Guildford Versus Wesley

Guildford Grammar Vs Wesley at home.

The final home and away race of the season was an absolute beauty despite the loss to Wesley on their home ground. Traditionally the Wesley and Guildford teams have always had close battles on the field as well as having similar team structures in terms of trying to build depth through the team.

ROUND 7				Pace
AT WESLEY
Christchurch V Guildford 09.05.15
Place	Sch	Time	Name
1	W	0:13:51	T. BREMNER	3:23
2	G	0:14:34	B. GILLAM	3:33
3	G	0:14:37	D. WHITE	3:34
4	w	0:14:44	C.MCLAUCHLAN	3:36
5	G	0:14:51	L. STACEY	3:38
6	W	0:14:54	S. CRANSTON	3:38
7	G	0:14:54	B. ARMSTONG	3:38
8	W	0:15:04	M. HARVEY	3:40
9	G	0:15:05	C. ADAMS	3:41
10	G	0:15:19	M. NIUTTA	3:44
11	W	0:15:28	T. STEEL	3:46
12	W	0:15:33	R. ABRAHAMS	3:48
13	W	0:15:34	J. MCCUTCHON	3:48
14	W	0:15:35	D. EMMETT	3:48
15	G	0:15:41	N. ROLLO	3:50
16	W	0:15:42	R. WESTON	3:50
17	W	0:15:54	T.ROBINSON	3:53
18	W	0:16:13	K. STEEL	3:57
19	W	0:16:15	F. EMMETT	3:58
20	W	0:16:16	R. AFFINITO	3:58
21	G	0:16:19	R. ADAMS	3:59
22	W	0:16:27	G. GARNER	4:01
23	W	0:16:28	H. COOPER	4:01
24	W	0:16:36	S. MCDONALD	4:03
25	G	0:16:45	D. FLOPPA	4:05
26	G	0:16:49	H.COLLINS	4:06
27	G	0:16:58	J. SPARK	4:08
28	G	0:16:59	J. MANOLINI	4:09
29	W	0:17:01	H. BLAIR	4:09
30	G	0:17:02	A. MCLAUGHLIN	4:09
31	W	0:17:12	M. HARDING	4:12
32	W	0:17:13	T. RUPP	4:12
33	G	0:17:15	H. VANDEMWALLBAKE	4:12
34	G	0:17:44	C. MILES	4:20

In 2014 Wesley came away with a 73 point win over our boys and again, on Saturday they managed to come away with a 71 point win.  This being said, they had to earn it.

Guildford saw 6 runners making the top 10. Bailey Gillam and Declan White took out 2^nd and 3^rd both running significantly faster per kilometre than they have in previous races. Liam Stacey was on fire as he worked his way through the field early in the race to secure 5^th place and it was fantastic to see this young athlete looking comfortable and in control as his team mate Ben Armstrong, chased him down alongside the Wesley runner to finish 3 seconds behind.

Despite the closeness of the times and the competitiveness of the times, it’s the places that combine to make up the final point tally and sadly our boys top 15 places tallied higher than Wesley’s tally.

A number of our lads were caught out by the shortness of the course and left their home runs a little too late, this is a critical mistake that we won’t make again and as the coach I need to take the responsibility for this, in not carry out a better surveillance of the course beforehand.  Cameron Adams was one runner who was caught out by this and despite making up a huge amount of ground in the final stages of the race, had it been 4.5km instead of 4.km he would have easily accounted for the Wesley competitor with only 1 second separating them on the line.   

Young Rory Adams again impressed with a strong performance and moved swiftly from 29^th position through to 21^st over the final 1500m. His young team mates, Heath Collins and Jake Manolini tried to go with him however the pace was just a little too hot for these boys on the day and they settled into a solid rhythm with Dylan Foppa and Jack Spark.

Throughout the morning many of the boys really put in over the final stages and at no stage did they stop chasing the Wesley green. I think Bailey Gillam summed it up the best when he said  “ The boys really ran well today.”

This race signalled the end of the home and away fixtures , with all the teams now coming together to contest the All0schools competitions, the first being the Aquinas 3km event. This will see every school race over the same course and brings together the best of the PSA cross country competition.

The following Thursday (2^nd July) sees Guildford hosting a unique and testing relay format during the bye and we would encourage as many as possible coming down and cheering our lads on as they take on the other 6 schools.

Guildford V Aquinas Round 6 PSA XC

Guildford Grammar Vs Aquinas at home.

Let’s get the negatives out of the way first, it rained! Now let’s move onto the positive outcomes of Saturday’s race against Aquinas and analyse the  boy’s race as a team and as individuals.

