COOKS Hill led the Hunter charge at the NSW Age Surf Lifesaving Championships at Blacksmiths Beach, finishing just seven points behind champions Elouera on Sunday.
Elouera won with 179 points at the three-day under 9-14 carnival, ahead of Newport (174) and Cooks Hill (172).
Cooks Hill, fourth last year, had individual gold medals from Alex Walker (under 11 male surf), Daisy Breasley (under 10 female surf and board) and Lily Egan (under 9 female surf).
Charlie Burns, Lola Russell, Tiana Sargeant and Lani Waller won the under 12 female surf team race for Cooks Hill. Sargeant and Waller took out the board rescue from Burns and Russell. Burns, Sargeant and Waller claimed the board relay and in the under 10s edition, Bronte Bawker, Breasley and Macy Waller, took gold for Cooks Hill.
Redhead’s Zara Foran starred in the under 12 girls, winning the surf, board and ironperson. Swansea Belmont’s Sam Govender claimed the sprint-flags double in the under 10 boys and Grace Hewitt (Fingal Beach) won the under 14 girls sprint. Will Clark (Fingal) was the under 13 boys one-kilometre beach run champion.
Xavier Coates, from Swansea Belmont, took out the under 11 boys ironperson and combined with Sam Murphy to win the board rescue. Murphy claimed the board race and linked with Coates and Zac McDougall to take gold in the under 11 board relay. Kai Cook, Harry Hall and Will Paterson (Swansea Belmont) won the under nine board relay.
Swansea Belmont’s Kai and Blake Cook, Beau McGregor, Sam Murphy, Kaitlin Rees and Tye Worrell won the all age board relay, and Cambell Connolly, Govender, Emmerson Leadbeatter and Rees took out the under 10 mixed board relay.
Caves Beach won the nippers march past.
The final pointscore was:
Elouera SLSC 179
Newport SLSC 174
Cooks Hill SLSC 172
Cronulla SLSC 165
Manly LSC 165
Wanda SLSC 160
North Curl Curl SLSC 159
Coogee SLSC 149
North Bondi SLSC 140
Swansea Belmont SLSC 132
South Maroubra SLSC 92
