Cross Country Report
St Ignatius’ College Invitation
Riverview
Saturday 30 July 2022
GPS vs CAS Cross Country 2022
It was so lovely to have a nice sunny Saturday last week – they have been rare lately! St Ignatius’ College hosted their annual Invitation on their grounds which incorporated the annual GPS vs CAS clash. It was a great day of racing in Lane Cove. Conditions were still heavy underfoot and the course was a surprise to even those Cross Country fossils who have been around for years. Even the start line took some finding tucked up behind the pool.
In another first, the Opens runners were first to race. I’m led to believe it was so the Year 12 boys could go home and study for their trials, hmmm … I’m not convinced the day was used that pragmatically! However, the highlight of the day for me, other than the fine racing we all witnessed from our various vantage spots, was the spirit in which the boys wore their red and yellow armbands (the colours of the Surf Life Saving community) in support of their beloved teacher, our colleague and friend, Mr Nigel Scozzi. So many of them shared anecdotes of time in class with Nigel as he inspired them with his love of Geography, his students and Shore. As Dr Collier wrote recently in a letter to the Shore Community, quoting Rod West, “The heart of education, is education of the heart.” It is moments like this, that we are reminded that this could not be more true. Very proud!
Cam Burnett, Lachy Brown and Myles Kinchington donned their GPS kit as members of the GPS team and took to the course with their GPS team mates and Shore brothers promptly at 9.00am. Racing was hot up front and the boys clung to the leaders as best they could, with Lachy never too far back, though probably not having his best day out as he finished 9th. He was pleasingly the 4th member of the GPS team to finish. Cam didn’t look particularly well prior to the start, yet he clung valiantly to a solid 16th spot overall. He suggested he was feeling a bit crook after the race. Myles was having a solid race until an inexperienced marshal sent him home one lap early and he had to about face, losing a good 300m or so in the diversion, not good! Yet he re-joined the race with good grace, yet frustrated, and tenaciously finished 31st. James Bestic had another fine race and seemed to relish running with the big boys as he was the 3rd Shore runner home in an excellent 18th. Matt Hogg was 25th as he slipped past Myles due to his diversion … Matt commenting, “Myles was about 50m ahead of me, then he just disappeared.” Matt rounded out the Shore team result on the day, coming in 25th place which secured them the win! The Shore-heavy GPS team also prevailed over the CAS; 16 to 22, which was the lowest cumulative winning. Nice!
We were just able to scrape a team together of Juniors who were next to race. For the first time the GPS also raced the CAS in the underage age divisions. Unfortunately, the CAS went on to win both. The GPS and Shore were represented by Fraser Pandit in their teams and he had a fine run, as always, ending up 12th. The GPS missed Hugo Stewart as his hip flexor niggle just won’t go away and he couldn’t race. It was so good to see Benjamin Frantz be able to join us and I do feel he could be a Cross Country star of the future as he was our second runner home, followed by Loki Lam and Don Jackson. I admired the tenacity of these blokes on a tough course.
The Intermediates were last to race, and we were thin on the ground; Jesse Cochrane and Lachlan Martin – a team of two. Jesse still not 100% but ran well to be 20th and Lachlan was his usual stoic self as he was 47th. Needless to say, we didn’t trouble the scorers …
We look forward to hosting our brother GPS schools tomorrow at Sydney Park for the Shore Cross Country 2022. We also take this opportunity to wish our CAS Cross Country friends all the best for their Championships.
Good running,
Mr M. J. Spratt
MIC, Cross Country
Top Image Credit: Shore Cross Country ‘spaghetti arms’ proudly supporting Mr Scozzi.
