The Victorian All Schools and Open State Cross Country Championships were held over the weekend at Bundoora Park, where the top 10 place getters of each age group were automatically selected to represent Victoria in the up and coming Australian National Cross Country Championships to be held in Perth.
The technical 12km course for Men’s and 8km for Woman’s proved to be more difficult with continuous rain days prior to the event. Doncaster Athletic Club had a strong showing in their Open teams, with the Men winning both their divisions and Woman finishing third overall in their respective division. With these performances, the open Men now top their Premiership table taking over Diamond Valley Athletic Club while the Woman secure 2nd position overall behind cross country powerhouse, Glenhuntly. Notable individual performances go to Katie Gamble for finishing 7th overall in the U/20 Woman’s event, Bronte Gange for finishing 16th overall in the Open Woman’s and Ben Ashkettle, for finishing 5th overall in the Open Mens, alongside Liam Adams – Commonwealth Games Marathon Representative.
With the Juniors representing their respective schools rather than athletics club; Doncaster athletes have been selected to represent Victoria include: Abbey Caldwell – 3rd (U14 Girls), Anna Musker – 9th (U15 Girls), Tim Caldwell – 9th (U16 Boys) and Charlotte Basset, who ended up winning the Woman’s U17 event. Round 5 of the Victorian XCR will be at Sandown Racecourse for the Road Relay Championships.