Saturday 18 June 2016 – Bundoora Park Cross Country

June 18, 2016

Bundoora Park 10 Kilometre Cross Country 18 June 2016

Box Hill AC is having an exceptional run in the Division 1 men’s competition this year recording four successive victories in the first four events of the year, despite the unavailability of a number of athletes in each event contested to date.

The Bundoora cross country race, the fifth race of the 2016 XCR season, is the premier cross country event on the calendar and is normally contested over the distance of 12 kilometres.  This year, however, the winter XCR committee decided to run the event over 10 kilometres.  This meant that the vast majority of competitors, irrespective of their fitness level or age, recorded a personal best.  The writer cannot recall an AV sanctioned cross country race over this distance over the last 40 years or more.  The reason is that the international Cross Country distance for men and women has been altered to 10 kilometres.  The distances were previously 12 kilometres for men and eight kilometres for women.

The junior races were run before the senior women’s and men’s races.   At the time of writing the junior races’ results were not available.  Box Hill had some very good performances indeed, which promises much for the future.

The senior women’s race looked likely to see a contest between Tarli Bird (Glenhuntly), Virginia Moloney (Collingwood) who won the 15 k. road championship in Ballarat, and Gemma Maini.  These three runners cleared out from the field over the three lap course (which consisted of a two kilometre loop, followed by two four kilometre laps). The course was soggy and muddy and had been churned up by the thousands of feet of age group athletes in the previous races. A little further back off the back of the leading pack were Amanda Prime (Knox), Sinead Diver (South Melbourne and Anna Kelly (South Melbourne).  About three kilometres into the race our Box Hill leading performers were June Petrie, 57^th, Amanda Harper 87^th, Pia Hunter 88^th and Rachel Johnson, 101^st. Other Box Hill athletes contesting the race were Kerry Putt, Caitlin Harrison, Carolyn Fox and Megan Sloane.

The lead changed hands a number of times with Moloney and Bird surging to try and establish a winning lead. Gemma Maini dropped off the pace but was still running solidly in third place with a clear gap between her and Samantha Prime, fourth, closely attended by Sinead Diver, who was running with excellent cadence. Eventually Tarli Bird established a winning lead over Virginia Moloney and Gemma Maini finished third.  Sinead Diver eclipsed Samantha Prime for fourth place and Anna Kelly crossed the line in sixth position, with long time top-ten athlete Tracey Austin (Malvern) running an excellent final lap to finish seventh.  June Petrie finished well and placed51^st, Amanda Harper was 72^nd, Pia Hunter was 78^th and Rachel Johnson completed her race in 108^th place.  Kerry Putt was 139^th, Caitlin Harrison finished 142^nd and Megan Sloane was 152^nd.  Carolyn Fox also ran but she was not included in the provisional results, probably because of a timing chip malfunction.

The senior men’s race was the final race on the program and the same course was deployed as for the women’s race.  Box Hill was extremely well-represented, although several of our top performers were not competing (Will Potter, Michael Dowel, Steve Kelly).  It was really great to see Daniel Clark on the course giving our team members spirited encouragement.  It was even better to hear that his recuperation was going well enough that he is aiming at competing later in the winter season.

When the starter sent the field on its way for the first two kilometre leg five Box Hill runners positioned themselves towards the front of the phalanx. . Unfortunately, the commencement of the men’s race coincided with the bulk of the women’s field completing their last lap.  This swamped the women’s field and it would have been very intimidating to have 400 male competitors occupying the same space on the narrow course.  I would hope that this does not occur again, because it was dangerous and not fair to the women still completing their race. Quite a large group separated from the body of the field, so after a little over a kilometre after the start, James O’Connell was ninth, Steve Dinneen was tenth, Peter Green was twelfth and Nick Baggott was fifteenth.  Not too far behind Dion Finocchiaro was running well and not long after Dion passed the writer standing adjacent to the course, Andre Waring ran through. The leading group of male athletes included Andrew Buchanan (M Uni), Toby Rayner (GH), Jack Rayner (Wes), Nick Earl (M Uni), Jack Davies (Ball), Nick Wightman (Geel) and Martin Mashford (M Uni).

During the first of the two four kilometre laps five athletes had pushed the pace and moved away.  Jack Rayner, Jack Davies, Andrew Buchanan, Nick Wightman and Toby Rayner. Steve Dinneen was 10^th, James O’Connell, 14^th, Nick Baggott, 18^th and Peter Green 24^th, with Dion not too far further back probably around 33^rd.   Melbourne University had three in the top nine and SSH, although not in the top 10, had all their team in the top 40.  It was going to be tight in the team’s race.  Andre Waring was our sixth competitor and was holding a place somewhere in the first 45.  John Meagher was a bit further back.  Chris Bradford was running well, too, perhaps 75^th, with Welday Mebrahtu in 101^st position.  Recently joined member, Edward Doyle was about 120^th.  Then came Jackson Deane, Garth Calder, Tony Langelaan and Luke Crosier.  Our other competitors out on the course were Robert Ashbridge, Peter Stefanos, Chris O’Connor, Graeme Olden, Jack Hill, Stephen Ross and Andrew Tunne.

