CROSS COUNTRY
GOOD luck is meant to come in threes and that's how it happened for the Sutherland family in the past week.
Brothers Jake, Luke and Nathan have won their respective western cross country titles and all three will compete at the state titles next month.
At the Western Region Polding titles at Coolah on Tuesday, Jake won the nine years event with a time of 8mins 34secs over 2kms.
On the same day 12-year-old Luke won the 12 years event over 3kms with a time of 11mins 7secs.
That completed the hat-trick for the Sutherlands after older brother Nathan won his title at Lake Canobolas last week.
The 14-year-old won the 15 years event at the Combined Catholic Colleges event with a time of 13 minutes 25 seconds in the 4km event, breaking the previous record by 21 seconds.
Now the three brothers will compete at the state titles at Eastern Creek next month, with the trio aiming to qualify for the NSW All Schools carnival.
Nathan, who attends James Sheahan, puts the trifecta of wins down to the training program from coach Richard Turnbull the trio has completed for the past year.
"It started working from the first week," Nathan said.
Father John Sutherland was surprised by the win by youngest brother Jake, who won his event by 50 metres.
"His result blew me away, because he's been training but not as much as the other two," John said.
Jake and Luke attend St Mary's, while all three and their father are part of the Orange Runners' Club.