In another fantastic conclusion to the Winter Season, Box Hill came away with wonderful results, probably the equal of the sensational performance recorded in 2005, on Saturday 16th September at the second Tan Relay competition.
Box Hill men performed remarkably winning the Silver medal in Section 1, winning the Section 3 and the Section 5 relay events, and placing second in Section 7. The Under 20 men won the silver medal in a very fine even team performance and the Under 18 won the state title, winning the Gold medal in a tremendous race. Congratulations to all members of the team. First or second in every event is a tremendous result.
The Women’s Section 1 team finished sixth, whilst the Section 2 team placed 10th. Congratulations to the Under 20 women’s team won the state title, winning the Gold medal. Our second Under 20 women’s team placed sixth. What a day!!
There were some magnificent individual performance and a large number of Box Hill runners recorded a Personal Best Tan time. Several athletes, including Steve Kelly, Daniel Clark and Steve Dineen improved their times from 2005 by over 20 seconds, a remarkable achievement.
The Tan Relays see each runner in the team run one lap of the Tan track. The fastest time recorded for a lap was run by Craig Mottram, not in the Tan Relays, over 12 months ago, in around 10 minutes 10 seconds. This year’s fastest lap was run by Collis Birmingham (Eureka) in 10 m. 52 s.
Weather conditions were ideal, sunny and still, for the second consecutive year after a dull start to the morning. The race commenced from near the Swan Street Bridge at 9.00 a.m. for the men and 9.05 a.m. for the women. Our Under 18 Men’s team made a brilliant start with Damian Nugent running the amazing time of 11:59 for his circuit. Danny Krause, aged 14, was running out of his age group and ran very well in the second leg. Mark Poli also ran really impressive leg to overtake the leading team and win the race, in a barnstorming effort. Our Under 20 Men’s team also ran very well, led off by Ruben Arunasalam. Duayne Christou ran a very solid leg and also recorded the team’s fastest lap. Navin Arunasalam anchored the team and claimed the Silver medal. These were two fine team performances which our club is extremely proud of. Well done to all team members. The Under 20 Women also excelled themselves, with Sarah Grahame, Sarah Cant and Kate Wall combining to win the race conclusively, with very closely matched times for each of their laps. Each of these young women has great potential and we look forward to seeing even better things in 2007 from them. Our second team comprised of Harriet Hodgkinson, Priscilla Barrington and Hayley Tomlinson also did well and ran 6th. Congratulations to our winning team members.
We have commented about the great potential we have in our junior teams and this was confirmed again today with these results. We have high hopes of continued success in future years.
Our Division 1 Women’s team was comprised of Jess de Bruin, Amanda Harper, Georgie Davies and Rachel Johnson. They finished sixth. Rachel ran a very good lap, breaking 14 minutes.
Our Division 2 team placed 10th, with Inge Watson, Kris Hopkins and Suzanne Andrews representing Box Hill.
We had four Senior Men’s teams competing, which was very pleasing to have such depth. Even better was the result, with Box Hill winning two Divisions and placing second in the others. This was a great result and a fitting finish to the season.
Daniel Clark was our first runner in the Men’s Division 1 race and he improved his race time dramatically from 2005 by 42 seconds, a stunning improvement. Daniel chased in Grant Schmidlechner (Doncaster) and the Knox athlete, handing over to Andrew White in third place in Division 1, 15 seconds behind the two leading clubs. Collis Birmingham (Eureka), Liam Adams (Essendon) and Clint Perrett (Mentone) were the quickest athletes in the competitive first leg, all running for Division 2 and 3 teams. This was a workmanlike beginning to our race, keeping in touch with the leaders, and well clear of Geelong and Glenhuntly, whom with Doncaster, we expected to be the strongest competitors on the day, but were well back in the field.
