Co Down District Cross-Country Championships
The day started with the Mini girls race and our Form 1 girls got us off to a great start with Mabelle Wilcox leading from the front and powered home well ahead of the field to win gold individually and helped the team to become Mini Champions with Hollie Massey finishing 5th, Niamh Hatfield 6th, Connie Hanna 8th, Alice Browne 9th and Sophie Thomas 14th.
The Senior girls were next to take to the course and they put in a great team performance also finishing in Gold medal position with Harriett Platt the first of the Strathearn girls to cross the line just narrowly out of the medals in 4th place, Beth Crosbie was 8th, Sarah Brown 12th , Alex Reilly 13th, Kezia Beattie 22nd and Georgina Gomes 32nd.
The Juniors were determined to continue their winning streak over the last 2 years and they did not disappoint! Amelia Kane ran a magnificent race and sailed home full of running with nobody near her. Eve McKibbin finished 9th, Jemima Thomas 13th, Sophie Kenny 14th, Charlotte Kerrs 41st and Chloe Browne 45th meaning Strathearn again came out on top in team points so another title was ours.
The Minor girls took on the challenge next and the team worked very hard to keep the trophies coming our way. Freya Adams came home in Bronze medal position with Anna McKinty in 6th place, Lara Whitten 12th, Lucy Chambers 20th, Rosie Elwood 26th and Mia Davison 29th. The team score was again better than any of the opposition and Strathearn added the Minor title to our list of wins.
The Intermediate team were the last girls’ race of the day and they had the challenge of running twice around the course to complete 3000m. Now we knew we had a strong team starting having some girls on this team trying to win their 4th and others their 5th successive Co Down title. But they still had to complete the race and what a race it turned out to be with Strathearn coming home in 1st, 2nd and 4th place thanks to Murphy Miller, Olivia Nelson and Erin McConnell respectively. Katie Wills finished 11th, Aimee Stitt 16th and Ruby Baxter 29th. This was easily the best team score of the day and a brilliant way to finish the races for us with another first overall in the Intermediate age group.
So a fantastic day’s work for the Strathearn Cross-Country teams, one that will be hard to live up to in years to come but we are now looking forward to the Ulster Championships on Wednesday 22nd February at Mallusk.
Well done girls!!!
(See Gallery for photos)
