The National School Mountain Biking Championship was held at Nerang National Park from August 2 - 4, 2019, and Hillcrest entered the College's first ever team, consisting of 10 keen students. The students were part of a 350 student strong contingent made up of 96 schools from around Australia. The three-day event comprised of three separate disciplines being XCC (Cross Country Short Course), Gravity Enduro & XCO (Olympic Style Cross Country) and our students competed in all disciplines.
Day 1 Event: XCC event was a short sprint obstacle style course with everyone giving it their all against some quality opposition from around the country. The standout performer of the day was Kai Pyyvaara with a tenth place out of a field of 58 riders, not bad for his first time in competition and on a new bike! Sam Schooley in a large field of 65 riders performed much better than his 21st place suggested after starting a fair way back in the pack and having to make up a lot of ground. Congrats to the rest of the boys too, Liam and Tom Fothergill, Noah Smith, Sebastian Borrelli, Jeff Lynch and Jason Georgali, who all represented the school fantastically!
Day 2 Events: Our boys spread out across four different downhill stages, where each stage was timed and then added to produce a final result. Max Veriton had an unfortunate fall early on in the first stage, ruling him our for the remainder of the events. Excellent all round results with the team continuing to give of their best. Monday and Thursday Hills Training definitely paid off!
Day 2 Results:
Day 3 Event: This was the Olympic Style Cross Country with an extremely challenging course; very similar to the Commonwealth Games event held last year at the same venue. The Years 7 and 8 boys were first up, in a starting line-up of over 100 competitors. After a manic start with plenty of jostling for positions, all competitors settled in well for two laps of the course. All boys completed the course, showing excellent determination and team spirit. Finishing positions for the race were as follows: 16th Kai Pyyvaara, 24th Sebastien Borrelli, 38th Noah Smith, 52nd Liam Fothergill.
The Year 10 boys competed later in the day in what was titled 'one of the biggest groups to ever start an XCO race.' With adrenaline pumping, and many near misses, our boys put in a determined effort over three laps of the course. Finishing positions as follows: 19th Sam Schooley, 46th Jason Georgali, 54th Jeff Lynch.
A big shout out to all the parents who came along to support the boys in Hillcrest’s first-time entry into the Schools Mountain biking Competition. From caramel popcorn, to refreshments and even a sausage sizzle, it turned out to be an incredible weekend for the mountain biking team. A massive thank you to WildEarth.com.au too, for supplying a much needed Gazebo, and to Pete Hunt and Blair Schooley for encouraging and assisting the team. We look forward to our next competitive event, which will hopefully be towards the end of Term 4 (a Regional Gold Coast Competition – more details to follow).
Well done all MTB boys on keeping the Hillcrest Knight's flag flying high!
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