Saturday was always going to be a tough gig for the boys and the squad as a whole. Aquinas has been, and remain, the power house of the PSA Cross Country Competition. They have a long history and a very strong running culture that permeates across the school. In the case of Guildford, this is something that we are working hard to develop and something that is further down the track, excuse the pun , than it was 5 or 6 years ago so Saturday was a case of David and Goliath. Now while we may not have slay Goliath, the boys certainly threw a stone that was felt and in the words of Aquinas’s captain, “Guildford gave us a fright today”

The last time we took on Aquinas on our home turf was in 2013 where they beat us soundly by 226 points. On that day we managed to get only one lad into the top 10, Jackson Passeri who has returned in 2015 to take on a coaching. Further back than that, again on our home course, we closed the gap to 171 points , this time managing to get three boys into the top 10. Mason Zappavigna (3^rd), Jackson Passeri (4^th ) and Nick Andronovski (6^th). This being said our next runner over the line was 16^th , then 19^th. Now while the points dictate the winner of the competition, by themselves they only tell half of the story and this is why Saturday’s race was such a strong result for the squad because our top 15 runner’s average time was only 1 minute 5 seconds behind that of Aquinas, previously it has been in excess of 2 minutes 35secs with the biggest disparity over the last 7 years being 5 minutes and 10 seconds, so you can see why the coaches are excited. Like a shark senses blood, we feel the boys are on the verge of a break through win.

Guildford was defeated by a mere 103 points, something that opened Aquinas’s eyes in that, had our boys reversed the placing in a few of the clustered finishing groups, this could very easily have been an 11 point victory, such was the tightness of the top end finishers. The boys never stopped chasing on Saturday and a number of times it was evident that they were calling and talking to their team mates, if they felt them slipping off the group, and telling them to ‘stay on’ or ‘hang on’ . This was very much the case with Cameron Adams calling up his captain Marcel Niutta in the final 1km of the race.

Bailey Gillam continued to hold his place as the top Guildford finisher claiming 4^th, Declan White took 6^th, Ben Armstrong in a very strong final 800m took 9^th however the trio of Cameron Adams, Marcel Niutta and Liam Stacy were very close behind in 11^th, 12^th and 13^th. In all the top 20 places looked like this.

ROUND 6				Pace
AT GUILDFORD
GUILDFORD V AC  06.06.15
Place	Sch	Time	Name
1	A	0:17:53	B.DAVIDSON	3:26
2	A	0:18:07	L.BATE	3:29
3	A	0:18:36	N.BAILEY	3:35
4	G	0:18:43	B.GILLAM	3:36
5	A	0:18:54	C.NICHOLAS	3:38
6	G	0:19:07	D.WHITE	3:41
7	A	0:19:11	E.WILLIAMS	3:41
8	A	0:19:26	M.FRANCIS	3:44
9	G	0:19:33	B.ARMSTRONG	3:46
10	A	0:19:53	W.MCLERNON	3:49
11	G	0:20:00	C.ADAMS	3:51
12	G	0:20:08	M.NIUTTA	3:52
13	G	0:20:11	L.STACEY	3:53
14	A	0:20:18	S.BEILBY	3:54
15	A	0:21:07	G.COOPER	4:04
16	A	0:21:13	D.ROME	4:05
17	A	0:21:14	T.KELLY	4:05
18	A	0:21:29	A.RICH	4:08
19	G	0:21:37	J.SHARP	4:09
20	G	0:21:39	D.FOPPA	4:10

Interestingly, Aquinas runners Davidson and Bate both had to run 1minute 18 seconds faster this year to secure places against White and Armstrong such has been the improvement of the overall competition.

After this cluster, another race has unfolded and this one is even more encouraging for the future of the squad both this season and in years to come. Newcomers Rory Adams, Heath Collins and Jake Manolini, all year 7s along with Aden McLaughlan (yr 10) are being highly competitive in this senior competition, all of whom have secured, at various times, top 15 placings within the team, and so being counted in our overall point tally. Throw into this equation Cameron Miles, Sammy Simba, Jack Grant, Sebastian Boyd and a fast improving, and returning to form, Bailey Bartholemuesz   and the squad is really firing up for the All-Schools competitions coming in another two weeks.

22	G	0:21:48	R.ADAMS	4:12
23	G	0:21:54	A.MCLAUGHLAN	4:13
24	A	0:21:57	R.TANG-SMITH	4:13
25	A	0:22:03	B.TANG-SMITH	4:14
26	G	0:22:09	H.COLLINS	4:16
27	A	0:22:14	J.BANCROFT	4:17
28	A	0:22:31	T.HIGGINS	4:20
29	G	0:22:42	B.HILLIER	4:22
30	G	0:22:48	J.MANOLINI	4:23

Across the squad and in terms of either a season best or personal best there were 13 achieved, again something that indicates the quality of work that the boys are doing out on the training ground.

Personal Bests

A.McLaughlan            46 second PB and season best

B.Armstrong               11 seconds season best

 C.Adams                     41 second PB and season best

C.Miles                        41 second PB and season best

 D.Ashenden                26 second PB and season best

D.Foppa                      29 second PB and season best

G.Boyd                       8 second season best

J.Manolini                   22 second PB and season best

 J.Sharp                        26 second PB and season best

 M.Niutta                     18 second PB and season best

S.Boyd                         2 minute 11 second PB and season best

W.Ngo                        1 second season best

 H.Collins                     39 second PB and season best

Next week the boys are up against Wesley in an away competition but also the final event of the home and away races before they move into the All-School races. In this time they will have a number of sessions to get through that will continue to develop their mindsets and racing fitness.

I look forward to seeing the boys at Monday’s tempo run.