Saturday saw a huge day of cross country at the University of Ulster sports complex in Jordanstown for the Bobby Rea Cross Country with the Northern Ireland & Ulster Even Age Group Championships held beforehand. North Down Juniors did well in the Championships which had massive fields and were also a qualifying stage for the Irish Even Age Group Championships. Athletes could qualify either by among the 1st 12 individuals, 1st 3 teams of 4 or 1st 3 County teams of 6. Individuals qualifying via the 1st 12 were Mollie Brown, 10th in the U16 girls race, Jessica Scott, 6th in the U14 girls and both Amelia Tyler and Megan Briggs, 4th and 6th in the U12 girls.
U10 races came first over 100m with Barney Miller 22nd in the boys race in 4:46 min. U12’s ran over 1500m with Amelia 4th in 9:50 and Megan 8th in 9:58. In the boys race over the same distance, Conor Matthews was47th in 6:10 and Finlay Miller 59th in 6:22. U14’s ran over 2500m and the North Down girls were unlucky not to have 4 scorers for a race they could fancy their chances of a podium finish. Mollie had moved to a higher age group at even age and in-form Murphy Miller was ill on the day. They ran well with Jessica 6th in 10:24, Anna Scott 16th in 10:45 and Sarah Moorcroft 34th in 11:23, all podium standard. In the race for boys, Jakob Swann was 24th in 9:54. At U16 Mollie was 10th over 3500m in 15:00 while in the boys Stefan Yathandran was 55th in 14:49 and Adam Bell 59th in 15:16. at U18 over 5000m, Reece Simpson was 30th in 19:46 and Ciaran Farren 48th in 23:23.
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Full Results: NI & Ulster ‘Even Age Group’ XC Championships 2014 Results