Alabaster headed Baker on the track over 3000m but lost out in the cross country and 1500 metres. Both athletes have the ability to do well although Year 9 fields are especially hard to predict.
Emma Rainey might be better known as a hockey player but is also an able runner and has the credentials to do well in the senior girls. Travis Bayler and Sam Luff, who finished 4th and 5th respectively at Wanganui Schools, start in the Year 9 boys race.
The large Collegiate group have teams running in each of the six grades with three to score teams in the junior and Year 9 boys and three and six to score teams in the other four grades. It is this team element that has generated the interest and size of the team. This will be true for many schools including those who will hotly contest the competitive senior grades.
In the senior girls, Collegiate have 10 runners and rivals St Cuthberts have seven, Tauranga girls and St Hilda's have eight and St Peters, managed by former Wanganui athlete Jess Sloan, have nine.
Additional runners add to competition within the team to place in the scoring six and with it, win a potential medal. The others, unlike team sports where a reserve might get a few minutes off the bench, are able to play a full part in the competition. They are able to upset the normal pecking order and at the same time push opposition, scoring six athletes, back down the field and give assistance to their own team.
Christian Conder, who won the Under 18 grade at the Dorne Cup in Wellington last Saturday, leads a strong Collegiate senior boys team. He was third across the line on Saturday in the combined Under 18/Under 20 race, with only one school-aged athlete ahead of him. Conder appears in the Athletics New Zealand preview and has a realistic chance of winning a coveted top 10 diploma. He will be chasing a top 12 position and with it the opportunity to run for New Zealand schools in Australia later in the winter.
The group of 23 Collegiate girls (the largest girls contingent competing at the championships) is headed by Alice Bird who had a dream race last year to finish 10th in her senior debut, gaining her a place in the New Zealand Secondary Schools team that competed in Western Australia. Last year's demanding course suited the lightly built Bird and she had the added advantage of being an unknown athlete. Her recent training and performances at the Wanganui and Collegiate championships show that she is in good form and her performance will be vital to the team effort.
Last year, the Collegiate senior girls surprised themselves and others by finishing second in the three and six to score events. All are back this year but it is clear that there is stronger opposition. Jane Lennox has moved up from the juniors to bolster the team and this promising junior winner from Wanganui schools relishes the longer race and tough conditions.
The other strong Collegiate team group is in the Year 9 girls where the school has, on five previous occasions, gained medals. The grade, as indicated earlier, is hard to predict because the quality of the competitors is unknown. Collegiate will be fielding seven athletes, a high proportion of the 23 girls in the school eligible for the grade.
Next week I will report on the championships.
