30/03/2011 - James Hargest College successfully defended its South Island Secondary Schools crown at the ILT Velodrome in Invercargill today, holding off strong challenges from Southland Girls and Boys High Schools to win the South Island Secondary Schools Track Cycling Championships.
James Hargest finished strongly in the afternoon after leading Southland Girls by a solitary point at the lunch break to take what was in the end a comfortable victory, finishing on 44 points with Southland Girls second on 31 and Southland Boys third on 17.
It was another good day out for the Haggerty boys with Liam dominating the Under 15 Boys competition, sweeping all three events easily while older brother Josh was also crowned South Island champion in the Under 17 Boys with two wins and a second. The Under 19 Mens title went the way of Marcel Baird who beat schoolmate Tom Beadle by just one point.
Meanwhile the girls’ competition was just as hard fought. Kate Dunlevy’s victory in the 1000 metre Scratch Race saw her win gold in the Under 19 Women from Georgia Timpany. James Hargest’s Jen Muhl stopped a Southland Girls clean sweep in the female medals by winning her three starts in the Under 17s while Southland and Girls High team-mates Mikayla Smith and Bronwyn Graham produced the closest finish of the day, with a count-back needed to award Smith the South Island gold medal.