Cross country serves up healthy competition and downtime

Cross country results by age group and a gallery of images are included at the end of this article.

Students sprinted, jogged and walked the Martin Bend trail at Berri for cross country.

Cool, overcast conditions created the ideal weather for completing the 2.5km wetland course on Wednesday, Week 2.

The fastest time for the boys was recorded by Logan for Deakin, crossing the finish line at 8:59.

The fastest time for the girls was recorded by Isabelle for Parkes, in 10:08.

Deakin maintained its domination of the 2026 BRSC sporting cups by claiming the overall cross country cup.

Crossing the line together

In the open boys, students Harry, Dillon and Mitchell coordinated their races to finish together, which created a lasting Year 12 memory but some logistical challenges in standing on the podium.

The record for the most laps may have been won by four-legged wellbeing officer, Piper, who fought the temptation to slip her lead and take on the runners in order to walk with students.

As a whole-school event, every student was encouraged to participate and there was a picnic atmosphere along the riverfront as students enjoyed downtime with friends.

They helped cook and serve a sausage sizzle, and enjoyed friendly rivalry both on and off the course.

Looking forward to interschool cross country

The U13 boys event was tightly contested at the finish line with Will claiming first place over Jameson by one second.

“Me and Jammo were sort of running together and then I outkicked him,” Will said.

He said he’s now looking forward to competing in interschool cross country in Week 4.

“I’ve done a couple, they’re good and I did cross country in Year 6 for SAPSASA and I came second for that,” he said.

Sausage sauce duties taken seriously

Year 7s Kyra, Grace, Zara took the spirit of competition into their sausage sizzle serving duties, taking great care squirting tomato sauce.

“I think I’m the best at it, because I don’t drop any bits,” Grace said.

Kyra felt it was about creating the perfect zig zag pattern.

“I do it properly, because it’s about the aesthetics, in photos it’s always a squiggly line and I do it squiggly,” she said.

Zara took a far more pragmatic approach.

“It’s so much easier to do a straight line, and you don’t need much skill.”

Teamwork and friendship win the day

For Ruby and Ally, it was all about friendship and teamwork in their U14 event.

“It was fun, we had a good time, I fell over once but I hopped back up and kept running,” Ruby said.

Ally said they worked together.

Teamwork, we helped each other get to the end.”

Results and photo gallery

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