Somersfield Runners Impress at BSSF Senior Cross Country Championship
Tuesday, February 4 — It was a stunning day at the arboretum yesterday as Somersfield had eighteen athletes competing in the senior school BSSF cross country championship. The athletes would have to complete three or four laps of the beautiful park, including ascending the infamous "Kilimanjaro" hill on each lap.
The first race was the U16 girls: Leyla Crews, Lola Reape, Hayleigh Cherry, Simone Sainsbury and Adriana DeCouto. After the first lap, Leyla was among the top fifteen runners, however after the second lap it was clear that Leyla's pacing strategy was being executed to perfection as she had jumped up to third. Leyla held on to this position for the rest of the race and finished just fourteen seconds behind first in a time or 14:36. We were particularly proud of M5s Simone Sainsbury and Adriana DeCouto who represented Somersfield in inter school sports for the first time in a long time.
Up next were the U16 boys: Thomas Garnier, Ryan Green, Daniel Mildenhall, Rogan Cabral, Louis Manning, Axel Wideman, and Ben Troskie. None of these boys are running specialists, however they all put in a performance to be proud of, with Ryan Green and Louis Manning leading the way.
In the O16 girls, Carina Bortoli was Somersfield's sole representative. Fresh off a victory in the front street mile, Carina was in the lead pack of three after the first lap. Over the next three laps, Carina emerged clearly in second place and held on for the rest of the race to finish in a time of 14:40.
The final race was the O16 boys, who had to run four laps instead of just three: Luc Campbell, Marc Rajeh, Masaki Kitade, Somers Pitt, and Roman Jones. Luc Campbell led the way with a sixth place finish in a time of 19:06. Masaki and Marc were also in strong positions; however Masaki was slowed by a hamstring injury sustained halfway through the race. Roman Jones said he enjoyed the run; however he is looking forward to inter-school track and field and sports day where he can compete in his preferred distances of 100m and 200m.
Thank you to cross country coach Vivienne Lochhead for all of the time and passion she has put in this year to prepare our athletes for the event.
