Cross Country Sport
T
his was a year of enormous achievements, I will list them as well as I can as my head is still spinning! Every athlete’s individual improvement at the back or the middle of the field involved exactly the same process of overcoming fear and limitations as if it was at Phil Jurjevich the World Championships Senior Cross Country Coach and every runner’s striving was as significant as the efforts in Europe. There is a powerful message in this team’s achievements and it’s there for all in the team. This year we were undefeated and backed up last year’s title as PSA Champions in both the Senior and Middle School teams. John Taylor has been an essential addition to the team, bringing an even greater level of professionalism and Geoff Jamieson continued to dominate the Middle School competition for the fourth consecutive year. During the season we did a great deal and the attitude of our runners was exceptional: •
We held a Cross Country Camp to Denmark, running several sections of the Bibbulmun track and enjoyed fine food (thanks to Mr McLaughlan), great views and hard running. We also held combined training sessions with Iona Presentation College and they joined in with one of our home fixtures.
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We were once again the State Champion school with the following runners offered places in the State team: Ken Duggan, Aaron Gregory, Eamonn Costello, Josh Nicholas, Chris Dale, Jack Dewsbury, Oliver Hopkins, Michael Ferrinda and Josh Hicks, with Terry Price representing WA at the Pan Pacific Games.
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We represented Australia at the World Schools Cross Country Championships in the Czech Republic after winning the National title and selection in 2007. Geoff Jamieson and myself were the coaches and Eamonn Costello, Josh Nicholas,
Aaron Gregory, Nick Lee, Ken Duggan and Josh Hicks represented Australia and placed sixth out of 32 teams, the equal highest place Australia has ever achieved at this event. Josh Hicks achieved a time that placed him 20th at the event out of over 190 runners. Our runners represented the College, the State and the country with Trinity Spirit! Tim Pitcher, Chris Dale, Mike Radice, Nick McKenna, Jack and Dylan Dewsbury and Sam O’Connell all trained on, providing reserves and competition. The generosity of the Trinity community was enormous in supporting our fundraising with a luncheon to name the Top 10 Endurance Athletes in the history of the College and an assault on the AFL clubs’ beep test records (with Chris Dale recording a 16.3). Past students playing AFL, Luke Webster (‘99) and Andrew Embley (‘98), helped with the media promotion of our fundraising and an Elizabeth Durack painting was donated as a raffle prize from the Costello family. The families of the runners, the rowing community, the broader College community and the Old Boys’ network made enormous efforts to assist the trip. The cultural experiences and acquaintances made will stay with our runners and they all came home with new friends from across the globe. For the record, the Top Ten Endurance Athletes (over 400m events) were: Ben Cureton (‘98 – rowing), Stefan Szczurowski (‘99 – rowing), Travis Nederpelt (‘03 – swimming), Henk Vogels (‘90 – junior cycling), Nick Ward (‘87), John O’Connell (‘49), Herb Elliott (‘54), John Steffensen (‘99), John Goodman (‘55) and Stephen Spiers (‘85 – all athletics). In this group of heroes of the College, Stephen Spiers was a major supporter of the team. It is ironic (and none were happier to see it than him) that Stephen’s 28 year Open 1500m record was broken by Josh Hicks in the PSA Athletics. Josh’s time of 4.02 was 2 seconds off an Australian team track qualifier and had stood beyond the time of Herb Elliott, John Steffensen and the names listed above. This was an exceptional year and I would like to thank our Captain Matt Watson and our Vice Captains James Ambrogio and Aaron Gregory as well as the following people for their help: Geoff Jamieson, John Taylor, Roland Nelson, Peter O’Connell, Steve Leahy, my family and the army of Old Boys who continue to turn up for our crunch fixtures and line the Aquinas and Scotch bush tracks. We have a goal to have Trinity runners competing at the Olympics – it’s not far off! I would like to be sitting on a jumbo to London with everyone mentioned here. As Josh Hicks remembered in his speech, everyone said “don’t even try, you will never beat the older runners from the East” – we did! There is a message there. Phil Jurjevich Senior Cross Country Coach
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