Jesse notched his first Surf  ‘T’  Surf six-kilometre run win, 12 months after he finished runner-up.

His time — 19 minutes and 42 seconds — bettered his 21.09 2013 effort too.

GALLERY: 2014 Surf 'T' Surf

“I have done a few of them and come close and was hoping I could do better this year,” he said.

Jesse, 17, said his family regularly holidayed in Warrnambool and he was familiar with the course.

“I tried to start going a bit harder two kilometres in and tried to get a break from there and just held it,” he said.

“I liked it. The hills weren’t too bad.”

The Ballarat Secondary College student specialises in 1500-metre and 3km events.

“I’d like to see how far I could get,” Jesse said of his long-term goals.

Aaron Blomeley (20.36) and Dominic Moloney (21.46) filled the podium.

Naringal East’s Alicia Boyd set herself a goal in the women’s 6km run and surpassed her expectations.

Boyd wanted a time under 25 minutes and finished in 24.33.

“My personal goal was to beat the time I had in 2011.Since then I have had my third child and I was able to better that time,” she said.

“I was really pleased.”

Boyd said runner-up Bridie Dalton (24.33) pushed her to the finish. Kellie McLeod (25.47) was third.

“It was pretty close the whole way,” Boyd said.

“Bridie was a few metres back at East and a couple of times I could see her so I knew she was quite close.

“I was trying to hold on. She was putting in a hard spurt at the finish but I was able to just stay in front of her.”

Boyd was a member of the St John of God Hospital health services team.

It was the first time the hospital had entered teams in the 10km run, 6km run and 6km walk categories.

“Everyone participated and everyone is really happy with how they went individually,” she said.