Cross Country Relays – Brimbank Park

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Women

Box Hill Juniors dominate. Senior team finishes a close fourth.

Box Hill women’s teams finished first in the under 20, under 18 and the under 16 competitions at Brimbank park on Saturday, while our senior team finished a close fourth.

Congratulations to all the girls who ran so well on the day. It certainly suggests that the club should have a successful winter season.

Open

It was great to see the return of Nikki Chapple running the first leg for the clubs open relay team. Nikki ran well to record a time of 22:56 and to come in second behind Susie Power. George Connell ran the second leg in 25:49 to hold the teams position. Marion Gamble ran third in a time of 27:02 to hand over to Eliza Eddy in a close battle for third place. Eliza ran 26:40 but was unable to peg back the third placed team and she crossed the finish line in fourth place. With an expected improvement throughout the winter we can expect our women’s team to finish in the medals in future events.

Unfortunately we were unable to fill our division 2 women’s team on the day. Megan Sloane started off her season with a run of 27:24 followed by Kerry Walker in 29:06.

Under 20

Emily Smith got the team off to a good start coming in first in the good time of 11:55 for the hilly 3k journey. She passed over to Beth Bird, a last minute promotion to the team. Beth ran an even race to finish in a time of 13:13 to keep the team in a good position. Finally Jessica De Bruin ran a strong leg to record a time of 11:53 to bring the team home with an impressive victory.

Under 18

Charlotte Roberts and Kate Thornton ran well to record times of 12:59 and 13:13 to place the team in a good position when Jocelyn Keage took over to run the third and final leg for the team. Jocelyn ran the fastest time of the day to record 11:42 and snatch victory in the final 200 metres.

Due to a late withdrawal our second under 18 team was one runner short. This, however was not a problem, Jenita Dunner decided to run twice!

Jenita ran 13:58 for the first leg, then Kate Mortimer ran 17:12 in her first race for the club, followed by Jenita again who ran a very respectable 14:12 her second time around!

Under 16

Against strong opposition Georgie McCallum ran a great race to record a time 12:20 (nearly 2 minutes faster than her time last year!), Sarah Evans ran a solid second leg in 13:57 to leave Juliet Thornton with a close tussle over the last 3km. Juliet ran a great time of 12:19 to cross the finish line 20 metres ahead of the second placed team.

Men

EXCELLENT TURNOUT AT CROSS COUNTRY RELAYS

SECTION 6 TEAM VICTORIOUS

With four even Men’s teams entered in 2001 prospects were high for good results in 2001. We were expecting a sound result in Section 1, and wins in Section 3 and 6 which would have been an ideal start to this year’s Winter season. We welcomed two new enthusiastic recruits to our club, Paul Boxshall, who joined us from Bendigo South and Luke Yeatman, who transferred from Yallourn-Newborough. We were also pleased to regain the services of John Meagher, long-time member who spent several seasons at Essendon, but decided that he would return to Box Hill. With recent rains, spikes were the order of the day for all but those mindful of the effect of advancing age. This year, selectors agonized over team selections as there were many athletes vying for a place. A glance at the results will explain why the selection processes were so difficult this year, with all 11 athletes in the Section 1 and 3 teams running within 57 seconds of each other.

In his first run for Box Hill, Paul Boxshall was selected to start off the team. There was an extremely talented array of athletes running the first leg and a large pack went through the first lap bunched together. Paul had not been able to maintain contact with this early break away and ran through in approximately 10th position about 35 seconds behind Dave Ruschina of Glen Huntly, Daniel Quin of Melbourne University and Craig Mottram of Geelong being three of the leading competitors. In the second lap Mottram put in a very solid surge, which dropped his opponents and carried Geelong 44 seconds clear of the other teams. Paul plugged away handing over to Scott Jackson in 9th place.

Scott recorded the fastest Section 1 time for Box Hill, 14 seconds faster than Chris Bunney, and second fastest for Box Hill behind John Meagher. He was the most even of our section 1 competitors. Doncaster’s Nigel Adkins ran impressively in this leg to reel in Glen Huntly significantly. Marcus Tierney was our third runner, following his recuperation from illness and he maintained Box Hill in 8th position, passing Melbourne University with Malvern apparently overtaking him. Luke Yeatman, also in his first outing for the club in Winter, recorded 21 m. 36 moving Box Hill to 7th. Steve Moneghetti ran this leg for Ballarat combine and ran superbly well, lifting Ballarat to a clear second place only marginally behind Glen Huntly. Graeme Olden held 7th position and moved our team to within striking distance of Peninsula Road Runners, which enabled Chris Bunney, who ran a strong final leg to pass PRR, bringing our A grade team into 6th place. Glen Huntly were simply too strong recording a comprehensive victory. There was interest in the minor medals with Shaun Quilty sprinting past Nankervis of the Ballarat combine in the last 400 metres of the leg for the silver medal.

Sixth place was a little below what we had hoped for, but as the runners in our Section 1 and 3 teams gain fitness as the Winter season progresses, they are sure to improve their performances.

Our Section 3 team finished second, behind Glen Huntly, with fine performances from all runners. Barry Lynch ran an impressive first leg, to have the team positioned prominently. Kynan Dawes ran a great leg for his team after John Meagher had lifted the team into close contention whilst recording the fastest Box Hill time of the day, with a faster second leg than first, adding to the impressive nature of his efforts. Michael Jones ran a very cagey tactical race, almost catching the Glen Huntly team on the line. Dale Bickham ran a very determined leg, but struck a stronger opponent on the day. The Glen Huntly runner managed to pull nearly a minute and a half of our team, running faster than any of our athletes on the day. Dale recorded exactly the same time as Michael Jones.

Our Section 6 team finished in first place, in a tremendous performance, and were presented with their winning pennants at the conclusion of the race. Adam Pepper and Andrew White were the standout performers in the team with times in the low 22 minute bracket. They were very ably supported by Simon McGuinness and Chris O’Connor.

The Section 7 team managed 4th position, capping off a relatively successful day for Box Hill. The most notable performance in this team came from Patrick Kelly, who looks sure to improve much further during the year.

It was really pleasing to see so many athletes join their club mates for afternoon tea at the conclusion of the event and we hope that this spirit continues throughout the Winter season.

Thanks to Rob Falkenberg for managing Section 6 and 7 teams and Chris O’Connor for managing and organizing the Women’s teams. Thanks also to Julie Milner and Angela Robbie for travelling out to Brimbank Park to ensure that our athletes were all registered.

Ian Sloane (Section 1 Manager)

Cross Country Relay Team Results Brimbank Park, 5 May 2001

Section 1	Ist Leg	2nd Leg	Total	Leader	B.H. Time	Position
Paul Boxshall	10:28	10:49	21:17	18:50	21:17	9th
Scott Jackson	10:22	10:33	20:55	38:44	42:12	8th
Marcus Tierney	10:32	10:57	21:29	58:28	63:41	8th
Luke Yeatman	10:22	11:14	21:36	77:40?	85:17	7th
Graeme Olden	10:27	10:45	21:12	96:50	106:29	7th
Chris Bunney	10:23	10:46	21:09	115:23	127:38	6th