STATE LEAGUE ROUND 5
13 DECEMBER 2001

The Box Hill Men's State League team tonight showed improved form to challenge for a victory in the 5th round of State League competition for the season (final points were once again not available at the end of competition)!

Ned McLeod continued his great form in the 400 m hurdles to finish 2nd in 55.51, while new Club captain ran his best time for the season to finish 4th in 58.2 and get us off to a good start for the evening.

Nick Brudenell continued his consistent season in the high jump to finish second with a jump of 1.80 m while Joel Pocklington also finished second in the pole vault, jumping an equal PB of 4.20 m (his 5th competition in 7 days).

Marty Duke ran well in the first heat of the 200 to finish 3rd in 22.18, with Lane Harrison winning the second heat in 22.30 and Adam Remmers finishing second in the third heat in 22.45.

Michael Saunders made a successful State League debut, filling in at the last moment for the injured Luke Vague and finishing second with a leap of 6.37 m.

New member Steven Miles just failed to qualify in the 110 hurdles, running 18.0 after smashing into the first two hurdles and messing up his strides, so with a bit more training he should easily chop a couple of seconds of his time and qualify easily. It was good to see that we were able to field a high hurdler for the first time this season.

The 800 m runners dominated their heats, with Michael Jones winning the first in 1:52 and Trent Hartshorne just beating Kynan Dawes in the second heat to finish 1-2 in 1:58.

The 5000 runners all ran solidly with Marcus Tierney running a respectable 14:50 for fifth, John Meagher 15:14 for 8th and Dale Bickham 15:18 for 9th.

In a very close 4x400 relay, James Fildes, Michael Saunders, Cameron Baker and Trent Hartshorne all ran close to 50 s and were just beaten into third place after leading coming into the straight for the last time.

With no walkers or thrower, we scored our highest score for the season and would have won easily if we could fill these holes in our team. We are currently sitting in 8th place on the ladder, 4 points behind Melbourne Uni and Geelong, one of whom we must displace to earn a place in the finals so we will have to ensure that we improve our performance in the new year.

The women's team continued their consistent season with another second placing behind the improved Bayside team.