West Mids XC League - Sunday 6th December
Junior XC Athletes show true team spirit
Rugby & Northampton AC Junior XC squad went into the third race in this five race series excited at the prospect of leading the team table but with the realisation that the chasing pack of clubs hadn’t given up trying to catch them. Following a week of heavy rain the course was predictably muddy and with several athletes running with a variety of bugs & ailments the true team spirit once again shone through to produce another winning performance.
U11 Girls
The Under 11 Girls have increased their lead at the top of the table after race 3 with yet another 1st class winning performance by Phoebe Ellis, closely followed by the improving Constantia Liburd in 2nd place, Lily Carmichael is improving with every race to finish 7th and Georgia Wright was back on form to finish 13th, the U/11 girl athlete of the day was Ella Bromley who improved her position by 16 places to finish 18th and ensure that the 5 point scoring team members all finished in the top 20 !!!
These were followed in by great supporting team members Emily Cutler 29th, Ella Machin-Bradbury 34th, Megan Hughes 35th, Millie Mason 43rd, Poppy Carmichael 45th, Abigail Shocklidge 48th, Eva Spellman 56th, Luisa Moen 62nd, Megan Williams 65th, Katie Woods 68th, Charlotte Lodge 79th, Ellie Shepherd 86th, Niamh Chippington 92nd. Almost all of these girls made big improvements on their positions from Race 2 and with 15 girls entering are proving to a pretty formidable army of athletes, and all competing with heart!!!
U11 Boys
Luckily the heavy overnight and early morning rain had subsided but left a very wet, muddy and heavy ground on this already demanding course with a couple of steep hills to check the athletes endurance levels. The under 11’s boys squad of Haydn Arnall (9th), Cameron Roberts (22nd), Joe Musgrove (29th), Thomas Haynes (34th), Tom White (36th), Harry Cocker (51st), Lloyd Faulkner (53rd), Joe Childs (56th), Charles Gilling (57th), Rhys Dickerson (62nd), Riley Pitts (76th), Harvey Dickerson (80th) performed extremely well in the difficult conditions to finish 2nd on the day and to maintain their 2nd position after 3 rounds, WELL DONE!!
U13 Girls
Things got even better for the very strong u13 girls team. 18 Athletes competed and thanks to all their efforts the u13's are now in joint first. Charlotte Murphy was the first runner home in 6th place more than making up for the disappointment of last time out when she was tripped at the start. Isobel Hughes remains the teams most consistent runner, her 8th place keeps her at 8th overall in the league. Becky Pinto had a great race making up a lot ground after starting in the second row to finish in 10th, she was followed home in 11th by the improving Becky Shears. Making up the first 5 in the team was Katie Clubb in 14th, she is the other Northampton runner in the overall top 10 holding 9th place. Although not scoring the other team members helped by beating other clubs, these included Alison Inwood in 19th and Ciara Moore at 34th improving by 16 places. Maddie Spellmans hard work in training is paying off her 44th place was an improvement of 18 places from last time out. Jeorjia Laws had another good run at 66th, next home was Daisy Cummings in 77th followed by Natalie Goddard in her first race. Natalies twin sister Kirsty was not far behind in 87th. The rest of the team were made up by Libby Lea who in her first race came 89th, Megan Exeley 92nd, Phin Hindle 94th, Emily Valentine 103rd and Katrina Daley 106th.
U13 Boys
The U13 boys put in another excellent team performance on a muddy, hilly cross country course. Two runners finished in the top ten; Billy Bowman–Shaw (3rd) and Jack Murphy ( 7th). They were well supported by the rest of the team, Kyran Wilson finishing 14th, Matthew Bridges 21st, Adam Wright 26th. Harry Hughes and Harry Taylor both improved their positions from the last race by 10 and 2 places respectively to finish 31st and 43rd. The team are now lying in 3rd place overall, and getting stronger with every race !
U15 Girls
The U15 Girls fought illness and injury to record their best performance of the season
Genevieve Roberts produced a fine, strong run to lead the team home over the demanding course, finishing in 12th position. Sarah Bennett showed great character to overcome sickness for the team, finishing 13th and Clarissa Blake showed she is close to her best again following recent illness by completing the race in 14th.Megan Love supported well to finish 61st overall. However, the performance of the race came from Tilley Lea who finished 63rd in her first cross country race without the benefit of running spikes. Likewise, Hattie Snead also showed the same level of enthusiasm and determination to complete her 3rd race of the season in 79th place.
U15 Boys
Struggling for available athletes the U15 boys started with just 5 runners which meant that all runners counted for the team spots. Ben Jennings once more led the way to be the top team finisher in 20th closely followed by George Goodwin who had travelled back from Newquay racing the day before in 21st. James Smith & Carrick Baldwin continued their consistent season to finish 39th & 49th respectively. Alex-John McLaren once again proved his team dedication & respect from his team mates to finish in 65th place. The boys managed to keep themselves in 4th place in the overall competition.
U17 Women
The U17 women started the race with half of their athletes barely fit to run but managed to maintain their position of second in the league after a tough race that saw Charlotte Inwood slip to 5th place and Emily Waugh to 9th, her first time out of the top 3 in the series. Gabriella Moriarty had a fantastic race to finish in 8th place, her best performance of the season and Briony Banks also improved 6 places to finish in 13th. Emma McGowan is returning to form and ran a confident race to finish 18th, Eleanor Barnes in 20th and Lauren Byrd in 32nd the Rugby and Northampton girls have one of the biggest teams in the age group.
U17 Men
Under strict instructions from their Team Manager to put out all the stops the U17men did not disappoint winning their age group on the day to maintain their 2nd position overall.
Rory Grant led the boys home with an outstanding run to finish in 3rd, improving in each race Robert Male took the 2nd team spot with a fantastic 9th place followed by Connor Hills in 12th who lost a couple of places in the final strides in the confusion over the finish line. Strength in depth describes the men’s team with Kieran Garlick 13th & Luke Robinson 18th.
