A fantastic turnout of club members saw our Women’s team race to a convincing victory and our Mens team finish a very strong third at the first fixture in this years North Staffs Cross Country League. Held in glorious sunshine our athletes and teams provided performances to match the conditions.
The U/20, Senior and Masters women’s race was held over 5km (2 large laps) and we had 28 athletes competing within the 220 finishers. Great packing from all our runners meant that our ladies team were clear winners of Division 1.
Our first finisher on the day was U/20 Rebecca Twardochleb who finished in a fine 2nd place (20:52 and 1st U/20), closely followed by Kerry Marchant 3rd (21:02 and 1st W40), Leah Whiston 4th (21:10), Lucy Matthews 7th (21:36 and 2nd U/20), Sophie Goodfellow 9th (21:50 and 3rd U/20), Amy Neill 13th (22:18), Grace Ranford 17th (22:22 and 5th U/20), Alex Oakley 40th (23:58 and 7th U/20), Catherine Bridgewater 57th (24:53), Maxine Bickerton 58th (24:54), Olivia Cunningham 62nd (25:10), Rachel Wakefield 63rd (25:16 and 16th W45), Jan Cassidy 89th (26:27 and 7th W50), Kelly Little 92nd (26:44 and 17th W40),
Tonia Vernon 118th (28:26 and 25th W45), Rachel Trpeski 120th (28:37 and 21st W40), Susan Twardochleb 126th (28:55 and 26th W45), Julia Bridgewater 131st (29:29 and 12th W55), Helen Ranford 133rd (29:36 and 27th W45), Sharon Tomkinson 139th (29:57 and 14th W50), Vicki Stevens 140th (29:58 and 24th W40), Nicola Brownsword 141st (30:07 and 22nd W35), Sonia Alford 187th (34:30) and Stephanie Nagington 188th (34:33 and 33rd W40), Tracey Johnson Knowles 192nd (35:09 and 22nd W50) and Stacy Sharman was 193rd (35:15 and 29th W35).
In the U/20, Senior and Masters mens race (3 laps and 8km) we had 26 athletes racing within the field of 307 finishers. Just like in the ladies race our Men ran really strongly and their were many battles between clubmates throughout the race. Our men also packed strongly to finish 3rd in division 1, having so many compete really does make a massive difference to both our and our competitors points total!
First back for the club and in a great 3rd position overall (and also 1st U/20) was James Fradley in 27:08, next in 25th were fellow U/20’s Jordan Nixon (29:15 and 7th U/20) and Jacob Droogmans 29th (29:36 and 8th U/20).
Simon ford was next in 30th (29:37 and 3rd M40), Tim Sharman 32nd (29:39), Shaun Allen 40th (29:58), Ian Bayliss 47th (30:13), Jamie Pringle 51st (30:27 and 8th M40), Andrew Walker 64th (31:01 and 7th M45),
Martin Davies 67th (31:07), Craig Taylor 69th (31:20), Bruce Johnson 73rd (31:26), Jerome Stevens 75th (31:29 and 12th M40), Richard Longley 80th (31:36 and 13th M40), Scott Zikmanis 106th (32:30 and 17th M40), Paul Tatler 115th (32:44), Jon Ranford 159th (34:30 and 34th M45), Neil Gerrity 160th (34:43), Mark Cotton 172nd (35:21 and 25th M40),
Andrew Brownsword 195th (36:43), Tim Twentyman 224th (38:01 and 28th M50), Matt Way 225th (38:09), Mark Dixon 249th (39:37 and 34th M40),
Stuart Cassidy 254th (40:09 and 53rd M45), Kevin Oakley 270th (41:15 and 35th M50) and Kevin Davison 273rd (41:27).
Congratulations to both our Senior Women’s and Mens Teams and to all our club members who took part and represented the club. Thank to Susan Twardochleb, Craig Taylor, Leah Whiston and Brian Dale (www.racephotos.org.uk) for the photos used. Our Juniors also competed at this fixture and their report can be found HERE Next League fixture is Saturday 27th October at Stafford Common.