In cold, blustery and sometimes wet conditions, Box Hill managed to field a Senior Men’s and Senior Women’s team on Saturday 30th August. This year for the first time in a number of years the 16 K Cross Country was held at the Coburg course, which was used for various Cross Country races many years ago.
John Meagher started extremely strongly sitting in 4th place after 1000 metres. He slipped back a little bit through the race, holding 9th place for a long time, until overtaken by two athletes in the final stages. Graeme Olden improved on his recent form in this race. He made a steady start, and held his position throughout the race, finishing 26th unofficially. Recently joined member, David Jiminez, dueled with Chris O’Connor through out the race over the four lap course. David commenced with a strong opening lap, after which he settled around 30th position. Chris caught up to David several times , but was unable to overtake him and they completed the whole race being separated by no more than 15 seconds, with a 2 or three second gap for three laps. Adam Pepper led Tony Bird in the early stages, but Tony gradually forged ahead, leaving Adam in his wake later in the race. Our team placed either 3rd or 4th. Nigel Adkins won the race from Simon Field with Magnus Michelsson placing 3rd.
The women’s race, consisting of a single lap, was run in very chilly conditions with several rain squalls engulfing competitors. Rachel Johnson ran a strong race to finish in 15:56. Melinda Missen and Felicity Gamble finished very close to each other, with Melinda finishing one place ahead of Felicity. Megan Sloane started conservatively after recovering from illness and ran evenly finishing a little further back . The race was won decisively by Georgie Clarke from Anna Thompson with Kate Seibold finishing third.
Andrew White returned to the dais to collect third place in the Under 20 race finishing behind Collis Birmingham and Craig Appleby. It was also particularly pleasing to have Adrian Vincent finish in fourth place, just a couple of seconds behind Andrew, with Lachlan Aspinall in sixth place, not far behind the other two meaning that Box Hill easily won the Under 20 men’s team event.
| Name | Club | Lap 1 Place | Time | Lap 2 Place | Time | Lap 3 Place | Time | Final Place | Time |
| N. Adkins | APS | 1 | 12:20 | 2 | 25:11 | 1 | 37:49 | 1 | 50:53 |
| S. Field | St K | 2 | 12:21 | 1 | 25:11 | 2 | 37:57 | 2 | 51:12 |
| M. Michelsson | Coll | 3 | 12:30? | 3 | 25:27 | 3 | 38:30 | 3 | 51:48 |
| D. Quin | M. Uni | 5 | 12:39 | 4 | 25:43 | 4 | 39:02 | 4 | 52:30 |
| M. Chettle | GH | 6 | 7 | 26:21 | 7 | 39:44 | 5 | 52:59 | |
| D Ruschena | GH | 4 | 12:37 | 6 | 26:06 | 6 | 39:42 | 6 | 53:09 |
| G. Schmidlechner | Don | 7 | 5 | 26:06 | 5 | 39:42 | 7 | 53:22 | |
| D. Lane | Mal | 8 | 8 | 26:30 | 8 | 40:11 | 8 | 53:43 | |
| J. Meagher | BH | 9 | 13:05 | 9 | 26:57 | 11 | 41:05 | 11 | 55:17 |
| G. Olden | BH | 27? | 14:05 | 26 | 28:31 | 25 | 43:17 | 26 | 57:56 |
| D. Jaminez | BH | 25? | 14:01 | 30 | 29:00 | 31 | 43:56 | 30 | 58:48 |
| C. O’Connor | BH | 31? | 14:13 | 31 | 29:02 | 32 | 43:57 | 31 | 58:52 |
| T. Bird | BH | 67? | 15:11 | 71 | 30:57 | 72 | 47:02 | 74 | 63:31 |
| A. Pepper | BH | 78? | 15:34 | 83 | 31:52 | 85? | 48:15 | 84 | 64: 48 |
1. G. Clarke Geelong 13:14
2. A. Thompson GH 13:22
3. K. Seibold Malvern 13:58
R. Johnson BH 15:56
M. Missen BH 17:09
F. Gamble BH 17:08
M. Sloane BH 17:35