QGSSSA cross country championships: Athletes to watch
Who will be some of the key athletes to watch at Saturday’s QGSSSA Cross Country Championships? Here we reveal more than 50 of the best in the business.
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The QGSSSA Cross Country Championships will be held on Saturday, with Brisbane State High School competing for nine consecutive QGSSSA titles on a day full of stacked races.
The QGSSSA’s 34th annual championship will feature 830 athletes and features many storylines.
Ten schools will be competing for the coveted title granted to the team that has the highest volume of runners at the business end of each race.
Brisbane State High School is vying for nine in a row, with the biggest challenge possibly coming from Brisbane Girls Grammar School, the biggest competitor historically.
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No stranger to success in this sport, Brisbane Girls Grammar is famous for winning the championships across 20 consecutive years between 1994 and 2013.
The BGGS athletes have been a force in the lead-up meets and the school has the largest number of runners stepping onto the start line in 2023, a promising statistic in a sport where success happens via a combination of volume, consistent preparation and a sufficient amount of grit when it really counts.
Moreton Bay College, St Aidan’s Anglian Girls School and St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School have fought for a place on the podium across the last couple of years, with several other schools now hot on their tails.
This is cross country, and realistically, anything can happen.
Ben Norton has been coaching at Moreton Bay College since 2015 and spoke of the sporting program and culture at Moreton Bay College as key to the school’s success.
He praised the leadership of MBC Director of Sport and Olympian, Sue Pavish, saying: “Sue’s passion towards sport and supporting the girls is second to none.
“This environment helps me when planning and running my athletic programs at the school”, Norton said.
“We have a great group of extremely dedicated female athletes who are friends on and off the track.
“This culture assists the girls to get through the hard training sessions....my assistant coach, Cara Feain-Ryan is also a major contributor to this program and culture.
“There are huge benefits for the girls to have the chance to be coached and mentored by a world championship athlete.”
Norton refers to the team mentality the school instils in the girls, even though running is technically an individual sport. “The girls know how important each one of them is to this team and this brings out the best in them,’’ he said.
The championships starts with the 17 Years & Over division. The roll call of state and national representatives contesting this race is impressive.
Gabrielle Schmidt of St Peters Lutheran College is an athlete who has had an impressive past 12 months, culminating in representing Australia at the World Cross Country Championships earlier this year.
In addition to her long history of Cross Country success, Gabrielle also has prowess on the track, winning the 1500m and 3000m at the last Australian School Sport National Titles.
“I am looking forward to the combination of my age group (17 years) and the older age
group (18 years) in the same race for the first time in a QGSSSA competition,’’ she said.
“There are so many great girls in this race so it will be super thrilling to see us all battle it out.”
Gabrielle can expect to be surrounded by newcomer Ginger Cox, Isabella Harte and Kaya Agnew of St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School, Georgie Gilroy and Erica Moore of Brisbane State High School, Kobi Walker and Mia McGrath of Moreton Bay College, Leila Johnson of Clayfield College and Lilly Horsburgh of Brisbane Girls Grammar, just to name a few.
Ginger Cox is a new Boarding student in Year 11 at St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School, hailing from Townsville. Ginger has only been running competitively for a couple of years and found a love for the sport through her training group at home, Pace Project, coached by former Olympian Jill Boltz with oversight from Tony Ford.
“I am enjoying boarding at St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School, it’s a very supportive community and it’s opened up new competition and training opportunities,” Ginger said.
“I’m currently training with Coach Jayden Russ at the Brisbane Athletics squad...the QGSSSA competition was a big reason why I chose to come to Brisbane to board and I can’t wait to race for St Margaret’s at the big event.”
Gabrielle Schmidt and a number of these ladies are using each race as another step towards being granted an illustrious scholarship to College in America to continue their athletic and academic journeys.
There are numerous QGSSSA alumni to follow in the footsteps of. They include sisters Nikita and Keira Moore formerly of Brisbane State High School running for NAU (Northern Arizona University), Lucinda Crouch of St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School who is completing an exciting five year stint at the University of Wisconsin, Tyla Lumley formerly of St Peters Lutheran College currently a Sophomore at Drake and Anna Jones of Brisbane State High School, a Sophomore at Kent State.
Somerville House alumni and QGSSSA Open Champion of 2022, Ella Rodwell is also about to commence at “Ole Miss”, the University of Mississippi.
