THE Wanganui Collegiate track and field team, who are in a rebuilding phase following the heady results in 2014, returned from the New Zealand Schools Track and Field and Road Race Championships in Timaru with 11 team or individual medals.
The medal rush started early on Day 2 on Sunday around the road circuit at Caroline Bay when Caitlyn Alabaster, having led most of the 3000 metre Year 9 race, held on to second over the final stages to lead her team to gold in the 3 to score team event. The team consolidated the team win at the New Zealand Schools Cross Country in June. The win in Timaru rounded off an outstanding year for the girls having won the Junior Team of the year at the Wanganui Secondary Schools Sports Awards in October. Sophie Redmayne finished 10th with the third runner Libby Abbott only three places in arrears in 13th place.
Less than an hour later New Zealand Schools Cross Country team representative Jane Lennox won bronze in the Senior Road Race to lead her team of Jazmin Phillips and Ruby Redmayne to a surprise win in the three score event. Lennox was named in the New Zealand Schools paper team for Road Running and the travel grant that comes with it will be of considerable value for Lennox who travels to Hungary in April to compete in the ISF World Schools Cross Country.
Meanwhile, at the stadium Opetini Dryden secured silver in his debut Senior schools Javelin. Dryden who took bronze last year in Wanganui in the junior event. Dryden added over three metres to his previous best with a throw of 55.23metres. He in fact recorded four throws in excess of his previous events in an outstanding series. Collegiate-based Coach Richard Drabczynski must have had mixed feelings as Dryden led until the final round to be beaten by last year's junior champions Aiden Smith from Palmerston North Boys High School as Smith is also Drabczynski coached. Both athletes were included in the New Zealand Schools Track and Field paper team.
Once again Wanganui Collegiate had some outstanding relay results. The Junior Girls 4 x 100 team made a series of slick changes to win the title with their best performance of 50.83 seconds. The team of Olivia Seymour, Jordan Hume, Kate Tylee and Grace Godfrey were delighted with their efforts which was faster than the winners at Cooks Gardens last year and was also a few hundredths of a second faster than their senior team who finished sixth in their final to also record their best time. Three of the four juniors with Sophie Redmayne (Kate Tylee only running the shorter relay) stepped on the track 30 minutes later to finish just out of the medals in fourth position.