West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League
Young Athletes shine in 1st Cross Country Fixture
Under 11
There were a lot of start line nerves for the youngest athletes as many of them were competing in their first XC race for the club.
The U11 girls went first around the challenging course and Phoebe Ellis ran a tremendous race to finish 5th, closely followed by Charlotte Murphy 20th, Esme Allen 24th, Ella Bromley 31st and Ella Machin-Brady 54th to make an overall team position of 5th. Flora Courtney 57th, Olivia McEwan 82nd, Florence Chapman 87th, Milan Clues 88th & Tia Clues 89th all ran well in their first race.
The U11 boys had 5 runners so all needed to finish to count for the team points and they didn’t disappoint with Elliott Moore storming home in 4th place with great support from first time runners Hayden Arwall 18th, Charles Gilling 52nd, Noah Slinn 64th, Alexander Thompson 66th which also puts the team in overall 5th place.
Under 13
The biggest field of the day with 167 runners was the U13 girls race and 8 Rugby & Northampton runners contested an extremely high calibre race. Alison Inwood battled her way through the much taller runners to finish in an excellent 19th place with another year yet to compete in this age group. Isobel Hughes 45th, Georgia Elliot-king 52nd, Emma Blackwood 84th, Maddie Spellman 87th Emily Byrd 90th, Phinolla Hindle 95th and Daisy Cummings 132nd all showed real promise for the rest of the season.
With many of the U13 boys having just moved up an age group they put in a terrific team effort to finish 5th overall and were led home by Billy Bowman-Shaw 11th , supported by Jack Murphy 20th, Adam Wright 30th, James Miller 47th, Luke Whaler 65th, William Bates 66th, & Michael Kinder 71st.
Under 15
The U15 girls delivered the first win of the season with a classy run by Charlotte Inwood who is the only the second ever Rugby & Northampton athlete to win one of these races. The girls all ran well in a high quality field to finish in 6th for the team position. Gabriella Moriarty 25th, Clarissa Blake 32nd, Lauren Byrd 34th, Shannon Rugg 46th, Eleanor Barnes 50th and Megan Love 76th.
The U15 boys struggled in the team positions with only 3 athletes available to count on the day, but delivered some strong individual performances Jacob Allen 19th, Rory Bowman-Shaw 24th and Robert Male 39th.
Under 17
The best team positions of the day and 4 top ten individual finishes were provided by the every colourful U17 athletes.
The U17 girls are all competing in their first year as U17’s and proved the strength they have to compete at this level with outstanding runs by Emily Waugh 3rd , Briony Banks 4th , Chelsea Thompson 29th and Emma McGowan 33rd. The team are currently in overall 4th position.
The best team performance of the day came from the U17 boys who finished 2nd overall having completed 3 gruelling laps. George Cardwell ran a strong race to finish 4th closely followed by Luke Robinson 6th. Stewart Bates 37th, Tom Collins 41st and Andy Ure 43rd all put in good first races for the season.
Best Team Position
Overall Rugby & Northampton are currently in 3rd place overall for the team position a truly fantastic start to the season and promise of more to come !!
