East Coast North Island Secondary School Cross Country 2005.
This annual event, held at the Gisborne Show Grounds, involved secondary schools from as far as Central Hawke's Bay College to Gisborne Boys High School.
With over 200 runners competing in this trialing event, competition was fierce.
Hawke's Bay secondary schools dominated, winning all six races.
And it is perhaps the first time that one school has collected all the individual, three-person and six-person boys titles on offer in the ECNISS Cross Country.
In the Junior 3km race, Napier Boys High School's Jay Mason lead from the start, showing real talent in winning by at least 100 metres in a time of 10.36. Third home was Fergus Neil with a gutsy run following a period of sickness. Scott Mogford was fourth and this gave Napier an easy win in the three-man team event. They were joined by Luke Tomalin, Alex Oliver Burton and Kieran Scheele to take out the six-man title.
In the Junior 4km race there was a real upset. Napier's Cameron Poole-Smith was first, in a time of 13.25, beating two runners who had placed at North Island Athletics. His teammate Michael Sullivan ran equally well to place third. Bronson Meehan was fifth and that was good enough to take out the three-person team event by a big margin. They were joined by Luke Aitken, Eric Sandtmann and Stewart McGregor to win the six-man title.
In the Senior 6km race, Daniel Wallis won from Steven Smith, both runners breaking 20 minutes. Daniel's time was 19.40. There was a minute gap to the third-placed athlete. Ryan Smith finished sixth to give Napier the three-man team event. Ryan Wiggins (better known as a sprinter), Royden Lee and Hogan Green all ran well to gain the six-man title.
First runner to record a win at the championships was Stacey Kennedy from Havelock North High School in the Year 9 Girls race. This was followed by Jay Mason of Napier Boys High School winning the Year 9 Boys.
These wins started the ball rolling for Napier Boys High School, which had an extremely successful day.
The Junior Girls and Junior Boys races were both hotly-contested. Laura Mohi took on fellow Hastings Girls High School student Katie Harris and proved too strong with a good win in a time of 11 minutes, 31 seconds.
The Boys race provided the finish of the day with a strong group leading until the final stretch. Cameron Poole-Smith from Napier Boys High School finished well to take the win, with Scott McDonald from Karamu High School close on his heels only a second behind.
The Senior races were more clear cut with Ashley Aitken from Taradale High School taking a solid lead and winning by nearly a minute ahead of her next rival.
Daniel Wallis from Napier Boys High continued his impressive run of form, winning in 19 minutes, 40 seconds. Overall this was a fantastic event that highlighted the hard work the sport co-ordinators, teachers and coaches had put in.
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