The Canterbury students took control at the end of the second leg and won by 29sec in 24min 51sec at the University Oval.
It was Canterbury's third successive win and it was followed home by Ariki No 1 in 25min 20sec, Caversham in 26min 47sec and Ariki No 2 in 27min 12sec.
The winning Canterbury team was Gus Taylor, Jake Coom, Kim Hogarth, Andrew Davidson, Matt Harris and Dallas Bowden.
The event was first held by the Otago University Harrier Club in 1937 to celebrate the gold medal win in the 1500m by former club member Jack Lovelock at the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936.
Canterbury University has been one of the most dominant teams in the event and it showed this again when the talented Dallas Bowden crossed the line first in the six-man relay event.
Bowden (18) holds the New Zealand men's aged 16 record for the 1500m at 3min 46.98sec and has won 12 New Zealand junior titles in his short career.
Ariki was expected to challenge the Canterbury students but its efforts lasted for just one leg.
Ariki's first runner, Bryce Morgan (17), in his first race in the event, sprinted from 250m out to give Ariki a lead of 30m at the end of the first leg and he was followed home by Sam Kidd (Otago University) and Daniel Balchin.
The first Canterbury runner, Gus Taylor, was in fourth.
James List started strongly and increased Ariki's lead to 7sec after the first two laps of the second leg.
But Coom ran a more controlled race and caught List on the last lap and Canterbury University had a 3sec advantage at the end of the leg.
Canterbury University never let go of the lead after this, with Hogarth increasing the margin to 10sec after three legs and former Otago University medical student Andrew Davidson to 14sec after four laps.
Matt Harris, who ran the fastest leg of 4min 03sec, had a margin of 26sec at the end of the fifth leg and Bowden added 3sec on the final leg.
Canterbury had the four fastest 1500m times in the race.
Harris ran 4min 03sec, Bowden 4min 04sec, and Coom and Hogarth 4min 07sec.
The fastest Ariki runner was Matt Lambert with 4min 07sec for equal-third spot and Morgan 4min 13sec.
Physical education student Rachel Kingsford (19) came with a late rush to give Hill City a win in the four-person women's event.
The Hill City team of Courtney Quirin, Cindy Lowe, Romana Salis and Kingsford won the event in 21min 09sec from Otago University in 21min 14sec, Canterbury University in 21min 48sec and Leith in 21min 56sec.
Kirsty Morris took Leith into a 1sec lead with her sprint finish at the end of the first leg. Sue Cuthbert stretched Leith's lead to 11sec from Otago University at the end of the second leg.
At this stage, Hill City was 31sec behind Leith.
Cathy Brown kept Leith in front on the third leg, but the gap had been reduced to 8sec by Otago University's Cathy Brown.
Salis caught up 9sec for Hill City that was 25sec back in third.
There was dramatic change on the final leg.
After two laps, Kingsford had reduced the gap to Otago University Erin Whitla to 9sec.
With a lap to go, it was just 4sec.
Kingsford, who spent last year racing for Lamar University in Texas, hit the front with 250m left and won by 5sec.
Morris and Kingsford shared the fastest 1500m times with 4min 53sec and were followed by Quirin in 4min 54sec, Alicia Evans (Canterbury University) in 4min 55sec and Kate Grinlinton (Canterbury University) in 4min 59sec.
There was a big turnout, with 300 runners from 61 teams participating.
