Box Hill had one of its most successful days at the cross country relay championships for more than 20 years at Jell’s Park on Saturday 19th April, with wins by the Under 20 and Over 40 men’s teams, the men’s Dvision 1 team finishing a close second and the men’s Division 3 team finishing third.
The highlight of the day was a high quality, closely fought race in the men’s top division between Box Hill, Geelong and Knox. Our team of Matt Coloe, Steve Kelly, Daniel Clark, Andrew White, Chris Hamer and Steve Dinneen performed consistently well to take the silver medal. This is our best placing in Division 1 at the cross country relays for over 20 years. Chris Hamer ran one of the fastest times for the day to move the team from 3rd to 1st place with one leg to go. Steve Dinneeen ran well on the last leg to extend our lead over Knox, but he was unable to hold out Geelong’s Craig Mottram.
Go to www.athsvic.org.au to see the youtube coverage of the event.
1. Matt Coloe 18:26 2. Steve Kelly 18:56 3. Daniel Clark 18:41 4. Andrew White 18:46 5. Chris Hamer 17:55 6. Steve Dinneen 18:23 Place: 2nd
Several late withdrawals meant that our division 3 team was not at full strength, but good runs from Paul Boxshall and Luke Yeatman (on the comeback trail) saw the team finish in 3rd position.
1. Bill Dyer 23:07 2. Luke Yeatman 20:19 3. Dave Featherston 23:24 4. Steve Griffin 21:20 5. Paul Boxshall 19:53 Place: 3rd
Andrew Nagle put in a good performance, to show he should have been rated in a higher team! Andrew Tunne performed well in his first competition for the club.
1. Dave Stevens 28:08 2. Andrew Tunne 26:27 3. Scott Boxshall 25:04 4. Andrew Nagle 22:10 Place: 11th
Our under 20 men performed brilliantly to take the gold medal. Special mention to Mitchell Milnes who stepped up into higher age group (and a longer distance) and helped the team to a win.
1. Mark Poli 20:27 2. Mitchell Milnes 20:50 3. Josh De Stefanis 20:40 Place: 1st
The under 18 team finished in 7th place. We are expecting this to be one of our strongest age groups when all our runners are available. Welcome to new club member Daniel Balassone who ran a very strong first leg for the team in this 3km event.
1. Daniel Balassone 10:16 2. Jack Hill 12:04 3. Cameron Nagle 12:22 Place 7th
The Box Hill over 40 team took out the gold medal. John Meagher ran well to finish his leg in second place, Graeme Olden put the team in front and Chris O’Connor managed to hold on to first position.
1. John Meagher 19:57 2. Graeme Olden 20:36 3. Chris O'Connor 21:09 Place: 1st
Unfortunately we had many of our women’s team unavailable for the first event, but there were still some outstanding performances. Rachel Johnson got the team off to a great start and Harriet Hodgkinson came up from the under 20s to fill in the first division team.
1. Rachel Johnson 22:18 2. Hayley Tomlinson 23:50 3. Talitha Crawford 26:24 4. Harriet Hodgkinson 26:25 Place: 7th
Rosemary Cleland who ran her first “official” race for the club ran 2 races, one to get to the start line and one around the cross country course! Emily De Luca volunteered to step up from the under 18s to fill in the team and complete the 6km course.
1. Rosemary Cleland 31:17 2. Kerry Putt 28:20 3. Suzanne Andrews 26:27 4. Emily De Luca 27:09 Place: 11th
Penny Townshend got the team off to a good start, while Ollie Turnbull (returning from illness) and Bridget Aughton also performed well on the tough 3km course.
1. Penny Townshend 11:30 2. Ollie Turnbull 13:05 3. Bridget Aughton 12:15 Place: 4th
Thanks to all those who turned out and did their best for the club. A special thanks also to Chris O’Connor for organising the teams and providing afternoon tea, Vivienne Lee for sorting out all the registrations and to Julie Milner, Paul Milnes, Sue Coloe and Jill, Clare Hill, Joe De Luca, Dave Boyd and Adrian Vincent who helped out as timekeepers or officials.
