CROSS COUNTRY STATE FINALS

SCHOOL SPORTS VICTORIA

On Thursday 16 July, five students from Lilydale High School competed in the School Sports Victoria Cross Country State Finals. 

On a typical day at Bundoora Park the athletes were on the receiving end of a pretty tough head wind up the main hill, but were fortunate to miss the harsh storms encountered in previous years. 

Our first runners for the day were Georgia Laven and Ruby Dixon in the Under 13 girls’ race. Both girls burst out of the pack at the beginning, leading the race from start to finish. Georgia lead by 100m from early in the race with Ruby a further 80m in front of the rest of the pack. Georgia and Ruby maintained their strong form all the way through to take out 1st and 2nd respectively. Both girls had also previously qualified for the state representative team to compete at the Australian Cross Country Championships to be held at Moonee Ponds racecourse later this year. 

Lily Thompson competed in the Under 15 girls’ race. Lily had a great start, running in the front pack of 12 for the first kilometre. Towards the end of the race as the pace quickened, Lily fell off the back of the pack coming through in 11th. This is Lily’s best performance for Lilydale High School and she should be very proud of her efforts. 

James Laven competed well in the Under 15 boys’ race, catching the front pack after a difficult start. James once again improved on the quality of his performance from previous years, but unfortunately was only able to finish 4th after a big sprint finish. James and the boy who finished third ran the last kilometre shoulder to shoulder and their competition allowed them to gain 80m on the boy in 2nd, with the three of them only being separated by about 5 meters at the finish line. James will be looking forward to the step up from 3km to 5km next year, which is a more preferable distance for James. James also qualified for the state team earlier this year to compete at the national championships later this year. 

Hayley Styles competed in the Under 16 girls’ race starting strong and sitting comfortably in the front half of the field. As usual Hayley saved her energy to the second half of the race, catching more than 15 places over the last kilometre. Hayley put in a great sprint finish and ended up finishing 37th in a strong field. 

Congratulations to all of our athletes who competed on the day and we look forward to having you all in Lilydale colours again in the up-coming athletics season. 

Michael Bourne