Round 3 XCR’15:Lake Wendouree Road Race

Georgia Griffith lead MUAC’s U20 Women to team glory and took gold herself in the 5km Road Race at Lake Wendouree yesterday. The win, in 17:54.4, is Griffith’s first state championship of the athletic year, and is a promising sign for the 800m runner and first year Melbourne University student. Griffith combined with Sarah and Elly Jackson, who finished 5th and 8th respectively to win the U20 team competition.

Ella Trimboli topped the MUAC women’s results in the open women’s championship race over 15km. A cold wind whipping across Lake Wendouree made the racing along the southern parts of the course, but Trimboli, paced by Paul Munro, ran well to finish in 1:00:25 for 38th place.  Annie Carter, Gen Blanch, Winter Captain Al Bryant Smith and Martine Botha joined Trimboli to push MUAC to 6th place in the elite Premier Women competition.

A strong cohort of MUAC men drove the team to 4th place in Premier Men with Nick Earl taking an impressive 5th place in 46:52.6 and Zac Newman, 20th in 48:55.1. Ian Lawford beat training partner, and MUAC Winter Manager Max Ueda by 6 seconds to fill the next two spots with David Paroissien and Yohan Blake filling the last two spots.

MUAC’s Division 2 Men’s team took third to continue their steady progression up the ladder, and MUAC’s Division 3 Men took 7th to maintain their standing in a very competitive field, with more than 850 athletes competing across the events.

After a brief warm down, MUAC athletes were back on the bus on the way back to Melbourne, recovering with some recovery food from Ballarat’s finest pizzeria, and some conversations starters.

MUAC athletes will be back in action in two weeks at the Victorian Cross Country Championships at Bundoora on Saturday 13th June, which will double as the selection Trials for the Australian Cross Country Championships.

Results