POWERPLAY PERFECTION!
What a great team effort! 65,752 points and now 14 premiership points clear on top of Premier Division. The top six teams have now used their Powerplay so there shouldn’t be any surprises in 2020.
Eleven of our twelve teams finished on top of Yellow Zone this week but better still nine of our teams won the State or came second! Every Age group contributed to our success, but top bragging rights go to the M40+ (9390 points), just edging out the M16 (9080 pts) for our best effort.
Now it’s important for everyone to ensure they have competed in four AVSL rounds and have a ranking in the events which will be held on Feb 22 at the virtual AVSL playoffs (200m, 800m, walk, 3000m, 400mH, triple, hammer, high jump, shot). There is also a 4 x 100m relay on the program so each age group needs to think about getting one together with a couple of emergencies for good measure.
A big thank you to everyone who got to the track early to help with the set up. This is a big job and it was great to see so many people working together. Also thank you to the many parents and athletes who helped with the hurdles and the long jump…raking, sweeping, measuring.
Where do we start??
Sprints
The day was full of great individual results. Linda Caligiuri dominated the 100m with 494 pts, while Joel Cuzzi continues his comeback running the fastest M18 100m in the state with 11.37 sec. Ilana Grande flew in the 100m in 12.26 and 400m in 56.73 pulling in a total 943 pts, while Vishnu Satish (400m in 49.97s) and Marcus Gulielmino (400m in 50.10sec) put a smile on coach Steve Gaffney’s face as well as contributing 940 points.
Distance + Walks
The highlight of the 1500m was Aidan Roberts. A great time of 3:57.8 (518 pts) but more importantly a gutsy win. He also ran a sharp 400m (55.24s). It clear to see Aidan is working hard under coach Gregor and has a bright future. Another of Gregor’s squad, Lauren Connell ran a smart 5000m in 17:49 for 489 pts.
The Old Blokes dominated the 3000m walk with a Duncan Vs Brian battle to the line. Duncan Knox (19:44), Brian Anderson (19:45) and Steve Murphy (22:42) combining for 1032 Team points.
Jumps +
Harrison Williams had a good day with a 7.25m long jump (496 pts) and the quickest 100 of the day with 11.29s. Montana Djatschenko also did the long/100m double, while Amanda Wrout completed the long jump, 100m, 400m and 90m hurdles!
Our triple jump squad headed to Geelong and we had 10 of the top 18 results for a total of 4831 points. Leading the way were Ayo Ore with 16.08m (534 pts), Coach AJ, 15.79m (526 pts), Shemaiah James 15.55m (519 pts), Cooper Cavallo 13.17m (500 pts) and Cat Mendes 12.18 (453 pts).
Our high jumpers split themselves between Box Hill and Geelong with the highlights being Harry Orr 1.80m (522 pts), Jack Walsh 1.85m (499 pts) and Tom Sims 1.65m ( 474 pts). Tom also scored 405 pts with his 10.76m shot put
Jade Guglielmino got a National Qualifier in the pole vault with 3.85m. Sam Conti also flew over the bar. Sam also competed in the 110m hurdles, discus and javelin!
Throws +
The javelin brought in some big points. Maria Strong (478 pts), lead the way while Victoria Entwistle-Hardeman threw a PB 33.41m (464 pts). Kevin Healy 37.83m (460 pts), Gavin Wilson 36.88m (428 pts) and Sam Conti 36.29m (415 pts) were the best of our throwers.
Maria Strong also scored a massive 548 pts in her discus event, while Orla McCarthy threw a PB of 40.75m in extra throws although received 513 points for her first round throw. Victoria Entwistle-Hardeman threw 37.54m for 478 pts, while Louise Mendes threw 39.43m (473 pts) in discus and 52.99m (506 pts) in Hammer.
Kevin Healy was our top point scorer with a massive 1960 points! Along with his javelin, Kevin competed in the discus (51.01m for 514 pts) at Aberfeldie before scooting to Box Hill to do the shot put (13.79m for 447 pts), and the hammer (61.22m for 539 pts). That’s a big day!
Here there and everywhere!
Others to have a big day and help bring in the points were Joanna Margiolis (100m, 400m javelin and discus), Emily Newton (100m, discus, javelin and long jump), Emily Mifsud (400m, 1500m, discus and long jump), Kim Walsh (200m, high jump, shot and triple jump). Among the men, Justin McLaren (1500m, 5000m, javelin and long jump), Christian Knox (1500m, 3000m, javelin & long jump), Jonathan Neethling (400m, 1500m, javelin and long jump), Mark Giglio (100m, 400m, discus, long jump and Javelin) and Spars Veljanovski (100m, 400m, discus and javelin) led our.
Merry Christmas and have a Safe and Happy 2020. Let’s work toward becoming Premier Division premiers in two months. It will be a great preparation for Vic Champs the following weekend.