Caversham, perhaps the club in the region most affected by the loss of athletes because of employment opportunities this year, was also missing two of its leading runners for its defence of the title.
But the 11th-hour replacements, relative unknowns Joe Matthews and Sam Hopper, proved they were more than capable of stepping up.
Matthews, in his first full season of running, had mixed success in age-group competition at the Otago championships. But on Saturday, he took the baton from national junior 10,000m champion Jonah Smith and ran as if he belonged in A grade company. Likewise, Hopper's run was impressive.
Matthews (16) and Hopper (18) joined Smith (18) and Otago 1500m champion Ben Anderson (21) to form one of the youngest teams to have won the title.
Anderson, who captained the team to victory and was the only member of last year's team to be backing up, was full of praise for his young team.
''That was an exceptional run from Jonah on the first leg, and Joe was just outstanding,'' he said.
''And Sam just proved he's going to be one to watch.''
For Matthews, it was the second time in recent weeks he had stepped up to fill senior men's A grade running shoes. He was a replacement in the Caversham team that finished runner-up in the Lovelock Relays two weeks ago.
''He's certainly taking his opportunities and will just keep getting better and better,'' Anderson said.
Smith found himself lining up with Sam Bremner (Hill City), a runner he had never beaten. However, he challenged Bremner from the start, running strongly throughout and attacking the jumps to hand Matthews a handy 18sec lead at the first change.
The competition between the two saw Smith gain second-fastest time of 9min 31sec for the 2650m loop.
Matthews and Hopper did the business over the middle stages and it was left to Anderson to emerge from the thickening mist after a powerful final leg in the fastest time of the day, 9min 29sec. Caversham stopped the clock at 39min 42sec, Hill City-University was second in 40min 47sec and Leith third in 41min 35sec.
An impressive first leg from Rebekah Greene in the open women's 4x2000m event set Hill City-University up for a third consecutive victory.
Greene clocked 7min 51sec on the 2000m loop, securing fastest time, and consistent runs from fellow team members Hannah Adamson, Shauna Pali and Kirsty O'Sullivan completed the team's dominance in the grade. They won in a time of 32min 46sec.
Ariki No1 was second in 33min 22sec and Hill City No2 third in 35min 48sec. The Ariki pair of Hanna and Sian English achieved second and third-fastest times. Younger sister Hanna got bragging rights with 7min 56sec and Sian finished in 8min 4sec.
