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Bayside Women Newsletter No. 2
Is there a 400 runner in the house?
Round 2 saw Bayside Women matched against two of the powerhouses of last season's competition, Eastside and Doncaster, and the big improver, Athletics Essendon. They were probably as surprised as we were to find Bayside sitting in second place with one event to go on the program. Unfortunately, that event was the 400 metres, an event in which we are currently a little thin on the ground. A big bag of points, particularly to last placed Eastside which won both heats, saw Bayside relegated into fourth, but having nevertheless demonstrated an enormous improvement over last season.
The night began extremely well, with Bayside leading through the first six events. Simone Thompson predicted a week ago that she would qualify in the 5k walk, which she duly did to finish third, which with Megan Peter's second place gave Eastside the unusual experience of trailing after the walk. Karen Lyne finished second on her State League debut in the triple jump, while Sarah Wiltshire finished third against very strong competition in the high jump.
Bayside's much improved sprint form continued, with Jane Denning and Katrina Steward finishing fourth and fifth in the first heat of the 100. Melissa Tilley experienced the highs and lows of state league in her first appearance, with a hand-timed 12.6 turning into a 13.12 electric - a not uncommon occurrence - and this after leaving her spikes at home and having to wait at the line to borrow Katrina's! Unfortunately, I missed this event, having to rush across the road to deliver Gabriel Neighbour's Bayside singlet. This proved well worth the effort, with Gabriel winning the hammer with a PB throw of 39.36 metres - outstanding! Nicky Aspris took second in the discus, leaving the team still five points ahead of Essendon.
The 1500 was always going to be a problem, but last season's big find Michelle Sostovic (nee Bolton) continued her excellent form to finish fifth. Kate Seibold hung on grimly to miss qualifying by just two seconds. Keep hanging, Kate, you'll get there! Becky Weisz has been battling injuries this season, but would undoubtedly have picked up ten points had the opening height not been raised this season. Meanwhile, Mr McKechnie was upstairs scratching his beard and asking, "Where are all the pole vaulters?" (No, seriously). Megan Boyes was up against some tough (and fairly big) opposition in the discus and shot, but came through with eleven more points.
Meanwhile, our 4 x 100 team was shaping up as our best yet. Last year we struggled a little in this event, but a flying second bend by Katrina and a strong finish by Jane saw Bayside finish a close second in 48.60. This was our best time since 1993, when a similarly brilliant bend by Sally Ogilvy allowed an inspired Kim Wilson to hold off Cathy Freeman for first place. The only remaining veteran of those days is Sarah Wiltshire, who took another third place in the 100m hurdles. Jeanette Bowles, having recovered from the relay, made very sure not to touch a single hurdle this week and finished a slow but safe second in the second heat. At this point, I was optimistic that the team could hang on for second, but I had forgotten the 3000 steeple. The extremely slow qualifying time for this new event (14:00) meant that any team with a few B Grade distance runners could pick up a bag of points, and unfortunately this is the one area where we are still extremely weak. Aths Essendon streaked further ahead, but the other two teams picked up enough points to be able to catch us in the 400.
So, a little disappointing, but still a tremendous team effort. There can be no comparison to this time last season, when we had holes all over the team sheet and were finishing way back in last place. There are still a few areas where we can hope to get stronger, particularly in the 400 when Emma Yeomans gets back from honeymoon (you may think she won't be fit, but you haven't seen her training over the winter with the men), and Tara Gleeson is able to compete. All we need is the spirit we have seen so far to continue, and Bayside is going to be the team to watch in 1998-99.
More info on the Results Page.
November 20:
We're improving...
In what was a surprise result Bayside Men's Team finished equal second last night. Thanks to some stellar results by those field athletes we had (we didn't lose a field event that we had a competitor in), some solid sprinting, some gutsy distance action and finally the good work of our 400m runners we managed to catch Ringwood right on the line.
While we were 42 points behind reigning premiers Athletics Essendon, contemplate how we would have gone we'd managed to field athletes in any of the following events:
Hammer Throw
Pole Vault
Shot Put
Walk
110m Hurdles...
The Women's team started very well last night and looked to heading for a second place finish. A lack of steeplechasers and 400m runners hurt us very badly and we ended up in last spot... we need more runners on the track...
The evening didn't start super well as we lost points all over the park with no walker, hammer thrower or vaulter. Thankfully our opposition couldn't produce a vaulter either, but it certainly stung to have an unregistered Mentone athlete qualify competing by invitation. He promises to register by next week, but we've heard that before. Thankfully Dave McCaffrey was over winning Jav at the same time. The sprinters then hit the track and ran very, very well, with a second and two thirds.
The 1500m brought together the veterans of our team. Dean Lane did a great job of filling in running an impressive 4.01.62 and is now talking low 3.50s. Dean ran 8th in the Olympic Dream last week and we're looking forward to his 5k next week. Tony Wilson overcame bureaucratic hassles to run 8th, while Tim Crosbie just missed qualifying (for the first time in his long career).
Meanwhile out in the field Shaun Pollard was winning high and Male Athlete of the Week Matt Woodruff had recovered from his 100m to win Triple Jump. He was then back on the track to anchor our 4x100m team home in second place. A big thanks to Evan for filling in. As Aaron Neighbour set about winning Discus, Sean McAleer had gone out a little too hard in the steeple. For a while it looked like he wasn't gonna make it but he lifted over the last couple of laps and was only the width of a thicker singlet away from qualifying. At least he was out there though, which is more than we can say for a few events.
Finally the 400m stepped on to the track knowing we were a vague chance of catching Ringwood. Ev, Brenno and new boy Peter "Demon" De La Haye produced the goods, ensuring we'll creep off the bottom of the ladder. Next week we have Glenhuntly, Western Suburbs and Doncaster... two of these teams finished last first week. This is our chance to get away from the bottom end of the ladder and establish ourselves as a "danger" club. I'll have more details on the Women's team's performance by Monday… I was too busy running around sorting out the Blokes to check out what was going on.
On the social front we hope to see you all down at the Royal Oak Hotel tomorrow night (Nov.21) for a few drinks, some food and a bit of socialising... the whisper is if you bring some decent cds the pub'll put them on the cd player and we wont have to hear "Khe-san" all night out of the jukebox...8pm kick off... BE THERE...
Results are here.