STATE LEAGUE FINAL - TUESDAY 3 FEB 2004
BOX HILL MEN MAKE IT THREE PREMIERSHIPS IN A ROW

On Tuesday 3 Februray 2004, the Box Hill men's State League team won the Athletics Victoria State League Premiership for the third year in a row with a comfortable victory in the final at Olympic Park. After a close contest for most of the night we pulled away over the last few events to win by 43 points from APS and Bayside to finish off a wonderful season for the team, remaining undefeated for the whole year.

The Box Hill women's State League team improved one place from last season to finish in second place in the final, just four points in front of Ringwood, but 80 points behind the strong Bayside combine. This was a great effort by the girls considering that there were several holes in the team.

There were numerous highlights from the evening's competition, however it was the team spirit which prevailed in the finish with athletes filling every event and qualifying in all of them except the triple jump where Theo Oostveen missed out by just 8 cm in his first ever State League competition. With Tim Williams ill and Mohamad Zeed injured, our greatly improved depth in the sprints meant that Lane Harrison, Steven Hooker and Chris Ferreira were still able to hold their own in the 100 m and then combine with Marty Duke to win the 4x100 m relay. All three 1500 m runners ran PB's in their race to enable us to keep in touch with the other teams in what was our weakest event on paper. For the first time in many years we had two walkers qualify in the finals, as well as qualifiers in all of the throws with Ronnie Buckley (with a PB in the shot), Chris Rutty and David Featherston all producing big throws when it was required. Steve Hooker showed his great talent by finishing second in the second heat of the 100, anchoring the 4x100 relay to victory and then winning the second heat of the 110 m hurdles while Marty Duke finished off the evening in great style with a PB in the first heat of the 400 to win in a time of 47.58.

A full of results is included below.

Congratulations to team managers Chris O'Connor, Bev Power and Cathy Tilley on their fine efforts over the season to chase up athletes each week to make sure that we are fielding our strongest possible team. Congratulations also to Club captains Cameron Baker and Leana Tilley for their leadership and encouragement throughout the year. Cameron has the wonderful record of having been Club captain for three seasons for three State League premierships.

Many thanks to the coaches, officials, parents and supporters who have assisted throughout the year and without whose support we would not be able to enjoy the success which we have enjoyed this year. Lastly, thanks to all the club members who turned up at Olympic Park to cheer on our athletes and to those who sent messages of support.