Yarra Ranges athletes excel against state’s best

Jared Byrne storming around the 12km course. Picture: Supplied.

By Jamie Strudley

Yarra Ranges’ little athletics team were competing for team glory at the Knox LAC Open Day over the weekend while the senior team raced at the Round 4 of AV XCR series, with Yarra Ranges Athletics athletes in action around the state.

The junior (LA) team were chasing nine team wins in a row at the annual Knox LAC Cross Country Open Day, held around Jells Park.

We had a very strong team competing but could not overcme a stronger Waverly team, eventually finishing second.

Congratulations to all a team members.

Special mention to Ryder Holland winning his U13 3000m and other podiums for Milly Hall, Brienna Coffey, Adele Ellis and Brookley Horsburgh.

Results:

Girls

U7 1000m Lola Farmilo 9th 6.53

U8 1000m Delia Coffey 6th 5.39

U9 1500m Milly Hall 2nd 6.44; Etta Thoma 4th 6.53; Amelia Sketchley 8th 7.16; Trinity Graham 16th 9.48

U10 1500m Caitlyn Mckerlie 5th 7.30

U11 2000m Pippa Congreve 5th 9.37; Holly Yorke 6th 9.39; Lexi Aders 13th 0.57; Meadow Anderson-Bonsor 20th 2.10; Arizona Peel 21st 2.14

U12 2000m Brienna Coffey 2nd 9.20; Adele Ellis 3rd 9.22; Lily Clarke 4th 9.24; Mackenzie Graham 6th 9.44

U13 3000m Brookley Horsburgh 3rd 14.13; Tori Kincaid 6th 16.52

Boys

U6 500m Finley Malcher 7th 3.06; Angus Congreve 8th 3.06

U8 1000m Riley Yorke 5th 5.12; Brock Peel 12th 5.40; Spencer Norman 21st 6.21

U9 1500m Micah Friend 19th 9.5

U10 1500m Dominic Nealon 16th 7.17

U11 2000m Archie Budin 4th 8.56; Ilikimi Tove 5th 9.05; Cohen Holland 8th 9.52; Jonty Friend 10th 12.41

U13 Ryder Holland 1st 10.37; Jay Burke 5th 14.39

U14 Blake Saloyedoff 5th 13.11

On Saturday our seniors travelled down to the picturesque Cruden Farm in Langwarrin for Round 4 of the Athletics Victoria XCR23 season.

Our U16s and U18s completed one lap of the 5km loop, while our U20s completed a 7km course, including a 2km loop and 5km loop.

Finally, our Open athletes completed 12km over two laps of the 5km loop and one lap of the 2km loop.

The course was another challenging XC number, with several punchy hills around the farm that gave our hill-hardened athletes a chance to shine.

Dodging tractor tire marks and seemingly endless piles of cow poo, the course wound it’s way through each of the farm’s unique areas, including a dash through a fern gully followed by a leap of faith over a mudpit.

We welcomed back some familiar faces with the return of Seamus Dwyer and Bonnie Morris who both had fantastic races.

Our Open athletes had a day to remember with our Open Men claiming 2nd place in Div 2 and Div 6!!

While our Div 2 Women hung on nicely for 3rd place. Congratulations to Max Savill-Bentley and Liv Twining for being our first Open athletes across the line, both finishing in 13th place.

Our Juniors gave it their all over the tough and muddy course scoring some good points for their teams.

Congratulations to Maddie, Rori, Brigitte and Zoe for top 10 finishes in their respective age groups.

Results are:

Women

12km: Olivia Twining 13th 46:38; Abi Hyndman 49th 52:24; Katrina Winger 52nd 52:50; Bonnie Morris 84th 57:24; Georgia Laven 95th 59:05;

7km: Madeline Laven 5th 29:07; Rori Jones 9th 34:22;

5km: Brigitte Rice 6th 19:58; Zoe Clarke8th 21:06; Kristina Nackovski 17th 24:20;

Men

12km: Max Savill-Bentley 13th 38:39; Harry Norman 26th 39:54; James Laven 38th 40:43; Seamus Dwyer 106th 44:15; Jared Byrne 166th 47:52; Chris Grundy 170th 48:07; Michael Clarke 201st 50:10; Logan Dutton 266th 55:17; Graham Coutts 278th 57:03; Bryan Ackerly 306th 1:01:31; Craig Hewitson 329th 1:09:46;

7km: Angus Norman 14th 25:23; Ky Harris 18th 28:24;

5km: Mitchell Pointon 26th 20:16;

Congratulations to all our club members and regulars who competed at the SSV cross country during the week.

Good luck this week for those that qualified for State Championships.

Next week we return to Saturday morning cross country with the round being at Lillydale Lake.

We will have a number of athletes and families away at the LAVIC State cross country relays at Cruden farm, good luck to our teams competing there.

Training continues for all club members on Tuesday from 5.30pm at Morrison Reserve and Thursday evenings from 5.30pm at Victoria Road Primary School gym with the emphasis on preparing for cross country.

Yarra Ranges Athletics welcomes and encourages all athletes of any age or ability.

If you, or someone you know, wants to join in the fun of cross country email info@yarrarangesathletics.org.au for information about events and registration.

For information on training, how to join or trial, photos, results and updated news, visit the website at yarrarangesathletics.org.au or check us out on Facebook.

Run, Jump, Throw…too easy!