Westlake Dominate New Zealand’s Secondary School Cross Country Championships

Murdoch McIntyre Junior Boys Champion and Dan Hoy Senior Boys Champion

One week after claiming seven out of nine titles at the Auckland Secondary School Cross Country Championships, the Westlake Cross Country team travelled to Rotorua for the highly anticipated New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships.

Racing against the best athletes in the country, Westlake lived up to its reputation of being one of the top performing Cross Country schools in the country, winning two of the three individual national titles as well as four from six titles on offer in the team events.

Having finished runner-up for the last three years after winning the title in the 2012 junior event, Westlake Boys 2014 Sportsman of the Year, seventh form student Dan Hoy, took out top spot in the senior event, clocking a time of 19:22 for the 6km distance. Dan ran at the font of the field for the entire race, before attacking on the penultimate hill of the final lap, deservedly taking gold to finish off his Secondary Schools Cross Country chapter in style.
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After his third podium placing last year, fourth form student Murdoch McIntyre made it two wins for Westlake Boys, taking the junior boys race by four seconds from the silver medallist.  Murdoch’s winning time was 13:19 for the 4km distance.

Westlake’s Medal Haul
Senior Boys Champion: Dan Hoy
Junior Boys Champion: Murdoch McIntyre
Year 9 Three Person Team Champions
Year 9 Six Person Team Champions
Junior Three Person Team Champions
Junior Six Person Team Champions
Senior Three Person Team Runners Up
 
Following on from their outstanding performance on the Saturday thirteen members of the team represent North Harbour at the NZ Teams Cross Country Relays on the Sunday. The North Harbour Junior boys’ team consist of five Westlake runners and walked away with the National Title. Junior team members were; Murdoch McIntyre, David Moore, Stuart Hofmeyr, Josh Spraggon, Nikola Sovljanski and Zach Keenan. In the Year 9 grade North Harbour placed runners-up with four of the five runners coming from Westlake. The Year 9 team members were; Jude Darby, Blair Hill, Matt Gould, JJ Weston and Callum Hockey (Rangitoto)

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