This year marked the second running of our Secondary School version of the Corporate Pursuit, in team sprint format. As with last year, the aim of the competition was for all competitors to experience a fun day of inter-school teams racings, enjoy a taste of competitive racing in a fun and un-daunting setting, while also, of course, vying to win the trophies on offer, this year for the Schools with the best Senior Girls, Junior Boys, Junior Girls and Mixed teams.
The competition started with a grading time trial – each team on their own against the clock, with the fastest four teams heading straight through to the ¼ finals, and the rest fighting it out in the 1st round for a place in the quarters.
Some impressive times were posted in the grading round, with the fastest four teams eventually decided: the James Hargest Dreamers (Tom Sexton, Matt Nunn and Bradley Jenner) posting a smoking fast 59.857 for their three laps; the Southland Girls’ High School ‘Rekkers’ (Emma Cumming, Kendall Kilpatrick and Rianna Maxwell) in a slick 1.01.818; the James Hargest Junior Boys (Jeremy Evans, Sam Hole, and Ben Folster) with 1.04.125; and the SGHS Senior 1 (Bronwyn Graham, Lucy Timpany and Madison Duncan) with 1.04.193. These four teams earned their right to sit out a round while everyone else readied themselves for the 1st round …
So on to the 1st round we went, with the Northern Southland Extremes (Nikolai Whelan, Rachael Beer and Jack Beaumont) winning their way through to earn a race against the speedy Hargest Dreamers in the Quarter Finals; the Hargest Sweet Dreams (Hamish Beadle, Alex Doyle Franklin, Leigh Sanson) earned the right to compete in the quarter finals against the Hargest Junior Boys, the SGHS Junior 1 (Tayla Lumsden, Emma McLeod and Lucy Dawkes) pipped their older school mates in the SGHS Senior 2 team (Sheree Horne, Anna McCracken and Reeny Souness) to earn themselves a race against the SGHS Senior 1 Team in the Quarter Finals. The James Hargest Young Guns (Emily Paterson, Madeline Gough and Hunter Gough) also rode fantastically to match themselves up with the SGHS Rekkers in the Quarters.
Those who lost in this first round went through to Division 3, to race for 9th – 12th in the competition. In that competition, the SGHS Junior 2 (Brooke Hargest, Hannah Witheford and Petra Hartley)
pipped the SGHS Mavatrons (Victoria Baldwin, Madison Miller and Aly Doherty) to head through to the final against the SGHS Senior 2, who had earlier beaten the Northern Southland Flyers (Sophie Sangster, Shabin Khattri Chattri, Alan Wilson-Woodford) in the Division 3 Semi Finals. This saw the SGHS Mavatrons vs the Northern Southland Flyers in the 11th & 12th final, with the continually improving Flyers taking 11th place over a gutsy Mavatrons team. Good work girls and guys!
The ¼ finals saw the Hargest Dreamers through to the Semi Finals, along with the Hargest Junior Boys, the SGHS Senior 1 and the Southland Girl’s High Rekkers. Those knocked out in the ¼ finals went through into the Division 2 Competition, with the Northern Southland Extremes pipping first the Hargest Sweet Dreams Team, then the Hargest Young Guns (who had beaten the SGHS Junior 1) to take out the Division 2 Final and 5th overall, as well as the Mixed Teams Trophy. Awesome stuff! The Hargest Young Guns had a successful day, ending up 6th overall which is a great result for a young team.
In the 7th/8th final, the SGHS Junior 1 capped off a great day to take the Junior Girls Trophy, and 7th overall, with Hargest Sweet Dreams finishing off 8th overall, a smoking last lap from Hamish Beadle not quite enough to pip the Girl’s High rockets!
Back to Division 1, and it was the Hargest Dreamers continuing their clean sweep of the day, beating the Hargest Junior Boys in the semi-finals to earn a place in the final against the SGHS Rekkers who had in turn pipped the Hargest Young Guns and then their compatriots, the SGHS Senior 1 for their place in the final. This left the Hargest Junior Boys and the SGHS Senior 1 to fight it out for the bronze, with the Hargest Boys holding out the girls to take the win. Some really impressive riding from some up and coming champions!
The big final of the day was here, and the overall win was to be decided between the SGHS Rekkers and the Hargest Dreamers. It was all on with two very evenly matched teams, and the question remained as to how well everyone’s legs had coped with the tough racing in the preceding rounds. Kendall Kilpatrick and Bradley Jenner blasted their respective teams off to a flying start, it was very even after lap 1, with Rianna Maxwell and Matt Nunn taking over for Lap 2. Coming into the final lap, it was always going to be a tough call for a very speedy Emma Cumming to take on an inform Tom Sexton, and indeed it was Sexton who rounded out the win for the Hargest Dreamers with an excellent last lap, with Cumming fighting gallantly right to the end to finish an impressive day of racing.
To round out the day, an All-Comers record attempt was made, with Hamish Beadle, Tom Sexton and Brayden Stephens posting an incredibly impressive 52.622. A good bench mark for next year’s competition!
A huge congratulations to everyone who took part in the competition and thank you to all teachers, parents and supporters for your assistance and encouragement which helped make the day a success. We are looking forward to making it bigger and better next year!
Finally, an enormous thank you to all the volunteers who came down to help out for the day – we couldn’t have done it without you all and your time was hugely appreciated!
Results:
Junior Girls
1 Southland Girls’ High School Junior 1 (Tayla Lumsden, Emma McLeod, Lucy Dawkes)
2 Southland Girls’ High School Junior 2 (Brooke Hargest, Hannah Witheford, Petra Hartley)
Junior Boys
1 James Hargest College Dreamers (Tom Sexton, Matt Nunn, Bradley Jenner)
2 James Hargest College Junior Boys (Ben Folster, Sam Hole, Jeremy Evans)
Senior Girls
1 Southland Girls’ High School Rekkers (Emma Cumming, Kendall Kilpatrick, Rianna Maxwell)
2 Southland Girls’ High School Senior 1 (Bronwyn Graham, Madison Duncan, Lucy Timpany)
3 Southland Girl’s High School Senior 2 (Sheree Horne, Anna McCracken, Reeny Souness)
4 Southland Girls’ High School Mavatrons (Victoria Baldwin, Madison Miller, Aly Doherty)
Mixed Teams
1 Northern Southland Extremes Nikolai Whelan, Rachael Beer, Jack Beaumont)
2 James Hargest College Young Guns (Maddy Gough, Hunter Gough, Emily Paterson)
3 James Hargest College Sweet Dreams (Hamish Beadle, Alex Doyle Franklin, Leigh Sanson)
4 Northern Southland Flyers (Sophie Sangster, Shabin Khattri Chattri, Alan Wilson-Woodford)
Overall
1 James Hargest College Dreamers
2 Southland Girls’ High School Rekkers
3 James Hargest College Junior Boys
4 Southland Girls’ High School Senior 1
5 Northern Southland Extremes
6 James Hargest College Young Guns
7 Southland Girls’ High School Junior 1
8 James Hargest College Sweet Dreams
9 Southland Girls’ High School Senior 2
10 Southland Girls’ High School Junior 2
11 Northern Southland Flyers
12 Southland Girls' High School Mavatrons