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New co-Manager of the women's team Matt "Shoeless" Hanrahan was first to email his report in so gets top billing on this week's report.
The women's team, thanks to an education system that insists on setting exams at the end of the year, was short of a number of key performers yet still managed to finish equal second to last season's premiers, Melbourne Uni, at the first round of State League last night.
Shirley Hay set the ball rolling with an unchallenged victory in the 3k walk scoring Bayside top points.
Two undoubted highlights came early on in the field with Gabrielle Neighbour breaking an age group state record in the women's hammer on her first attempt. The Commonwealth Youth Games representative will undoubtedly improve on this mark as the season progresses.
The other highlight came in the Long Jump where Emma Cochrane jumped 6.13 metres, a mark which bettered the best achieved by any Victorian last season. In wet conditions, Emma three times managed to break the 6 metre barrier. Both Emma and Jeannette Bowles then managed to show great team spirit by finishing Long Jump and immediately running over to the 200m to perform admirably in the half lap event.
Our only other representatives on the track for the night came in both the short and long hurdles where Sarah Dosen took a victory in the 100 metre hurdles (15.00) with Jeanette Bowles just missing out on qualifying (19.05) whilst Karen Laidlaw finished a promising fourth (69.18) in the longer event.
Our opposition showed that, at the minute, they are more complete teams as both Melbourne Uni and Doncaster filled nearly all positions on the longer track events. Sadly, Bayside, was without a competitor in either the 800 metres, or the 5k. Something we can work on for coming weeks.
In the remaining field events, we continued to dominate with victories to Natasha De Niesse in the Jav, with a throw of 38.22 metres and Bec Nielsen displaying two strong performances with victory in both the shot and the discus. Boyesy may have soom work to do when she returns from the crippled list.
Tess Densley, whilst a little down on her best in the High Jump, proved that the long trip up from the southern suburbs was not in vain as she finished second in the High Jump. Tess will undoubtedly be a valuable competitor for the team over the upcoming season.
Overall, second place was not to be sneezed at and points to a promising season. We will attempt to pick as much of the team as possible for next Thursday by the finish of interclub on Saturday. Remember to make Matt (who promises to wear shoes next week) aware of your availability over coming weeks to help ensure the team selection process runs smoothly.
And finally, start harassing anyone seen running around the streets who looks like they may be interested in running distance events over the upcoming season, particularly fence jumpers as our steeple numbers appear to be lacking.
Here's the men's report from reigning premiership Manager Justin "Shoed" Hanrahan
The first round of State League looked pretty grim as an overcast evening approached. Exams, Oaks Day and holidays all took their toll on our team and, as manager, I wasn't expecting a bumper result.
As it was, I underestimated the effect all of these elements would have on our opposition and the level of performance from our team that was present and we ran out comfortable winners.
The track events saw Justin Lewis control the 200m from the front, running 22.40, while a man crying out for a souvlaki (me) ran a creditable 23.88 to qualify comfortably in last place. In the 800m, Brenno and Adrian Harvey looked like setting up a 1-2 finsh for a while there and while that was not to be, most of us watching realised that there is a lot of improvement left in all of our middle distance & distance runners. Brenno, 2nd in 1.55.4; Adrian, 3rd in 1.56.0; Evan 7th in 1.59.4.
Anthony Park had a baptism into the world of State League 5km running and got caught up in a hot early pace. His time of 16.02 will be reduced significantly during the course of the season.
As usual, our hurdlers were dominant with Aaron Peterson winning in 15.02 and Liam Wallis coming back from what looked like a mighty hangover to place 2nd in 15.46. In the longer event, Brendan Cole dominated to win in 54.04, while an unfortunate fall at the last prevented Justin Ramirez from completing the course.
Meanwhile, Old Reliable, Simon Baker walked a solid race to finish 3rd in 13.48.4. Finally the relay saw an uninspiring lead off leg from yours truly leave the otehr guys too much to do to catch Melbourne Uni. Justin L, Evan and Brenno ran great legs and we picked up the necessary points.
The field events went as planned, I suppose, although a win by Tim Farr in the high jump (1.80) was a bonus, especially when Tom only found out he was jumping at about 3pm that afternoon. Thanks must go to Tommy for coming in and jumping.
Dave won the Jav (57.08), Matt Brown the discus (51.80) and Hans the hammer (46.32) to show that we have great strength in the throws yet again. Add to that Matt's mighty heave of 12.19m in the shot (hoo-wee!) and the points start to stack up.
Matt Woodruff won the Long Jump easily with 6.97m and that was that!
A great result from the manager's perspective and I would like to thank all who helped organise this tough night. We have a pole-vaulter in the wings and plenty of high quality athletes to come back, so who knows...back to back, maybe?
Results are here.