The excitement will continue with the 12 years division, as 102 athletes make their QGSSSA Cross Country Championship debut.
Gabrielle Kranen of Brisbane State High School led the Queensland All Schools State Championship race from the gun last weekend, powering across the hilly Victoria Park Course closely followed by Keilani Kratzmann of MBC (second).
Miranda Bowen of Somerville House was fourth and Zoe Renton of St Peters Lutheran College sixth.
These four pocket rockets are clearly going into the QG Championships in excellent form. Also look out for Claire Riot of St Peters Lutheran College, a training partner of Kranen and coached by Lizel Moore in the Western Suburbs.
Riot is a talented football player who also loves to race and has numerous state and national titles to her name across Cross Country and Track.
The 13 Years race is always wide open.
The defending Champion is Charlotte Wallace of St Peters Lutheran College who will be in the mix again this year, together with Sasha Josipovic and Jasmyne Martinez of Brisbane State High School, Jasmine Patten of Brisbane Girls Grammar and Olivia Agianittis of St Peters Lutheran College.
These ladies will be joined by newcomers such as St Margaret’s boarder Zara Ferguson,Ava Johnston of Brisbane State High School and Ruby Hazell of Moreton Bay College who picked up bronze medals at the recent Australian junior Track & Field Championships in the 800m and 1500m races.
Lilja Jonsdottir of St Peters Lutheran College also looked strong at the All Schools race and is certain to contribute critical points towards her School’s tally.
The top three from last year’s Championship return in the 14 years race, Sienna Barr of St Peters Lutheran College, Emma Fryga of Somerville House and Ava Knox also of St Peters. Emma Fryga is coached by Brad Schofield and has been on fire across the last 12 months.
Fryga has an incredible engine for the longer distances, but also has some dangerous speed, proven by her gold medal performance at the recent Australian Track & Field Championships in the 800m in a time of 2:11:02.
We will also be seeing Saffron Jenkinson of Brisbane State High School. Jenkinson is in form after placing 3rd at All Schools. It is going to be hard to beat Brisbane State High School in this age group with Jenkinson ably supported by Grace Adams, Emily Boyd, Georgie Burg, Piper Snow and Willow Head, a group of girls used to working together.
The 15 years age group has been strong since these athletes started racing each other in Year 7, and Zoe McElwaine from Brisbane Girls Grammar returns to try and regain her title from 2022.
McElwaine recently came third in the U16 3000m at the Australian Track and Field Championships.
Taking off with McElwaine is likely to be Zara Moore and Maeve McCowen of Brisbane State High School; all training partners with coach Lizel Moore, and also supremely fit triathletes Chloe Bowen of Moreton Bay College and Charli Spies from St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School who placed at the Australian Schools Triathlon Championship.
Also in the 15 years race are some talented all-rounders such as Mia Geere of Clayfield College, a member of the Australian Football All Australian Girls Team, and Carissa Graham of Brisbane Girls Grammar School who is the QGSSSA 400m champion and a member of the Queensland U15 Hockey team that recently won the national title.
The last race of the day, the 16 Years division, will be spearheaded by defending champion and another triathlete Gwen Watson.
Watson is a renowned aerobic powerhouse and picked up a bronze medal at the Queensland All Schools Championships last weekend, in a strong display of form early in the Cross Country season.
Watson will be supported by fellow BSHS athletes Selwyn Russell, a skilful steeplechase racer coached by Brian Chapman and also Milly Berg.
Another one to watch is up-and-coming Clayfield College runner Chloe Noon, one of numerous QG athletes coached by Cerene Hughes at High Cadence, and the always dominant Jemima Morton from Brisbane Girls Grammar backed up by BGGS athletes including Lillian Wall and Sophie Hunt.
Layla Erikson-Howard of Morton Bay College is never far from the action, so too Matilda Lee of St Aidan’s and Jemma Wilson of Somerville House.
Wilson is also coached by Brian Chapman at Border Striders and had a sensational showing at All Schools placing fourth on one of the toughest cross country courses we’ve seen, there truly was nowhere to hide.
St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School will have the athletically versatile Millie Campbell leading the charge, together with Ruby East and Lily Hicks.
The Championships will feature live-results and a live leaderboard. Please visit www.qgsssa.com.au for all the details.
Stay up to date with the QGSSSA Cross Country Championships via Instagram@qgsssa.
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