On what was a very warm Saturday afternoon (when compared to the previous few weeks) at Jells Park, SKAAC had 3 teams fielded in the competition. Due to the fact that there had been extensive development at the top of ‘the hill’ with a new playground, AV were forced to change the course slightly. The course was still very challenging and featured NO flat running what so ever. Basically the course was like a flower with the center being at the top. This meant for each petal you were running either down or up. The course is 3km long with juniors competing over that distance and seniors completing two laps for 6km each.
Under 14 Women
SKAAC were very happy to field an Under 14 women’s team and hope that these 3 girls continue to compete throughout the season and that a few other will join them during the XC season. Saskia Klotz was first runner who passed the timing chip to new recruit Lucie Thompson. Both athletes making their transition from CMLAC. The final leg was run by Claudia Tierney who flew around the 3km hilly course in 12:37. The girls were stoked to start the season with a bronze medal and are looking forward to the next relay at Sandown.
St Kevins ‘W14.3’
3rd Place – Bronze Medal…Saskia Klotz: 13:34, Lucie Thompson: 14:06, Claudia Tierney: 12:37
Under 18 Women
Off the back of track and field nationals, both Cleo Richardson and Bridie Hill are in great form. But it was Sophie Pont who stole the show early, running the first leg too quickly for me to catch her for a photo. Not to mention that she is only 14 years old and was running up an age group as a bottom age athlete!! From here, Cleo (also running up an age group) was able to pass quite a few athletes to put the team in a great position leading into the final leg. Bridie Hill showed her class finishing with the second fastest individual time on the day and pulling the team into 4th place and only 20 seconds behind a bronze medal.
With both Sophie and Cleo in Under 16, SKAAC hopes to find one more athlete who would be keen to make an Under 16 Women’s team with them and then find some more Under 18 women to compete with Bridie at the Sandown Relays in June. Please reach out if you have interest.
St Kevins ‘W18.12’
4th Place – Sophie Pont: 12:50, Cleo Richardson: 11:26, Bridie Hill: 10:46
Open Male (Division 4)
The Men’s Open team had a great first race for the season. Jack Holden completed the first leg and put SKAAC in the lead of the division 4 competition. It is great to see Jack finding some form again and competing in the SKAAC singlet. The club looks forward to watching his progression throughout the season. Matt Lynch ran a solid second leg and provided much needed feedback to those that were about to follow, “don’t go out too hard, the second lap bites”. It was awesome to see Ned O’Brien racing again and he is keen for plenty more events in the near future. Sam Doble rounded out the team for a solid 4th place.
St Kevins ‘M4.12’ 4th Place – Jack Holden: 19:30, Matthew Lynch: 22:24, Ned O’Brien: 23:58, Tristan Mioni: 22:37, Samuel Doble: 26:00
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