this report.

Pos	Name	Time	PACE	1st Lap	1st Lap Place	2nd Lap Split	Rank for School
1	Bailey GILLAM	28:45.7	3:35 min/km	13:33.6	9	15:12.1	1
2	Declan WHITE	29:12.3	3:39 min/km	13:35.3	10	15:37.0	2
3	Benjamin ARMSTRONG	31:01.0	3:52 min/km	14:46.3	30	16:14.7	3
4	Marcel NIUTTA	31:43.8	3:57 min/km	14:46.9	31	16:57.0	4
5	Rory ADAMS	32:44.2	4:05 min/km	15:35.9	64	17:08.4	5
6	Nicholas ROLLO	32:48.9	4:06 min/km	15:53.9	79	16:55.0	6
7	Aiden MCLAUGHLIN	34:58.2	4:22 min/km	16:45.1	94	18:13.2	7
8	Heath COLLINS	35:11.4	4:23 min/km	17:21.4	118	17:50.1	8
9	Jack SPARK	35:38.3	4:27 min/km	17:08.8	108	18:29.4	9
10	Dylan FOPPA	36:11.0	4:31 min/km	16:14.4	85	19:56.7	10
11	Jasper SHARP	36:42.8	4:35 min/km	17:20.2	116	19:22.6	11
12	Jake MANOLINI	37:08.8	4:38 min/km	17:20.8	117	19:47.9	12
13	Jack GRANT	37:16.4	4:39 min/km	17:53.1	133	19:23.3	13
14	Samuel SIBMA	37:20.7	4:40 min/km	17:54.9	136	19:25.8	14
15	Blake HILLIER	37:22.0	4:40 min/km	17:53.6	134	19:28.4	15
16	Bailey BARTHOLOMEUSZ	37:51.9	4:43 min/km	18:08.7	141	19:43.2	16
17	Cameron MILES	38:10.6	4:46 min/km	17:35.9	124	20:34.8	17
18	Sebastian BOYD	38:11.6	4:46 min/km	17:24.7	119	20:46.9	18
19	Jack MCLEAN	39:32.9	4:56 min/km	18:23.7	147	21:09.2	19
20	Jas BOWIE-JARVIS	40:03.2	5:00 min/km	18:18.5	142	21:44.7	20
21	Wei NGO	40:30.0	5:03 min/km	18:03.2	139	22:26.8	21
22	Caden ALEXANDER	41:15.9	5:09 min/km	18:19.9	143	22:56.0	22
23	Henry VAN DEN WALL BAKE	41:17.7	5:09 min/km	17:53.1	132	23:24.6	23
24	Guy TAYLOR	43:24.8	5:25 min/km	20:59.0	175	22:25.8	24
25	Gabriel BOYD	43:51.8	5:28 min/km	20:19.4	169	23:32.4	25
26	Thomas SCHOENAUER	46:11.3	5:46 min/km	21:43.6	178	24:27.7	26
27	William VAN DEN WALL BAKE	53:20.3	6:40 min/km	21:18.9	177	32:01.4	27
28	Liam COWIE	54:15.0	6:46 min/km	25:32.4	185	28:42.6	28
29	David ASHENDEN	54:15.3	6:46 min/km	25:32.6	186	28:42.6	29
30	Daniel BRECICH	59:54.1	7:29 min/km	28:34.9	189	31:19.2	30
31	James HOLMES	02:45.0	7:50 min/km	30:44.1	193	32:01.0	31
32	Jean-Louis HANSEN	02:47.3	7:50 min/km	28:55.6	190	33:51.6	32
33	Gabriel LITTLEFAIR	02:47.5	7:50 min/km	28:56.9	191	33:50.6	33

School Position	Name	Positon 2014	Position 2015	Time 2015	Time 2014	Time 2013	Position 2013
1	Bailey GILLAM		10	28:45.7
2	Declan WHITE	34	11	29:12.3	0:31:38	0:35:39	91
3	Benjamin ARMSTRONG	24	26	31:01.0	0:31:12	0:35:00	53
4	Marcel NIUTTA	83	35	31:43.8	0:35:04	0:37:00	117
5	Rory ADAMS		63	32:44.2
6	Nicholas ROLLO	100	64	32:48.9	0:36:15	0:35:54	96
7	Aiden MCLAUGHLIN		90	34:58.2
8	Heath COLLINS		93	35:11.4
9	Jack SPARK		101	35:38.3
10	Dylan FOPPA	112	108	36:11.0	0:37:02
11	Jasper SHARP		116	36:42.8
12	Jake MANOLINI		121	37:08.8
13	Jack GRANT		124	37:16.4
14	Samuel SIBMA		129	37:20.7
15	Blake HILLIER	140	130	37:22.0	0:39:40	0:39:53	154
16	Bailey BARTHOLOMEUSZ	130	134	37:51.9	0:38:35	0:37:48	127
17	Cameron MILES	171	137	38:10.6	0:41:37
18	Sebastian BOYD	141	138	38:11.6	0:39:42	0:45:19	197
19	Jack MCLEAN		151	39:32.9
20	Jas BOWIE-JARVIS	151	155	40:03.2	0:40:16
21	Wei NGO	197	157	40:30.0	0:48:00
22	Caden ALEXANDER		159	41:15.9
23	Henry V. DEN WALL BAKE	195	160	41:17.7	0:47:45	0:41:37	169
24	Guy TAYLOR	189	167	43:24.8	0:45:10	0:42:58	180
25	Gabriel BOYD	198	172	43:51.8	0:48:36
26	Thomas SCHOENAUER	213	177	46:11.3	0:58:52
27	William VAN DEN WALL BAKE		183	53:20.3
28	Liam COWIE		184	54:15.0
29	David ASHENDEN		185	54:15.3
30	Daniel BRECICH		191	59:54.1
31	James HOLMES	214	192	1:02:45	0:59:22	0:55:20	210
32	Jean-Louis HANSEN	212	193	1:02:47	0:58:14
33	Gabriel LITTLEFAIR	211	194	1:02:47	0:58:14

Boy’s you should be extremely proud of your efforts today. Every one of you that started also finished and in doing so, stood by our mantra of  ‘Finish what you start’. I look forward to see you all at the End of Season presentation.

Barrel on wombats...