Sydney University Athletic Club hit a record club showing over the weekend, with 5 Men’s teams and 4 Women’s teams competing in the 2016 XC Relay Championships.
In the women’s event the race was between Sydney Uni and UTS. The red and blacks were strong early, leading the first three legs, only to be passed by not one but two SUAC teams in the final 4km. The Sydney Uni ‘A’ team of Danielle Allen, Holly Campbell, Paige Campbell and Nat Archer took the win in a time of 56.29. Nat Archer ran the fastest leg of the day for SUAC (13.56), which was 4th fastest overall. Interestingly, SUAC women had 7 out of the 10 fastest times on the day. Sydney Uni ‘B’ took home the silver in a time of 57.52. Beth Croft was the standout running a 13.57, which was the 5th fastest time of the day and she was well supported with big legs from Rosie Weber, Sarah Mavin and Emily Augustine.
The day was not without incident for the SUAC ladies, with the A team’s first runner Danielle Allen breaking a bone in her foot at the 1km mark of the 4km distance. Allen bravely pushed on and remarkably split the 6th fastest run of the day despite being in a significant amount of pain.
In the men’s race SUAC were represented by 5 teams. The SUAC ‘A’ team of Joe Burgess, Hugh Williams, Jack Colreavy and Russell Dessaix-Chin took home the silver medal, staging a ding dong battle with UTS Norths. SUAC’s Joe Burgess ran an enormous leg to kick it off for SUAC, passing to Hugh Williams who ran the fastest split of the day (11.36), Jack Colreavy went to war with long-time rival Matthew Cox from UTS with neither man giving an inch. Russell Chin anchored the SUAC team to silver holding off the NSW 5km Champ from Randwick Botany in the process.
In the Winter Premiership SUAC lead both the men and women’s point scores at the midpoint of the competition. The next event in the Winter Premiership is the NSW Cross Country Championships to be held in Nowra late June.
Image credit: David Tarbotton
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