Round 2 saw us take to a new venue at the base of picturesque Hanging Rock. The course itself was a great cross country circuit comprising of a 2km and a 5km loop with a mixture of grass and trail running and challenging hill climb at the back of the 5km loop. We were lucky that the rain, the two days before, did not soften and muddy the surface and on the day it was cool and overcast - perfect running conditions. Thanks to our AV helpers Jenny Arnold, Phil Cameron-Smith, Janice Hodgart and Brenda Cashin. Amongst the many highlights for the day was the Men’s U18s win, the three podium places in the juniors’ ranks and Luca Di Conza’s 4th place in the open men’s race.
Open Women
Bit of a tough day for the open women and we lost a few athletes during the race – no pun intended!! But despite this our women still received valuable points for Premier, Div 3 and Div 4. In the Premier women’s it was Janae Mackrell finishing first in 34th overall in the 12km race in a time of 51 minutes and 9 seconds. Second in and not far behind was Sophie McMinimee then Nardine Bainbridge, Abby Speakman with Cath Cleveland rounding out the team in 7th place. The Div 3 team was 7th and the Div 4 6th with Cheryl Nelson bravely finishing despite an ankle injury. In the Masters, Cath Cleveland was 3rd in the 45+ over 12 km and Carolyn Huell was 3rd in the 50+ short course event (7km), with the 50+ finishing second in the short course event. In the 60+ short course Janice Hodgart was 5th.
Men Open
Our open men also suffered a couple of pre-race withdrawals which resulted in 2 full teams and an incomplete Div 4 team. The Premier team did well finishing third behind an very strong Mentone (First) and Benidgo Region (second). First in for the Premier team was Luca Di Conza who finished 4th in a time of 38 minutes flat. Second in was Zayd Al Sayd then Will Lewis, Daniel Dunstone, Kirk Shanahan with Daniel Verardo rounding out the team. As with our 2023 season It was the Div 3 team that suffered the most and was 12th. The incomplete Div 5 team was 9th. In the Masters category Alistair McDonald was 8th in the 45+ 12km.
Juniors
Our juniors had a great day out with one first and two third place results. In the 7km event we had two new U20 athletes, Leo Heading and in his first race with the club Toby Nitschke. Both ran very well with Toby finishing 12th and Leo close behind in 13th place. In the Men’s U18s teams results we had a first place and 5th place. In the first team, all three athletes finished in the top ten with Alex Cameron-Smith in third place, Aiden Muscat was 9th and Armeet Dhaliwal was 10th.
In the women’s U18 5km event Lucy Cleveland, in her first season in U18s, won in a time of 18 minutes and 46 seconds. Our U14s girls were one member short but ran well and finished 4th. In the Men’s U14 5km event Ryder Deans picked up his first AV medal finishing 3rd in a time of 19 minutes and 16 seconds.
