Educare Whangārei adventure racing team looking for Hillary Challenge glory

WARTS on a mission. From left: Adyn Dudley, Johnny Wilson, Lochie Espiner, Mia Gordon, Blake Williamson, Lucas Thompson, kneeling: Alysha Donovan and Jemma Petty. Photo / Supplied

Eight Whangārei high school students will take on one of the toughest physical and mental challenges in adventure racing: the Torpedo7 Hillary Challenge.

Made up of students from Whangārei Girls' High School and Whangārei Boys' High School, the WARTS (Whangārei adventure racing team) leave today for the Tongariro-based event which starts on Monday and ends on Friday.

The team included an even split of boys (Lochiel Espiner, Lucas Thompson, Blake Williamson and Johnny Wilson) and girls (Mia Gordon, Alysha Donovan, Jemma Petty and Adyn Dudley).

Sponsored by Educare and other local businesses, the WARTS have been training over 10 hours a week since before the start of the year with top of the line gear in preparation for the challenge.

The competition is contested by 12 teams from schools across the country who had qualified in prior competitions. The teams would be scored on their skill, speed and endurance during a series of outdoor adventure challenges, including a two-day rogaine-style wilderness expedition and a multisport race on the final day.

The exact details of all challenges will be kept secret until the event. The WARTS came second last year and with six new members in the team this year, the determination to win was clear.

"I reckon we've got a good chance of winning, or coming top three," team captain Lochiel Espiner said.

"We didn't really set goals about it, we just kept doing the training and preparation for it but deep down everyone wants to win it."

Only two of the current team were involved in last year's close loss to the team from New Plymouth Boys' and Girls' High Schools. However, nearly all members remembered a bitterly narrow loss to a team from the same schools when they competed in the junior version of this competition.

"If we could pick one team as rivals, it would be them because we are always head-to-head in the competitions we do," Espiner said.

All members of the team performed a role throughout the challenge such as timekeeper, food and water provider and leader. Alysha Donovan and Adyn Dudley, who would perform the roles of motivator and back-up navigator respectively, said it was the little things like a change of food which could heighten any dampened spirits.

"We all like fruit and stuff, we are big cucumber fans," Donovan said.

"A cucumber is quite refreshing, after a day of eating nuts and dry food, getting a cucumber is quite exciting," Dudley said.

Year 13 student Johnny Wilson was in his second year of the senior Hillary Challenge competition and said the extreme physical and mental exhaustion was something you had to accept to get through the week.

"It's only for a week so you just have to grit your teeth, bear down and do it," Wilson said.

Wilson, who will be the navigator, said it was important to understand your team members and assess their energy levels.

"It's just about having the mind frame that it switches so you might have lots of energy at one point, and then you might go through a massive low and you need help."

Even though the Hillary Challenge was centred around pushing contestants to their physical and mental limits, Wilson said it had a lot more benefits which athletes didn't get from playing other sports.

"You do all this training and when you're finding stuff hard at school, you know you'll find a way through it because you can in this race which is 100 times harder."

The WARTS' progress can be tracked via the Hillary Challenge Facebook page.

Teams to compete in Hillary Outdoors 2019:

Whangārei Girls' High School/Whangārei Boys' High School (Whangārei)

New Plymouth Girls' High School/New Plymouth Boys' High School (Taranaki)

Motueka High School (Motueka)

Cambridge High School (Cambridge)

St Paul's Collegiate School (Hamilton)

Macleans College (Auckland)

Westlake Girls' High School/Westlake Boys' High School (Auckland)

Middleton Grange School (Christchurch)

Golden Bay High School (Golden Bay)

Cashmere High School (Christchurch)

Francis Douglas Memorial College/Sacred Heart Girls' College (Taranaki)

Waimea College (Nelson)