Interschool Cross Country

A strong group of student runners qualified to represent MCC at the recent School Sports Victoria Sunraysia cross country event.  Mr Jackson took them along and he shares his observations below.

Primaries

A strong and vocal crowd of family members witnessed four Mildura Christian College students deliver our best ever inter-school cross country results, including two age champions. Competing in the Sunraysia South division against students from as far away as Werrimul, Ouyen, Tempy, Underbool and Murrayville, as well as against local rivals from Cardross, Koorlong and several Red Cliffs schools, our runners gave the excited supporters plenty to celebrate. 

Mason Janetski, Clark Jackson and Lily Dodd ran in the 9/10 year old category. Mason made a sensible and disciplined start before taking the lead about halfway into the race. He then relentlessly increased his advantage and claimed victory by a sizeable margin. Clark battled in the midfield and produced a solid run to finish eighth. In the girls' category, Lily traded places several times with the top runners, eventually claiming a commendable third position.

Our lone representative in the 12+ year old section, Andrew Skillicorn, sent his challenge early, taking the lead before the runners left the oval. He came under increasing pressure during the last kilometre from Rajdeep Gill of St Joseph’s who closed to within eight seconds of the leader, but he withstood the test and completed the second MCC victory of the day.

Because they each finished in the top twelve places, all of our primary runners qualified for the Loddon Mallee Regional finals to be held on Tuesday, June 1st at the hilly track in St Arnaud.

Secondaries

After missing a year of cross country competition due to COVID-19, two secondary school runners represented MCC at the Sunraysia Secondary division finals. Running in the 12/13 year old girls division, Leisi Kirirua-Gill made a cracking start and pressed with the lead group for the first two kilometres before settling into the midfield and eventually finishing in 20th place.

A frenetic start to the 12/13 year boys race saw Andrew Foley clinging to the back of the field of over 80 runners. He then made steady progress throughout the race, overtaking several runners to finish 26th.

Congratulations to all of our students who represented MCC in this years’ division cross country finals.

Results

9/10 Boys   -  1st Mason Janetski    -    8th Clark Jackson

9/10 Girls    -  3rd Lily Dodd

12+ Boys     -    1st  Andrew Skillicorn

Secondaries

12/13 Girls   -  20th  Leisi Kirirua-Gill

12/13 Boys   -  26th  Andrew Foley