Andrew White was our second runner in Division 1, and he performed very well, recording our second fastest leg time, but remaining in 3rd place behind Doncaster and Knox, but clear of Melbourne University who had a faster leg. Geelong, Glenhuntly and other Division 1 teams, were some distance behind Box Hill, and we looked like we would be in contention for a medal at this stage.
Matt Coloe ran the third leg, running solidly, sprinting right to the line 23 seconds behind his Knox opponent and 41 seconds down on Doncaster, the leaders. Geelong and Glenhuntly both made up significant ground on our team with fast legs from Toby Rayner (GH) and Rowan Walker (Geel.) who both ran around 11 minutes 14 for the lap to be 22 seconds down on Box Hill. APS and Melbourne University dropped out of contention in this leg. Steve Kelly was next off for Box Hill. In this leg Doncaster stretched their lead to a minute over Know and Steve hauled in Knox to be only 11 seconds behind the silver medal position. However, Glenhuntly and Geelong were only 10 seconds behind us in equal fourth position, and there was real competition for second to fifth places. Spectators were offering strong support for their club mates because it was so close. Steve gave it everything through to the line holding onto third place and Steve Dineen set off on his leg. Steve ran a very impressive race in the National Cross Country several weeks earlier, so was very confident of his form. He reduced the deficit behind Knox to seven seconds, and extended our lead to 32 seconds over Glenhuntly and Geelong who were running stride for stride in fourth and fifth. Doncaster, however, held a lead over Box Hill of 72 seconds.
Our last runner was Chris Hamer, who had performed brilliantly in the inaugural running of the relays in 2005. He quickly passed his Knox opponent, who dropped out of contention by the top of Anderson Street, and then set about working on catching Adrian Patti, Doncaster’s final runner. He reduced the deficit to approximately 50 seconds at the conclusion of the lap, and brought Box Hill into clear second place. He extended the gap over Geelong from 10 seconds to 53 seconds. Geelong narrowly held off Glenhuntly for the Bronze medal position. Chris’s lap was the fastest time recorded by a Box Hill athlete on the day. The times of our Division 1 athletes were very even with only 16 seconds separating them. Our Division 1 team was a young team and this suggests that next year will be a very good one.
We won both Division 3 and Division 5 Men’s races, a mighty effort, with some outstanding individual efforts. In Section 3, three runners bettered 12 minutes which was the reason why Box Hill won by such a big margin. John Meagher, Barry Lynch and Alan Craigie all performed especially well, which kept the pressure on the Division 1 runners, although the teams had been graded accurately. The Division 5 team was simply too strong for the opposition and Lachlan Aspinall, who recorded the team’s fastest time, Tim Heron and Graeme Olden all broke 13 minutes to win the Division 5 race convincingly.
Our Division 7 team performed very well too, placing second to cap off an exceptional day. Michael Bourne, running the first leg, ran a tick over 13 minutes which was a good time for this section.
It seems the Tan Relays are definitely to Box Hill’s liking, given this impressive set of results.
Over the course of the season we have not replicated last year’s form, where we won second place and our placing will be fourth, behind Premiership winners Glenhuntly, Doncaster and Geelong. Our result at Ballam Park in the 16 K Cross Country was weak and we scored only two points, whereas in most other competitions we placed around fourth. The season did culminate with a highlight, and with such excellent juniors coming through, there is great potential for us to win the Winter season if we can get greater consistency. Our Women’s Division 1 team had been promoted after winning the Section 2 Premiership, and we lacked the depth and consistency from 2005. Our Division 3 Men’s team was competitive, but we missed fielding a team three times and were generally not as strong as Mentone and Nunawading. The simple truth is that we need every registered runner to represent Box Hill every competition, and then we will succeed.
Thanks to Doug Bourne and Julie Milner for officiating for the club as recorders and timekeepers. Your efforts were appreciated.
