THE Flack Advisory Bendigo Region line-up charged to an emphatic victory at Albert Park in Sunday's sixth round of Athletics Victoria's XCR19 series.
Athletes raced 10 kilometres on a circuit that began from the Lakeside precinct, headed to Junction Oval and back again.
In the men's division two teams event, Bendigo scored 342 points to be number one ahead of Knox, 373, and Box Hill, 545.
In-form Bendigo athlete Andy Buchanan ran 29:15 to be second-fastest of all athletes.
Excellent runs by Bradley Croker, 30:35, 18th; Brady Threlfall, 30:39, 29th; Nigel Preston, 33:37, 72nd; Stephen Van Rees, 34:00, 82nd; and Ben Stolz, 36:30, 148th; ensured Bendigo was number one on the grand prix circuit.
In the men's division five contest, Ivanhoe Harriers was best from Richmond Harriers and Bendigo.
The Bendigo team was Darren Hartland, 38:56; Andrew Creer, 39:01; Trevor Kelly, 39:06; and Jayson Carter, 39:29.
The line-up of Jill Wilkie, 41:31, 70th; Anne Buckley, 44:28, 92nd; and Juliet Heah, 45:54, 102nd; worked extremely hard to achieve third place in women's division four.
St Stephens Harriers led the way on 132 points from Box Hill, 182, and Bendigo, 264.
Selected in Victoria's team for next month's Australian XC championships, South Bendigo's Logan Tickell ran the under-14s race at Albert Park in 10:09.68 to finish in third place.
Also bound for the nationals, Echuca's Archie Reid was third in the under-20 class at the Albert 10 in a time of 31:04.60.
Reid also races for South Bendigo.
Several athletes with links to Bendigo ran well at Albert 10 for various clubs from around the state.
Xavier Meade, 33:00, and Simon Hanns, 33:57, were in the Collingwood Harriers team which was eighth in premier division.
Jamie and Victor Cook ran 42:16.1 and 42:16.2 as Glenhuntly was 13th in division three.
Peter Cowell ran 39:36 as Victorian Masters was fifth in division four.
Luke Padgham clocked 34:19 to be 10th in the under-20 event as Ballarat was third.
Glenhuntly's run to third in women's premier division included a fine run by Rebecca Beagley, 35.44, 12th fastest.
Round seven in XCR19 is on July 27 at Lake Wendouree in Ballarat.
