Sending a team of 60-plus athletes to a biting Symmons Plains late last month, the school won its 10th consecutive boys shield and its eighth-straight girls shield.

The result bettered Scotch Oakburn's run of 10 aggregate titles in a row, and also set a record for the longest streak of girls shields.

"We try and organise two training sessions a week but most of the students have other commitments and play a lot of sports - rowing, netball, hockey, soccer, football and so forth," St Patrick's cross country co-ordinator David Rae said.

"We do have a few straight cross country runners, but most of our athletes come from a wide range of sports."

MORE SPORT: TSL not a one-horse race, says Bomber

Keian Brown remembered in Old Scotch, Lilydale game

NTFA coach to step down at season's end

St Pats had 15 top-10 finishers on the day, including cross country captains Laurie Dean and Erin Giles, who finished fourth and sixth in under-20 races.

Giles said the pair had taken great enjoyment in encouraging their schoolmates, who had been inspired by a team talk before the carnival.

"In the lead-up to the day Mr Rae certainly hyped it up a bit, saying there were some records on offer if we could pull it together," Dean said.

"He said if we saw any of the Northerners ahead of us coming close to the finish line we had to put in an extra effort to try and get in front of them and improve our chances of winning."

Cavaliers netballer Annabelle Sanders took the instruction to heart, recording a second-placed finish in the under-20 event - the best performance by a St Pats runner.

"The conditions were really good this year - usually they're pretty wet and muddy," Sanders said.

"I was mostly third the whole way - when we were going into the second lap I saw a Marist girl in front of me.

"As Mr Rae told us all that we needed to beat the Northerners, I saw her and kicked in so I came second."

Rae said the school was keen to extend its streak as far into the future as possible.

"Over the years there's been a quite a few athletes that have done well - obviously this team broke the record, but it's taken teamwork over the years," he said.

"We've had a number of athletes that have participated - Jackson Callow, Jordan Tyler, Jobi Harper, Jono Butler, Ariarne Titmus very early in her career did a grade 7 carnival - we've had lots of participation over the years."

Scotch Oakburn won the under-15 girls and open boys pennants, while Grammar took out the under-16 boys and under-17 girls pennants.