Sport
4 April, 2022
School cross country success
TO celebrate the final week of school for Term 1, students from schools across the Atherton Tablelands hit the track to compete in their annual cross country.
Mareeba State School, Mareeba High School, Julatten State School and Ravenshoe State School were four of the schools competing, with students pushing themselves to get over the finish line.
For Mareeba State School, there was a huge excitement for Granite sports house, yet again showing their team spirit, stamina and taking home the gold once again.
Expressing his absolute pride for every student who participated, Health and Physical Education teacher Daniel Samanes said it was a testimony to the kids training.
“They practiced hard during physical education lessons working on their cardiovascular endurance, and preparing themselves mentally, discussing strategies such as pacing themselves, sprinting near the finish line, good sleep habits, healthy eating and outside of school hours training during lessons,” he said.
“These preparations were well rewarded as the weather on the day was beautiful and students were very excited with lots of coloured hair and zinc allowing everyone to get into their team spirit.”
Julatten State School saw the small school gathering to do the big race last Wednesday, with students competing against their friends to make it to the finish line.
Acting Principal Sarah Mason said that although they do not award aged champions, she saw some exceptional sportsmanship and school pride throughout the day.
Gregory house from Mareeba State High School finally, after almost 15 years of third and last place, took home the trophy, leaving a lot of past and present students in shock.
This year, junior aged champions that were recognised were Deacan Williams and Lene Mukadi for 12 years, Colin Walsh and Lani Wenborn for 13 years and Azroum Lucas and Raychelle Srhoj for 14 years.
For the senior aged champions, 15 years Steven Young and Estella Sibthorpe ran at record pace as did 16 years Warome Gutchen and Amber and open runners Dom Haggarty and Shae Crooks.
In Ravenshoe, the newly introduced nine-year-old records went to Eliana Gigliotti (11 minutes and 16 seconds) and Harrison Brown (11 minutes and 15 seconds).
Marco DeFaveri broke the open boys record by a whopping two minutes, setting the new record of 26 minutes and 19 seconds and Kaiya Astle continued her record- breaking performance by setting the new 12-year girls record to 16 minutes and 57 seconds.
At the end of the day there could only be one winner which was Archer house with 273 points, followed closely by the Cedar house with 216 points.
The top five competing students aged 12 and up will be competing at the Tablelands District Cross Country in Yungaburra next month.