About seven kilometres into the race, Davies and Buchanan broke clear of Jack Rayner and Nick Wightman.  Toby Rayner had already been dropped.  Steve Dinneen was placed 12^th, Nick Baggott was 18^th, James O’Connell was 20^th, Peter Green 23^rd, Dion Finocchiaro was 25^th, Andre Waring was 35^th and John Meagher held 54^th position.

In the concluding stages, Buchanan finally got the better of Davies and Wightman secured the bronze by striding ahead of Jack Rayner, fourth.  Toby Rayner finished fifth.  Steve Dinneen put in a stoic performance to pass both Earl and Mashford to claim 6^th place. This was a gritty and determined effort for the team, typical of Steve’s endeavour during the winter races. Nick Baggott ran a great race to finish 14^th.  Apart from the previous road race, Nick’s form has been excellent and he has beating athletes he wouldn’t have beaten even last season. James O’Connell ran 23^rd, perhaps not where he wanted to be, but his other race performance have been tremendous this year.  Peter Green was 29^th.  Peter hasn’t had a clear run with health this year.  When he is right, he will definitely improve on this result. Dion Finocchiaro, 31^st, put in another solid effort for the team and is a permanent fixture in our Division 1 team at the moment. Without Andre Waring’s gutsy effort, in placing 44^th, Box Hill would not have won (provisionally) the Premier division team’s race.  Andre was crook in the fortnight leading up to the 10 k cross country so he displayed character in turning up and running at all.  Others to make the top 100 were John Meagher 57^th, Zac Hunter, whose name was omitted from the provisional results, 64^th, Chris Bradford, 71^st and Welday Mebrahtu, 99^th.

Although there were a number of imperfections in the provisionally published finishing places, possibly due to malfunction timing chip recognition, we believe that we have won the Premier division team’s race from Melbourne University and SSH.  If that is the case, we are doing the equal best ever that Box Hill AC has done in the XCR seasons.  To win five races in a row is spectacular, and the huge team spirit we are observing is tremendous to behold.

 

Open Men’s results (AV results contained some inaccuracies at the time of writing)

1 Andrew Buchanan             Melb Uni                       30:34

2 Jack Davies                       Ballarat                          30:45

3 Nick Wightman                  Geelong                         30:57

6 Steve Dinneen                   Box Hill                        31:26                     

14 Nick Baggott                   Box Hill                        32:06

23 James O’Connell            Box Hill                        32:38

29 Peter Green                    Box Hill                        32:49

31 Dion Finocchiaro            Box Hill                        33:01

44 Andre Waring                Box Hill                        33:41

57 John Meagher                Box Hill                        34:30

64 Zac Hunter                     Box Hill                        34:47

71 Chris Bradford               Box Hill                        35:20

99 Welday Mebrahtu          Box Hill                        36:20

118 Edward Doyle               Box Hill                        38:01

132 Jackson Deane              Box Hill                        38:35

146 Garth Calder                Box Hill                        39:01

165 Tony Langelaan           Box Hill                        39:43

184 Luke Crozier                Box Hill                        40:36

193 Robert Ashbridge         Box Hill                        40:51

197 Peter Stefanos               Box Hill                        41:08

203 Chris O’Connor           Box Hill                        41:18

233 Graeme Olden              Box Hill                        42:30

266 Jack Hill                       Box Hill                        44:15

315 Stephen Ross                 Box Hill                        47:14

380 Andrew Tunne              Box Hill                        58:54                     

 

Estimated Division 1 Results

1 Box Hill                             145

2 Melbourne University        163

3 SSH                                   168

 

Open Women’s results

1. Tarli Bird Glenhuntly                    35:08
2. Virginia Moloney Collingwood                  35:22
3. Gemma Maini Frankston                      36:01

51 June Petrie                      Box Hill                        42:29

72 Amanda Harper             Box Hill                        44:32

78 Pia Hunter                      Box Hill                        44:44

106 Rachel Johnson            Box Hill                        46:32

139 Kerry Putt                    Box Hill                        50:15

142 Caitlin Harrison           Box Hill                        50:42

152 Megan Sloane               Box Hill                        53:21

 Carolyn Fox                       Box Hill                        missing from results but finished

 

Men Under 20 (8kms)

7. Matthew O’Donnell         26:53
8. Ben Cox                         ????
9. Carlos Norman              30:35
10. Jack Prendergast            31:44
11. Conor Yung                   33:52