Men's Division 1 Individual Performances Leg Runner Lap time Pos Leader’s time BH time 1 Daniel Clark 11: 30 3 11:15 11:23 2 Andrew White 11: 26 3 22:34 22:56 3 Matt Coloe 11: 40 3 33:55 34:36 4 Steve Kelly 11: 41 3 45:06 46:17 5 Steve Dineen 11: 31 3 56:36 57:48 6 Chris Hamer 11: 25 2 68:22 69:13 Men's Division 1 Performance Running Sheet Leg 1 Leg 2 Leg 3 Leg 4 Leg 5 Leg 6 Don 11:15 Don 22:34 Don 33:55 Don 45:06 Don 56:36 Don 68:22 Knox 11:15 Knox 22:48 Knox 34:13 Knox 46:06 Knox 57:41 BH 69:13 BH 11:30 BH 22:56 BH 34:36 BH 46:17 BH 57:48 Geel 70:06 APS 11:33 M Uni 23:32 Geel 34:58 Geel 46:27 Geel 58:20 GH 70:11 GH 11:49 APS 23:36 GH 34:59 GH 46:27 GH 58:21 Knox 71:02 Geel 11:57 GH/Geel 23:44 APS 35:39 APS M Uni 74:49 Men's Division 1 Placings 1. Doncaster 68:22 2. Box Hill 69:13 3. Geelong 70:06 4. Glenhuntly 70:11
Leading Times Collis Birmingham Eureka 10:52 Liam Adams Aths Essendon 11:04 Clint Perrett Mentone 11:04 Lachlan McArthur Doncaster 11:11 Steve Moneghetti Ballarat 11:12 Toby Rayner Glenhuntly 11:14 Grant Schmidlechner Doncaster 11:14 Men's Division 3 Times John Meagher 11:49 Barry Lynch 11:42 Paul Boxshall 12:22 Simon Watson 12:15 Alan Craigie 11:59 Men's Division 3 Placings 1. Box Hill 62:36 2. Geelong 62:54 3. Mentone 63:48
Men's Division 5 Times Tim Heron 12:36 Graham Craigie 13:21 Graeme Olden 12:54 Lachlan Aspinall 12:31 Men's Division 5 Placings 1. Box Hill 51:22 2. Sandringham 51:49 3. APS 54:35 Men's Division 7 Times Michael Bourne 13:05 Mitchell Milne 14:53 Barry Whittle 15:47 Brett Nuske 15:36 Men's Division 7 Placings 1. Knox 59:13 2. Box Hill 59:21 3. Knox 2 60:43 Men's Under 20 Times Navin Arunasalam 12:35 Duayne Christou 12:27 Ruben Arunasalam 12:36 Men's Under 20 Placings 1. Knox 37:30 2. Box Hill 37:40 3. Ballarat YCW 39:11
Men's Under 18 Times Damien Nugent 11:59 Danny Krause 14:56 Mark Poli 12:25 Men's Under 18 Placings 1. Box Hill 39:21 2. Williamstown 39:37 3. Ballarat Region 39:55 Women’s Division 1 Times Jess De Bruin 15:15 Amanda Harper 14:49 George (Connell) Davies 14:59 Rachel Johnson 13:54 Women's Division 1 Placings 1. Knox 52:45 2. Sandringham 56:21 3. Eureka 56:25 6 Box Hill 58:56 Women's Division 2 Times Inge Watson 17:04 Suzanne Andrews 16:08 Kris Hopkins 15:35 Women's Division 2 Placings 1. Geelong 42:54 2. Glenhuntly 42:56 3. Doncaster 44:12 10. Box Hill 48:42 Women's Under 20 Women’s Times Sarah Grahame 14:27 Sarah Cant 14:34 Kate Wall 14:49 Team 2 Harriet Hodgkinson 15:17 Priscilla Barrington 16:36 Hayley Tomlinson 16:03 Team Placings 1. Box Hill 43:50 2. Geelong 46:06 3. Knox 46:19 6. Box Hill 2 48:47
