The schedule clashed with the major Collegiate sports exchange against the New Plymouth Boys' and Girls' High Schools in Taranaki which meant fewer Collegiate teams competed in Wellington than in recent years, and those that did run were not at full strength.
Nonetheless, the results were encouraging.
The senior girls finished second behind Wellington Girls' College.
Alice Bird started and produced Collegiate's fastest female time - 7m 33s - to be third.
Megan Mackay (7m 55s) took the team into first place and handed on to club captain Kitty Cleary.
Cleary fell on the hill section, resulting in Wellington Girls' moving into the lead.
Jane Lennox, promoted from the Intermediate team, ran well to hold second in the anchor leg (7m 51s), which was probably the fastest under-16 leg of the day. This will give every encouragement to Lennox, who is hoping to better her 12th place from last year in the junior race at New Zealand Schools, being held in Palmerston North.
The senior boys grade included two of the favourites for a team podium finish at New Zealand Schools next month in Scots College and Wellington College.
The race was won by Scots, after an epic struggle with Wellington.
Collegiate finished fourth, only metres behind St Pats College Kilbirnie after the six-lap race of the 2000m course.
The depth required to field a team of six with athletes unavailable made the task harder, although the Collegiate contingent can take comfort from the fact they led at the halfway stage, having run the strongest three first.
Christian Conder had been second at the end of the first lap (6m 21s), Luke Gemmell ran a sensible leg to put Collegiate into the lead (6m 42s) and Louis Hogan had his best run in Collegiate colours to hold off the challenge from Scots and Wellington College (7m).
The challenge will be to find support runners for these three during the targeted three-to-score at the New Zealand Schools Championships in Dunedin next month.
The intermediate team of Mia Gemmell (8m 24s), Libby Abbott (8m 37s), Rebecca Brown (9m 43s) and Brittney Matthews (8m 53s) can take considerable credit for finishing second of the 18 teams competing. The team was made up of juniors and Year 9s not playing against New Plymouth, so they will have gained considerable encouragement as they challenge for team places next month.
Attention turns to championship running, starting with Wanganui Schools in Ohakune on May 21.
It is hoped our metropolitan schools support this event in the manner that hosts Ruapehu College have supported events in Wanganui.
The championships provide valuable competition for athletes targeting the New Zealand Schools event next month.
