APS Cross Country Championships Junior and Senior – 2021

Our Spartans did themselves proud at the 2021 APS Cross Country Championships held Wednesday 5 May at the Runaway Bay Sports Fields giving their best overall team performance in more than a decade. The weather was challenging with endless rain and chilly temperatures; exactly how a Cross Country event should be, muddy and wet!

The Senior Team Won the overall Team Percentage Trophy (first time since 2009) and we also finished fourth in the Aggregate points Trophy (only 3 points off third place). The Junior Team finished second in the overall Team Percentage Trophy and fourth in the Aggregate points Trophy. These results are a great indication that our Cross Country programme is improving well and, on the way up.

An overview of our Age Teams and best performed Spartans is as follows:

Juniors

• 12yrs Boys – TEAM 1st place. Aaron McQuaid 1st; Cooper Rana-Smith 4th; Austin Walters 7th; Michael Rossiter 14th
• 12yrs Girls – TEAM 4th place. Ruby Zerbst 8th; Molly Rogers 9th; Charlotte Hassett 15th; Nika Erasmus 28th
• 11yrs Boys – TEAM 7thplace. Jacob Moir 2nd; Liam Thornton 19th; Max Georgeson 34th; Liam Hartley 50th
• 11yrs Girls – TEAM 7th place. Jorja Grocott 3rd; Lava Lopez 13th; Abhilasha Sarmah 38th; Eliza Davenport 47th
• 10yrs Boys – TEAM 7th place. Lucas Deffenti 7th; Daniel Klaassen 28th; Sam Hosking 37th; Nicholas McMonagle 41st
• 10yrs Girls – TEAM 3rd place. Ella Carson 2nd; Kasia Pitura 4th; Emily Hanson 24th; Evie-May Coates 29th
• 9yrs Boys – TEAM 5th place. Max Bowden 8th; Paxton Stewart 17th; Danny Wang 19th; Oliver Ng 20th
• 9yrs Girls – TEAM 3rd place. Willow Truscott 8th; Ainsley Thornton 9th; Karissa TJ Wilson 13th; Shuri Baldock 14th

Seniors

• Open Boys – TEAM 4th place. Tim Hornsey 5th; Nicholas Tan 9th; Tom Halloran 36th
• Open Girls – TEAM 2nd place. Indie Seccombe 2nd; Starr Scott 3rd; Miku Adachi 5th; Jemma Clements 20th
• 16yrs Boys – TEAM 5th place. James Gell 3rd; Brad Shepherd 14th; Justin Hammett 16th; Phoenix Kyaw 21st
• 16yrs Girls – TEAM 6th place. Kobee Munro 7th; Georgina Littleton 25th; Atlanta Horan 26th; Allegra Liussi 30th
• 15yrs Boys – TEAM 5th place. William Warwick 5th; Kenny Ming 13th; Josh Cotton 21st; Luke Shirley 41st
• 15yrs Girls – TEAM 1st place. Aspen Anderson 1st; Alex Halloran 3rd; Milla Jansen 7th; Alice Jones 23rd
• 14yrs Boys – TEAM 1st place. Cru Scott 3rd; Ryan Hisco 5th; Heath Walker 12th; Michael Klaassen 18th
• 14yrs Girls – TEAM 4th place. Erin Shepherd 4th; Holly Hembling 7th; Roxy Brown 17th; Maya Pearse 21st
• 13yrs Boys – TEAM 4th place. Zac Moir 2nd; Darcy Halloran 8th; Nathan Gibson 31st; David Hammett 32nd
• 13yrs Girls – TEAM 2nd place. Georgie Zerbst 4th; Mya Currey 12th; Emma Warwick 17th; Ariana Ransfield 23rd

*All Spartans who placed in the Top 7 places will now continue onto the South Coast Cross Country Championships in a few weeks’ time.

Some of our Spartans were outstanding and in the Junior Squad our 12yrs Boys Won their Team event thanks to three top 10 placings and an excellent win from Aaron McQuaid (first), who ran the second half of the entire race with one shoe after losing the other one in the mud! Very impressive. Other placegetters in the Juniors – Ella Carson (second) ran a tough race; Jacob Moir (second) is a superb talent coming through and Jorja Grocott (third) continues to perform when it matters most. Special mention to Cooper Rana-Smith and Kasia Pitura for a couple of excellent (fourth) places.

For the Senior Squad our placegetters where the highly impressive and talented Aspen Anderson (first) who dominated her age group and seemed to just glide over the heavy track to victory. Indie Seccombe (second) and youngster Zac Moir (second) were equally impressive being beaten only by very high-level athletes; Starr Scott (third), James Gell (third), Cru Scott (third), Alex Halloran (third) all achieved podium finishes and this highlights the work they have all put into their consistent and disciplined training. Special mentions to Erin Shepherd (fourth), Georgie Zerbst (fourth), Miku Adachi (fifth), William Warwick (fifth) and Ryan Hisco (fifth) for some excellent performances and finishing in those valuable top five placings.

As Head Coach of the Cross Country and Athletics Teams it has been so great to work with these students in conjunction with our other coaching staff. I would like to especially thank Glauber Scattolini (Triathlon Coach) for being so accommodating and supportive of our programme, Glauber has worked hard to build up the Triathlon programme and this has become a great asset to our Cross Country Team. Also, a massive thank you to Natalie Nugent and Claire Walker for all their early morning coaching support to assist myself at every session and again on the day of competition, your support really makes such an important positive difference, thank you, I really appreciate the support! Thank you also to Kate Webb for organising and looking after the Junior Spartans throughout this journey, all of the Somerset staff who came out in the terrible weather to officiate and supervise the students and a big thank you to our amazing logistics staff, who do so much behind the scenes – setting up and removing all of our tents and equipment without us ever knowing they were there.

Lastly, a massive thankyou to all our fantastic students and their parents, for turning up to all the training sessions week in week out. We are really building a great team culture at Somerset College and we still have so many positive things to improve upon in the future.

Congratulations to everyone who participated on the day!

A further update, last weekend we had the Queensland Schools Cross Country Championships in Ipswich where seven of our Spartans competed. Aspen Anderson (15yrs) and Indie Seccombe (18yrs) both won their events and our now the Queensland State Cross Country Champions! Starr Scott (17yrs) placed fourth with another excellent performance. Congratulations to these athletes and all the Spartans who participated.