County Even Age Juvenile Cross Country Championships

All 46 of our juvenile athletes from U/10 to U/18 that travelled to Moyglass on Sunday last gave the club plenty to cheer about with a host of County Championship medals won between individual and team competitions.

Leading the individual medallists was Harry Hogan who finished second in the Boys U/18 event with four athletes winning individual bronze medals – Louise Hickey Girls U/12, Philip Hayes Boys U/12, Dylan McLoughlin Boys U/14 and Eamonn Troy Boys U/18.  Also amongst the individual medallists were Amy Reddan in the Girls U/10, David Doyle Boys U/10, Victoria Lupton Girls U/12, Helen Cleere Girls U/12, Aoife Dwyer Girls U/12 and Aaron McLoughlin Boys U/12.  The club were also the leading club in the team competitions with 4 teams winning gold – Girls U/12, Boys U/12, Girls U/16 and Boys U/18. In addition the Boys U/14 won silver with the Girls U/14 and Boys U/16 winning bronze. 

First away were the Girls U/10 where five young athletes represented the club with Amy Reddan putting in a great performance to finish 10^th overall and claim an individual bronze medal.  Next home was Saoirse Doran in 18^th with Una Duggan 30^th, Blaithnaid Lloyd 31^st and Clodagh Gleeson 39^th.  The girls finished 5^th in the team competition on 89pts.  8 athletes represented the club in the Boys U/10 race where David Doyle was our leading athlete with a great 5^th place to also collect an individual bronze medal.  Adam Spillane-Leane was next across the line in 14^th followed by Fred Power in 22^nd and Frank Doyle 29^th to finish 4^th in the team competition on 70pts.  Jack Flanagan finished 33^rd, Cormac Burke 35^th, Jack Gleeson 36^th and Declan Teehan 44^th to finish 8^th in the team championship on 148pts.

Five athletes took part in the Girls U/12 race and what a performance they put in with all five in the top twelve.  Leading them home was Louise Hickey who finished third overall and was our first top three finisher of the day.  Victoria Lupton was hot on her heels in fourth with Helen Cleere in sixth, Aoife Dwyer seventh and Tara Gleeson twelfth.  The girls were convincing winners of the team competition.  Not to be outdone in the team stakes the Boys U/12 put up a great performance with Philip Hayes also occupying third place on the podium while Aaron McLoughlin dug deep to finish fifth and claim an individual bronze medal.  Adam Butler finished 14^th with Jake Bowe 17^th to clinch the gold medals in the team competition.  Liam Ryan in 32^nd and Blake Walsh in 43^rd were also a vital part of this team.

The pace in the Girls U/14 race was very strong but our girls did extremely well with Emma Gleeson finishing 7^th overall followed by Aisling Dwyer in 11^th, Katie Bergin, 12^th and Aine Dugan 17^th to bring home the bronze medals.  Spare a thought for Rachel Butler and Nora Brennan who were both forced out of the race with injury.  In the Boys race Dylan McLoughlin had a fantastic run making the winners rostrum with a third place overall.  Charlie Tobin came through the field for 8^th followed by Cormac Mooney in 13^th, Jack Lupton 14^th and Gavin Ryan 15^th and this was good enough for second in the team competition.

At U/16 level seven athletes between Girls & Boys represented the club with the Girls team of Roisin Daly, Aoibheann Duggan and Maria Brennan pulling out all the stops to win the gold medals.  Roisin finished an excellent 5^th, Aoibheann 9th and Maria 10^th.  In the Boys race Nathan Bowe had a great run to lead the club athletes’ home with a 6^th place finish.  Jack Hickey finished 9^th while Lorcan Troy finished 13^th and Sean Burke 17^th to claim the bronze medals in the team competition.

Emma Doyle was our lone representative in the Girls U/18 race and ran very strongly to finish 5^th overall while in the Boys race Harry Hogan kept with the pace throughout and for his efforts he finished 2^nd overall to win an individual silver medal.  Eamonn Troy got up to finish 3^rd and a bronze medal with Aidan Ryan finishing 4th.  The boys were the winners of the team competition.

With 36 championship medals – 14 gold, 5 silver and 17 bronze – being brought home by our club athletes on Sunday each and every athlete who competed in such great numbers should be very proud of their performances and of their team spirit.  Our thanks to everyone who came to support the athletes, in particular the huge number of parents who travelled, as this provides a great incentive for all the athletes on the day.

The next day out for these athletes is Sunday 18^th October in Two-Mile-Borris.