On Tuesday the Raroa Cross Country Team went to Harcourt Park up in Upper Hutt to compete at the Inter Intermediate Competition. They traveled knowing that this particular piece of silverware has been safe at Raroa for the entirety of the decade!

Everybody ran once, racing as hard as we could around a tiring 3 km course. With the nerves settling the team got themselves ready under the guidance of Mr Tilley and Mr Price. The Year 7 girls were off first. It was a blistering start, as green singlet after green singlet dashed out to the front. It is fair to say that the Year 7 girls dominated the race with placings of 2nd (Abbie Sutherland), 4th (Maia Suttie), 5th (Leonora Webb), 7th Rylee Adamson, 8th (Lucy Kemp), 10th Miya Jiang and 12th (Emily Fisher). The rest of the races had a lot to live up to. 

The Year 7 boys took off where the Year 7 girls left off. Flying starts created great results and some solid determination saw the Raroa boys climb the field. Connor Kemp got us our first win of the day with Echelon Topp (5th) and Theo Bray (9th) also runners in the top ten. 

When the Year 8 girls started, it was clear to see that the hard work at training had paid off. Ava Sutherland came in first with Scarlett Anderson hot on her heels in second. A fiery Molly Mills who was shaking off a cold came an impressive 14th. 

With just the Year 8 boys to go, the rest of the team got in behind with superb chants of ‘Raroa’  echoing across the track. The chants were rewarded as Raroa pulled off another 1-2 with James Wembridge leading Max Doherty to the line. Not too far behind was Connor Allison who finished 9th. 

After such a successful day, there was only going to be one winner, Raroa! Taking out the Inter Intermediate Trophy for the 9th consecutive year! Well done to 14 of our runners who have qualified for Regionals at Mackays Crossing later in the term: Abbie Sutherland, Maia Suttie, Leonora Webb, Rylee Adamson, Lucy Kemp, Miya Jiang, Connor Kemp, Echelon Topp, Theo Bray, Ava Sutherland, Scarlett Anderson, James Wembridge, Max Doherty and Connor Allison.