Kilbroney Park, Rostrevor was the new venue for the A District cross country which was a move away from Delamont.
There was an abundance of North Down runners in all of the events representing their respective schools. There were three individual race winners in the form of Tara McDonough – Minor Girls, Murphy Miller – Inter Girls and Craig McMeechan – Senior Boys.
Tara was comfortable amongst the lead group for the large part of the race, which also included Freya Adams who finished 3rd, and showed her strength on the run in to win. Murphy Miller had a relatively conservative start by her standards which seems to be paying dividends. Once settled into the race Murphy stamped her authority on the opposition and broke the tape 15 seconds ahead of her closest challenger. Craig McMeechan had 3 laps of the picturesque Kilbroney course to complete and for 2 of those laps he fought for the lead. Once Craig got to the hill for the 3rd time at the start of the last lap he was opening up a gap which he improved upon to also win by 15 seconds.
There were great performances from Daniel Playfair – 2nd Mini Boys, two third places Freya Adams – Minor Girls and Thomas Patterson – Inter Boys. In the Junior girls Megan Briggs had a solid 4th place finish with Caitlin Turner 5th and Rachel Gillespie 8th.
In the first race of the day, the Mini girls, Hollie Massey had a gutsy race to finish 5th and in the Mini boys Lukas Kenny and Nathan Semple had a close finish as they finished within a second of each other in 7th and 8th.
Jessica Scott was 7th in the Inter girls as was Nia McNally in the Senior girls followed by Beth Crosbie, making a rare appearance over the mud, in 8th. Adam Skelly was our first runner home in the Minor boys in 9th and John Ewing 10th in the Inter boys.
Amelia Tyler managed a 3rd place in the girls minor on Tuesday running in the B District races.
With our young athletes representing a host of schools a lot of them were part of qualifying teams as well as individual. Strathearn girls won every age group with 3 individual winners including our own Murphy Miller. St Columbanus junior girls qualified in 3rd, Megan Briggs, Caitlin Turner and Alisha Turner, and Tara McDonough’s Sullivan Upper team were 2nd in the Minors. Bangor Grammar qualified in the Mini boys, Daniel Playfair, Nathan Semple and Luke Swann contributing, the Junior boys where Mark Carberry and Ben Jenkins were involved and the Senior boys, Craig McMeechan and Reece Simpson.
All eyes are on Mallusk on 22nd February for the Ulster Schools where successful athletes will progress to the Irish Schools at the same venue on 11th March.