Athletics South West Turbines clinch AVSL state division four title in Melbourne

The Turbines - in just their third season as a club - have gone back-to-back in the Athletics Victoria Shield League (AVSL), taking out the state division four title in Melbourne on Saturday.

In total, 18 athletes made the trip to Melbourne to compete against Preston, Ballarat YCW and Coburg in the state playoffs, with the Turbines taking the win.

Several Turbines athletes made the top 100 most valuable across the competition, with Grace Carter (21st), Ruby Darcy (23rd), Layla Nicolson (32nd), Jeff Collins (56th), Emily Morden (58th), Jeremy Dixon (64th) and Chloe Mutton (83rd) performing strongly.

Club president Jeremy Dixon told The Standard there was enormous pride and satisfaction at the result.

"I'm incredibly proud of the local athletics community getting behind the club and we're really excited to go back-to-back," he said.

"We now find ourselves in division three which is a fantastic outcome for a club that is only three years old and one that has a number of travel barriers and infrastructure and training barriers.

"We managed to band together to achieve a really fantastic outcome."

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The Turbines scored 16,989 points to overcome Preston (13,874) and Coburg (13,623), with Ballarat YCW (6,448) falling well behind.

Dixon said despite winning quite comfortably at the end it was a fierce battle all day.

"It was fairly comfortable but it was a bit touch and go, you're just not sure how the others are going and what the performances look like," he said. "It was only in the afternoon we took the lead, it was a nice bit of tense and competitive battle throughout the day.

"It was the closest out of all the five divisions and ours was certainly the one where at least three of the four teams had a good shot."

Dixon said in just three years the club had come on in leaps and bounds.

"We had pretty ambitious expectations starting as a club and we were pretty keen to contribute to the local athletics scene but also the state athletics scene," he said.

"We've surpassed all aspirations so far and that's why looking back over the years we should be pretty proud of what we've achieved."

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