XCR14 Round 9:Tan Relays

A cast of 59 MUAC athletes descended on The Botnaical Gardens on Saturday, 20th of September for the final episode of XCR14, the Tan Relays, with a bevy of supporters in tow. With 14 MUAC teams competing, a variety of stories and plots would unfold over the day, with good performances the unifying theme.  Fans and critics have labelled MUAC’s XCR14 season one of the best ever, up there with season 5 of Seinfeld, season 2 of The West Wing and every season of Chuck Norris’ Walker:Texas Ranger.

Winter Manager David McDonald assembled an all star cast of MUAC’s finest to take on more than 1100 athletes from around Victoria around the iconic Tan Track.  The Women’s Premier team of A-listers Sophie Barker, Amanda Paulin, Ellen Schaef, Sarah McSweeney and debutant Lise Roos-Weil ran superbly to claim 4th place in the elite division, just 27 seconds off the podium. MUAC’s Division 3 Women also took 4th place ina very competivie division. The bounty of star power amongst the MUAC Women lead to the selection of three even teams in Division 5 (named after the MUAC uniform colours), pitted against each other. MUAC Black, with Martine Botha (MUAC’s CJ Cregg), Isidora Stefanovic and Laura Constable claimed 1st.  MUAC White, Kate Scarlett (Evelyn Baker Lang), Monique Gearaghty and Gen Blanch (Lou Thornton) taking second place. The MUAC Blue team of Kate McLure, Rachel Painter and Ilka Barr were close behind in 4th.

MUAC’s Premier Men were sitting in 2nd place on the ladder after 8 rounds of the XCR14 season and looked to cement the position with a strong run.  The elite division was satcked with quality, featuring Olympians Jeff Riseley and David McNeil, recent Commonweatlh Games representative Liam Adams, and a slew of Australia’s top runners. With a solid start by Martin Mashford and Nick Earl, by the time The Maestro Mark Kirwan tagged Neman (Zac), MUAC were in the lead, a lead he maintained to tag Ian Lawford. David Paroissien brought the team home strongly to claim the bronze, MUAC’s first men’s XCR relay medal since 2005. MUAC’s Division 2 featured the debut of promising youngster Liul Mekonnen, and visiting star Romain Donneux. With a tight spread of times, the team took third place, their best result for the season. The Division 3 team, lead by Neil Sampson as Kenny Bania and Paul Munro as Joe Davola, came home in fifth place.  A second place for the Division 6 Men (Steve Russel, Jordan Mayston, David McDonald and Brian O’Donoghue) secured the Premiership and promotion to Division 5. Five MUAC teams were part of the mayhem of Division 7 with Lachlan Hegarty, Tim Hui, Matt Irons and Kerrin Rattray taking home first prize, MUAC’s second victory of the day. MUAC teams also filled 3rd, 5th, 6th and 13th place.  Notable amongst them was Tony Brain (Jed Bartlett)’s victory over Paul Shortis and the fine running done by the debutant’s from Dion Houtman’s Wednesday running group (Cassie, Friederike, Deborah and James).

 A big thanks to Di Irons for helping us out as a course marshall and to the breathaking babies, and parents, that came down to support us and our super mascots Simba and Hugo for the unwavering support.

MUAC’s athletes retired to the Princes Park Bowls Club to watch the Australian Foosball Championship and debate the best way to perform triage on a dislocated shoulder, before enjoying some drinks and BBQ treats in Station St.

There’s only a short break for MUAC’s athletes with the track and field season starts in a few weeks and the Melbourne Marathon on Sunday, 12 October.

Results

Final ladders

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Full Cast List

Adam Hannah
Al Bryant Smith
Amanda Paulin
Andy Selby
Annie Carter
Anthony Woodward
Brian ODonoghue
David Crouchman
David McDonald
David Paroissien
Dion Houtman
Ellen Schaef
Frank Ciancio
Gen Blanch
Gerarde Kelly
Hamish Beaumont
Ian Lawford
Ilka Barr
Isi Stefanovic
Jordan Mayston
Kate McClure
Kate Scarlett
Kerrin Rattray
Lachlan Hegarty
Laura Constable
Leigh Goedecke
Lise Roos-Weil
Mark Kirwan
Martin Mashford
Martine Botha
Matt Irons
Max Ueda
Meg Stevenson
Monique Geraghty
Neil Sampson
Nick Earl
Paul Munro
Peter Gaukrodger
Rachel Painter
Rob Baker
Sam Joy
Sarah Emons
Sarah McSweeney
Shohei Waller
Steven Russel
Tim Hui
Tim Thomas
Tony Brain
Zac Newman
Liul Mekonnen
Sophie Barker
Sam Blake
Cassie Cohen
Deborah Goh
Friederike Winter
James Haynes
Romain Donneux
Cody Williamson

Crew List

Ciara Jones

Ryan Sampson

Roisin Jones

Richard Jones

Mel Fayen

Di Irons

Andrew Horsfield

La famille O’Donoghue

Simba

Hugo