Final North Staffs Cross Country League Race 2015 – 12/12/2015

Saturday was the final race in this years North Staffs Cross Country League, held at a new venue of Uttoxeter racecourse in wet and muddy conditions. Going into this final fixture we had juniors going for individual and team honours and there was a total of 21 our junior athletes competing for the club.

In the U/11 Girls race Beatrice and Mathilde Wakefield and Lucy Brownsword all ran strongly, finishing in that order in 31st, 38th and 40th positions bringing the team home in 8th position on the day.

The U/13 Girls went into this race in 4th position (a massive 104pts behind the third placed team) and were led home in 7th position by Misha Twardochleb, with Scarlett Cotton and Abi McHugh in 20th and 23rd positions respectively. This gave them just 50pts on the day for third and meant they moved up to finish in an excellent third position overall.

The U/15 Girls were involved in yet another close race, with Alex Oakley first back in 15th, with Charlotte Moore just 10 seconds behind in 16th. Next home was Lola Cotton in 22nd and an injury hit Elizabeth Clarkson completed the squad in 27th. The girls finished in 4th position on the day and but for a clash with the inter counties fixture earlier in the season would have finished in the top three team positions.

In the U/17 Ladies race both Rebecca Twardochleb and Sophie Goodfellow had a chance of being in the top positions overall. Rebecca had a close battle at the front of the race just missing out at the finish to end up in 2nd position on the day and securing 3rd overall. Sophie was next back in 7th and our third counter on the day was Shannon McCue in 9th. Our final two athletes completing the team in this race were Lucy Matthews in 12th and Gabby Trotman in 13th. The girls (along with Courtney Bridgewood) totally dominated the league in this age group this year and won with just a total of 65pts over 4 races!!

In the U/13 Boys race Louis Wakefield was our sole competitor and he finished in 28th position on the day which was enough to ensure a top 30 position in the league.

The U/15 Boys race saw Jordan Nixon have his second highest placed run finishing in a fine 4th. Next in was Jacob Droogmans in 8th, closely followed by Lewis Nagington in his highest finish of 12th. Thomas Wood held off the challenge of his (rapidly improving) brother Ryan, and they brought the team home in 39th and 40th places respectively. This was good enough for 2nd on the day and ensured that the boys finished in an excellent 3rd position overall, with Jordan and Jacob both just missing out on an individual award (despite finishing with just 12 and 13 pts respectively).

Congratulations to all our athletes who have competed so well for the club in the league this year, please get your entries in asap for the county, area and national cross country championships coming up in the new year!

Final Individual and Team Positions