XCR 25 Round 5 Sandown Relays

Our numbers were down a little on previous rounds but this was mainly due to many juniors racing at the WMR Little Athletics cross country. Again, it was a strong result from our Premier men’s (1st) and Premier Women’s team (4th) and our men’s U18 doing very well, just outside the medals in 4th place in a cohort of 14 full teams! Thanks for all those who brought afternoon team and for our two AV helpers, John Papworth and Julie Morgan. Despite the cold Sandown winds, we were lucky with the weather a race conditions were near perfect with some really great results across the board.

Open Women

With the numbers down on last round we did well to fill 4 full teams albeit with some last minute changes! Our Premier Team did very well with the return of Abigail Thomas, for her summer vacation from college, kicking off the team then handing to Janae Mackrell who ran the team’s fastest time, finishing the two laps in 22 minutes and 10 seconds - top ten fastest time in open women! Third was Sophie McMinimee then Nardine Bainbridge with 45+ Briggitte Sneyders rounding out the team helping them to 4th place. The Div 3 was 6th with U20 Bella Keogh supporting the team. The Div 4 was 6th and the Div 5 was 4th.

Ladders

The ladders are looking great with all teams in top 5 and the Div 3 in the promotion zone!

Premier - 3rd

Div 3 - 2nd

Div 4 - 4th

Div 5 - 3rd

Open Men

Solid numbers in the open men’s with an injection of U20s athletes made for another great set of results in the teams across the board. Of course, it was another win for the Premier men, and even though it was a good race with Bendigo, in the end we won by nearly a minute. Leading the team, for his first time, was Brandon Muscat and he set the team up very well. Liam Cashin and Ben Chamberlain took the team up to the front of the race with Ben running the fastest leg for the team finishing in 17 minutes and 59 seconds. Cody Shanahan and Callum Drake held the team in first and U20 Alex Cameron-Smith cruised the last leg to take the win. A great result in the div 3 also in 3rd place with the return of Dan Dunstone and help from U20s Jackson Wright and Aiden Muscat. The Div 5 was 4th, Div 6 was 6th and the Div 7 was 8th and 11th.

Ladders

As with the women’s teams our men’s are doing extremely well with all in the top 5 of the ladders and our Div 5 in the promotion zone!

Premier - 1st (20 points!)

Div 3 - 3rd

Div 5 - 2nd

Div 6 - 3rd

Div 7 - 5th

Juniors

There were just the two teams with a complete U18s men’s and and incomplete U18 women’s team.

The Men U18 did extremely well and were very competitive with Steven Morgan kicking off the team then Emerson Arnold with Bon Martin finishing for the team in 4th place. Sadly, Ella McDonald had to withdraw from racing due to injury, so it was just the two U18 girls, Sofia Mbote and Yuka Hong running.