It was fantastic to see a strong turn out from our red and black army for Playoff 1 at Tom Kelly Athletics Track on Saturday. With hot and humid conditions it was great to see so many athletes dig deep and work hard to earn the club valuable points.
With our parents keeping a hawk-like watch on the live results, it was valuable to be provided with live updates throughout the afternoon. With Eaglehawk in the clear lead for most of the day (thanks to an earlier finishing time), there was a clear scoreline we needed to match. This information came particularly in handy when working out relay teams.
The true Essendon team spirit was on full display in the late afternoon, with a number of athletes volunteering to compete in mixed relays or up an age group or two in order to field full relay teams. Our unbelievable representation in the relays played a major role in us overtaking Eaglehawk and closing the massive gap with Diamond Valley.
A big thank you to the following athletes for competing in the following relay teams: U18 Girls: Sasha Jurson, Alexis Shead, Lara Sacaner, Ella Leith; U16 Men: Lucas Harris, Sam Meehan, Chase Jardine, Jonathan Neethling; U20 Men: Khushnoor Rangi, Sukhnoor Rangi, Jannik Ernst, Mackenzie Leith; Open Men: Brian Mayengo, Christian Reinhardt, Vishnu Satish, Tarik Bello; Mikeala Selaidinakos, Sophia Gregorevic, Joanna Margiolis, Matthew Millington; 40+ Men: Troy Jardine, Marlon Cummings, Arron Downes, Sukhjivan Singh; Kristian Lakusa, Spars Veljanovski, Karl Orr, Richard Brophy; Lisa Gunn, Maggie Armstrong, Kim Walsh, Danny Hawksworth; Brian Anderson, John Cooper, Mark Donahoo, Duncan Knox.
Congratulations to the following athletes on recording PBs on Saturday: Lucas Harris: 1500m 4:32.2, long jump 4.43m and 400m 58.02; Jannik Ernst 400m 50.51; Maggie Armstrong: 1500m 6:50.7; Charlotte Jackson: 2000m steeplechase 7:29.1; Chase Jardine 1500 5:17.1; Noah Tarallo 2000m steeplechase 6:29.9, this time also broke Noah’s existing record.
Congratulations to Mackenzie Leith on being the top scoring male athlete in the state with 1,525pts and Lucas Harris (1,297pts), Brett Maurer (1,243pts) and Richard Brophie (1,156pts) on also placing in the top 50 most valuable male athletes in Victoria. Congratulations to Ella Leith (1,489pts), Alexis Shead (1,367pts), Maz Strong (1,320pts), Khushnoor Rangi (1,291pts) and Cailin Walker (1,218pts) on all being ranked in the top 50 female Most Valuable Athletes in Victoria.
Playoffs 2 will be this Saturday at the Moonee Valley Athletics Centre, it would be great to see as many athletes, parents and coaches wearing red and black uniforms, clothing and accessories as possible to show their club pride! We will also be hosting a BBQ so we hope you’ll all join us to celebrate the end of the season regardless of the result.
