Earl leads the charge as Uni come to the party
XCR’18 Round 9: Burnley Half Marathon
Melbourne Uni AC enjoyed a fantastic day in round nine of the XCR competition in the Burnley half marathon. The men won the team event by halving the accumulated total of nearest challenger Box Hill. In doing so the men continued its love affair with this particular event, where in the last four years the guys have collected two men’s individual wins as well two team wins and four podium finishes. And it was Uni’s Mr Consistent, Nick Earl, who once again rose to the occasion by overcoming a personal hurdle in landing a first fully deserved XCR title to add to his plethora of successes on the Melbourne running circuit. Nick was well supported by teammate Charlie Park who continued his hot streak on the roads by finishing fourth in 1:06:36. Other notable runs were had by Frankie Conway (6th), Caleb Muller (9th) and Erik Ueda (12th) with all three men setting new PB’s of 1:07.24, 1:07:31, 1:08:24, respectively.
The women also had plenty to shout about as their team registered fifth place in the premier division. Uni is lucky to have one of the legends of Australian distance running in its ranks, and the durable Lisa Dick once again left it all out there by leading the women home in 26th place and a time of 1:29:30. On Lisa’s heels was Sarah Lucas, 28th, who was rightly over the moon to dip under the 90 minute mark (1:29:54) for the first time to stand her in good stead for a tilt at the Melbourne marathon in six weeks. Uni’s third scorer was Martine Botha, 37th, whose 1:36:46 was a new PB and caps an impressive comeback to the sport. Strong runs also came from Kristina Balewski, 1:37:08 and Ruby Turner, 1:37:35.
In the lower divisions the men also ranked well finishing sixth in divisions two and three, and second in division five. Congratulations to all the uni athletes who toughed it out on the day. It was also the final MUAC race of the year for smashed avocado enthusiast Axel Schindelhauer, who’ll be sorely missed. Three MUAC teams, Division Five Men, Division Six Men and Division Seven Men are all in the hunt for promotion with one round remaining.
Special mention to the awesome support Uni had from the sidelines with club President, Hamish Beaumont, doing a fantastic job at leading the pack on the bike and cheering on all the runners. And with Uni’s momentum well and truly in motion the Tan relays in a fortnight’s time presents an exciting prospect for both the men and women to end the season on a high.
