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Bayside Women - Newsletter No. 3
Round 3 Brought the heat, in more ways than one. As the temperature gradually dropped from 32 degrees, Bayside came up against Box Hill and an Eastside on full alert after last week's close call. This was quickly demonstrated as the Easterners filled every event on the program to take a commanding lead that they never surrendered. Box Hill would have been a little more concerned, however, as it was not until the second half of the program that they managed to break away, and there can be little doubt now that, this season, Bayside means business.
Jeanette Bowles was first up, and while still well short of her best, took second place in the long jump. Our walkers had a bad night, but over in the park, Gabriel Neighbour, newly turned fifteen, and with a 44 metre PB under her belt from Saturday, proceeded to embarrass her older competitors with the biggest throw of the night. Nikki Aspris followed this up with second place in the javelin, and Bayside was just behind Box Hill in third.
Melissa Tilley found herself promoted to the top spot in her second round of state league. Running in her own spikes (next week she may remember to bring her numbers, too), she responded with a PB 26.43 for third place. Sarah Wiltshire's heat was combined with the second heat of the other half of the draw. A strong second in 26.47 gave her first place in our draw (it's quite simple once you get the hang of it), and Bayside had jumped into second. This lead was extended when Sarah won the high jump, but in the meantime Box Hill was showing its strength in the distance events. Anna Johnson repeated her first round performance, coming home over the top of a dozen runners in the second half of the race to grab fifth place. In the 800 m, Michelle Sostaric ran up to her best to finish fourth, while Maccabi's Carla Joffe ran a PB for eighth in her state league debut. Kate Seibold missed qualifying by 0.62 seconds this time, while a six second PB to Maccabi's Shiree Freedman running invitation in the first heat indicated that this event is no longer our weakest link.
Inside the track, Megan Boyes returned to something like her best form to win the discus, possibly to shut up some of her male colleagues from Mentone. (It didn't work.) Jodi O'Reilly was another first timer, albeit somewhat more experienced, and took second place in the shot with her best throw for some time. The 4 x 400 has been another weak spot, filled only twice last season if I remember correctly, but with a little encouragement our 800 runners were persuaded to back up. Eastside and Box Hill were way ahead, as expected, but Bayside finished close enough to RCDS and Geelong to suggest that they could be vulnerable later in the season.
At the end of the night, we were twenty-seven points behind Box Hill. To score well over one hundred points against such strong competition is indicative of how far Bayside has come in twelve months. The draw is even tougher next week, with Box Hill, Essendon and Doncaster, but this should be seen as an opportunity to show just how far the team has improved. With some strong runners returning, we could give the opposition a nasty shock. The important thing is that the team spirit we have seen so far continues to make its presence felt. This is turning out to be great season: the trick now is to keep it up.
More info on the Results Page.
November 27: Men Finish Second!
In a week where we had an opportunity to put some breathing space between ourselves and relegation danger, Bayside Men's team almost dropped the ball last night. Up against teams who had struggled in the early rounds we almost paid the penalty for not getting enough athletes out on the track/field. The athletes we did have performed very very well, particularly Disco Stu Laidlaw and the Great Alistair Tait who managed three events each filling some unexpected gaps.
We started off really well with the only qualifiers in the quarter sticks and pole vault. Both Stu and Alistair look like they'll beat most comers this season, and are both improving week by week. Great to see Leon finally registered and clearing impressive heights. Dave McCaffrey threw another big jav, but copped the other good throwers in the state, and had to settle for third. Of course we lost points in the walk (hopefully we'll have someone next week), and hammer (ditto). Our sprinters almost matched the Western Suburbs boys, with 'Nfa looking like a great 100 runner, and Stu and Alisatir backing up in impressive style. 'Nfa ran a speedy 110mh (we'd pick up a few more points with another high hurdler though...).
We lost more points due to the lack of shotputter. Grovesy was fourth in the LJ, forced to produce a safe but short jump after two much bigger looking fouls. He did look pretty stuffed after his three days of cricket. Shaun Pollard was second on countback at HJ (or was he first?). Shaun is doing a great job every week and its about time we went over and cheered for him...
The 800 metres were up next and Glenhuntly had only just passed us into first place, while Western Suburbs weren't far behind. Unfortunately we conceded a few more points than intended in the 8 & 5k. Evan Rees had got stuck at work and we didn't have an emergency organised, so while Tony Wilson ran an impressive 1.52.9 in fourth and Brenno held on for 8th in 1.56.3 we gave up a couple of points. We were always gonna struggle a bit against the Donnie and Glenhuntly boys in the 5k. Marty ran himself into the ground two laps out and didn't make it to the finish, Dean ran a solid 15.07 and Chris Muirden was stiff to miss qualifying (he was still recovering from a virus). The kick in the guts was Western Suburbs managing to get a few points that didn't look too likely.
Thankfully Matt Brown was of winning Discus yet again. Now our hopeless guy with the clipboard (i.e me), had done his maths wrong and told the relay team they had to beat Western Suburbs to hold onto second. Of course I'd forgot to carry a one somewhere. Nevertheless the Demon, joint Athletes of the Week Alistair Tait and Stu Laidlaw, and Tony Wilson did a superb job, running third with some pretty quick legs all round. They didn't quite catch Western Suburbs, as they'd obviously done the numbers better than me and knew they didn't need to.
Final scores: Glenhuntly 164, Bayside 136, Western Suburbs 133, Doncaster 113
This has seen us jump into 8th place, a nice point and a half off relegation territory. We certainly can't afford to get complacent. A lot of the bigger clubs have more quality athletes up their sleeves and we'll need to ensure we cover all events from now on. Its crucial we remember that this is a team thing, and perhaps embarassing ourselves by having a go at an event we're not sure we can qualify in is worth it to ensure we still have State League opportunities next season (I'm thinking here of high hurdles and shot put).
Anyway that's my rave for now. The clipboard is handed back to Jussie as of now...thank christ...
Results are here.