New Newcastle recruit Stephen Craig cleaned up at Easter, taking out the keenly contested M45A class over the three days of bush action in the ACT.
Stephen, the son of Garingal member Margaret Craig, has only been back in Australia a few months after many years living in Sweden. He won his age class by 14 minutes over Eric Morris (Bennelong Northside) as NSW notched the trifecta, and had 7 of the first 10 runners in M45A.
Stephen also took out the Hard 1 prologue sprint at Uni of Canberra by almost a minute.
NSW runners also swept the M12A, W55AS and M/W Junior Easy placings.
Newcastle came third in the Australian club championship battle, based on placings in the Long Distance event on the Sunday.
In the elite National League divisions, Michele Dawson (Garingal) was crowned Australian university women's champion to add to her uni sprint title in Melbourne earlier this month. Michele was the highest-ranked NSW runner in the open women's elite in 10th place overall.
Aidan Dawson (Garingal) and Georgia Jones (Uringa) recorded top-10 overall in the junior elites, each finishing 9th.
NSW placegetters overall at Easter were:
1st - Jamie Marsh (BF, M10), Oskar Mellla (NC, M12A), Glenn Meyer (SH, M35A), Stephen Craig (NC, M45A), Tony Woolford (BB, M50A), Brook Martin (GO, W21A), Mikayla Enderby (NC, W12A), Jenny Enderby (NC, W45A), Toy Martin (NC, W65A), Christa Schafer (GO, W75A), Maureen Ogilvie (UR, W80A), Peter May (NT, M55AS), Jeff Carberry (IK, M65AS), Alexa Troedson (BF, W45AS), Maria Orr (NC, W55AS), Kade Mavroudis (WR, M Jnr B), Oliver Macfarlane (BF, M/W Jnr Easy).
2nd - Oliver Freeman (BF, M12A), Darren Slattery (BN, M35A), Jock Davis (BF, M40A), Eric Morris (BN, M45A), Gordon Wilson (BN, M65A), Terry Bluett (BN, M70A), Basil Baldwin (GS, M75A), Alitia Dougall (BN, M21A), Ruth Shedden (SH, W35A), Tracy Marsh (BF, W40A), Linda Sesta (UR, W45A), Jean Baldwin (GS, W70A), Shane Jenkins (NC, M35AS), Saacha Donaldson (BF, W35AS), Lisa Lampe (UR, W55AS), Lucy Mackie (BF, W Open B), Daniel Sherlock (BF, M/W Jnr Easy).
3rd - Mark Freeman (BF, M21AS), Sam Woolford (BB, M12A), Richard Mountstephens (BF, M40A), Greg Barbour (BF, M45A), Simon George (BF, M50A), Robert Vincent (NC, M55A), Ted Mulherin (WH, M75A), Barry Hanlon (WH, M80A), Nail Schafer (GO, M85A), Neqa Shingler (BF, W12A), Danielle Kopriva (UR, W35A), Janet Morris (WH, W75A), Dmitry Stukov (WH, M35AS), Garry Stewart (SH, M55AS), Dennis Sparling (GO, M65AS), Sandra Stewart (SH, W55AS), Lachlan Sherlock (BF, M/W Jnr Easy).
A big thank you to Orienteering ACT for a fantastic carnival. The autumn extravaganza continues in that area this weekend with the NSW Middle and Long championships at Snow Hills, conducted by Big Foot.
