Bendigo District and Box Hill Athletics Club have taken out the cross country relay titles at the opening round of the Athletics Victoria XCR series at Jells Park.
In cold conditions with intermittent showers, Bendigo District proved too strong in the men’s 6x6km relay, taking line honours by just eight seconds after 36km of racing ahead of Western Athletics, with Box Hill Athletics Club just four seconds further adrift.
Bendigo’s victory came with a strong final leg of 17:41 from Andy Buchanan, who was backing up just a fortnight after making his marathon debut in Hamburg, where he recorded a fast 2:12:23. Buchanan’s split was the third fastest of the day, behind national 1500m record holder Stewart McSweyn (17:30) and national 10000m record holder Jack Rayner (17:40). 
Fastest men’s splits of the day
| Athlete & Club | Split |
| Stewart McSweyn St Stephen’s Harriers | 17:30 |
| Jack Rayner Western Athletics | 17:40 |
| Andy Buchanan Bendigo Region | 17:41 |
| Andre Waring Box Hill Athletics Club | 17:53 |
| Seth O’Donnell Mentone Athletics Club | 17:55 |
| Liam Cashin Western Athletics | 17:56 |
| Tom Thorpe St Stephen’s Harriers | 18:03 |
| Lachlan Herd Knox Athletics Club | 18:21 |
| Alexander Ritchie Box Hill Athletics Club | 18:25 |
| Brady Threlfall Bendigo Region | 18:26 |
In the women’s 5x6km relay a strong Box Hill quintet of Stella Radford, Georgia Hansen, Victoria Skaltsonis, Hayley George and Sarah Billings took a resounding victory by over four minutes from South Melbourne, with Glenhuntly 70 seconds further behind.
The fastest split of the day was set by Australian mile record holder Linden Hall, in 20:07.
Fastest women’s splits of the day
| Athlete & Club | Split |
| Linden Hall Athletics Essendon | 20:07 |
| Georgia Hansen Box Hill Athletics Club | 20:15 |
| Stella Radford Box Hill Athletics Club | 20:42 |
| Sarah Billings Box Hill Athletics Club | 20:55 |
| Rachel McGuinness South Melbourne Athletics Club | 21:07 |
| Madison King Glenhuntly Athletics Club | 21:17 |
| Madeleine Murray St Stephen’s Harriers | 21:24 |
| Amy Robinson Mansfield Athletics Club | 21:27 |
| Gabrielle Vincent South Melbourne Athletics Club | 21:45 |
| Sophie Coughlin Sandringham Athletics Club | 22:09 |
Over 1,000 athletes took to the course over the duration of the day. Check out the highlights package from Athletics Victoria below.
Photo gallery
Check out some of the 300 photos from the event below. The full gallery is available here. 
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