XCR ‘ 18 Round 4 – Bundoora Park

Glenhuntly Junior Men

Round 4 of the XC season also doubled up as the All Schools XC Championships. The conditions at Bundoora were cold and windy and very typical of recent years for this event. Whilst each participant represented their school the Glenhuntly junior men team members featured prominently.

We had 11 team members who competed and from this group there were two age group winners, three placegetters and six top 10 finishes. The competitors were: U14 – Sam Lindsay (9th); U15 – Josh Francou (11th), Logan Janetzki (25th) and Rubin Howard (27th); U17 – Romin Kodikara (4th) and Jade Cook (73rd); U18 – Edward Marks (1st), Adam Spencer (2nd), Jason Clayton (8th) and Cody Bellgrove (41st); and U20 – Haftu Strintzos (1st). Considering there were 600 junior men who competed across the age groups the results of all of our team members were fantastic. Congratulations to everyone who competed and to those who placed well done on your excellent performance.

Several of the team will have qualified to represent Victoria at the National XC Championships to be held in Qld in August and we look forward to tracking how our team members shape up against the very best competitors from around Australia.

Glenhuntly Open Women

The Cross Country State Championships at Bundoora produced awesome runs from the Open Women’s Team with many improving on their times from last year. What looked to be a potentially cold and wet day of running turned out to be a one of great conditions despite being a little chilly at the start line. We had 5 athletes in the top 20 and 7 in the top 30, which is a fantastic effort! It was great to see Karinna Fyfe (with an impressive 8th place finish) and Cass Mesta (26th) running with us for their first XCR race of the season and also Anna Saw (20th) and Tarli Bird (15th) showing great form on their way back from injuries. New recruit Anna Kentwell backed up from a 27km mountainous trail run the weekend beforehand to finish in a speedy 13th place. Dana Dekkers set herself a new 10km PB (19th) and Rebecca Beagley smashed her previous time from last year, finishing 29th. Young gun Erika Florez had a super run rounding out the top 40. Our Premier Women took out the top spot for this round, which places them first on the leaderboard and our Division 2 Women came in 3rd!

Glenhuntly Open and Masters Men

One of the mainstays of the XCR calendar, Bundoora Park offered a challenging course with surprisingly good conditions for the State Cross Country Championships last Saturday. We had 26 starters across Open and Masters Men.

Some individual highlights were:

Jack Highnam returning from a chronic illness to make his 2018 debut. Jack’s enthusiasm around the group has been missed. A big second half of the season awaits him.
Peter Rushen running almost two minutes faster than 2017 and placing 3rd in his age group.

Our Division 2 team finished 3rd, 40+ 2nd and 60+ 3rd. It was great to welcome back Olympian Rhydian Cowley, among others and our increased depth showed. Compared to Cruden Farm, our Division 1 and 2 outfits increased their team score by 84 and 204 points, respectively. Our numbers are steadily increasing and it was great to see our Division 5 team score points for the first time this season. After four rounds, our 40+ continue to sit atop the ladder.

I’d also like to acknowledge Nick van Agtmaal. Nick has been unable to compete for the last two rounds due to a hernia operation but has still travelled to support the team. It’s this kind of team spirit that makes a great club.

We now put cross country behind us and look forward to some road racing. Next round we head to Sandown Racecourse for the Victorian Road Relay Championships. I look forward to another great turnout!

Go Hunters!