By Paul Dominikovich | Posted: Wednesday May 25, 2022
Ashbury Park hosted the annual races in perfect conditions on Tuesday, May 24th.
With the postponement of the school cross country the boys were untested which had some advantages as there were no preconceived rankings and everyone was starting the season together. All of the fields had numbers in the mid 20s and the top end, as always, was very strong in both boys and girls races..
The Year 9 boys completed 2 laps of the 1500m course with 3 person team victory the goal. Miles Hendriksen was first home for TBHS in 2nd place overall, Hamish Tilsey 4th and Caleb Turner 6th. Also performing strongly were Jack Houstoun in 11th and Quinn Pratt 13th. Ashburton caused us some concerns with a first and third place but they lacked the depth we had and 12 points was sufficient to win here.
The Juniors also ran 3000m over the challenging Ashbury loop. Payo O’Sullivan went out earlier and looked unstoppable claiming an individual Aoraki title. Johnson Cleland placed 5th and with Ben Allan 6th it was a comfortable team victory. This is an exciting grade for the school with excellent depth. Ryan Bell 10, Jonty Porter 11, Mac Brown 12th and Lewis Taylor 13th were all pushing for places in the team and will make this grade exciting at Nationals where it is six to score. Also running well were Lachlan Crawford (15th), Ashton Bennett (16th) and Nashoba Mehlhopt (18th).
TBHS was too strong in the 4500m Senior race. Malachy Cleland and Tom Allan ran the first half of the race together and it was Malachy that made his move and held off Tom to take the individual crown. Tom was a clear second and Josh Young tried desperately to sweep the podium but had to settle for 4th with William Talbot 9th to complete a very successful Aoraki Championships for the TBHS Cross Country Team.
