This year’s event was played out in cold and dry conditions with snow visible on the surrounding hillsides but not on the xc course. An improvement on last year but still a tough, genuine cross country course with ankle deep muck, particularly on the hilly sections of the course.
The ladies race was dominated by Jessica Craig, leading from start to finish to win with a comfortable 40 second margin. Valerie McDonough ran a strong race to come 14th and secured 1st F40 in the process and then Fiona McQuillan continued her introduction to cross country running with 19th.
Helen Byers completed the course in 28th followed a short time later by Joanne Moran in 34th. Jane Stevenson ran a steady race to finish in 39th as did Lisa McMeechan returning in 46th place. Paula Simpson, Caroline Crothers and Tanya Leeder made it round inside the top 100 while Clare Russell was just outside finishing in 102nd. Cara Jeffrey and Helen Wyse could not be split throughout the 3 lap race and settled on a dead heat finish with identical times.
Mark Weir was the first male home in 17th place before David Massey and Eamonn O’Reilly came in with 35th and 36th placings. David McMeechan was next in 56th ahead of Frankie Rea in 60th, Colin Walker 61st and Alan Massey in 65th.
Philip Mulligan managed 72nd place after his Tollymore marathon run last week and John McGarvey settled for 99th position with Cliff McCausland crossing the line in 112th.
Earlier in the junior races Megan Briggs had a victory in the U15 girls race. Adam Skelly also had a great run out after playing hockey earlier.
After 4 races in the ANI cross country league we finally got a taste of the unforgiving nature of cross country surfaces. Back to our road shoes for the Seeley 10k next week and then Ballyclare for the Malcolm cup cross country the week after.