There was something in the air that Wednesday afternoon during mid-term. It was wet and windy but there was a healthy attitude in the air. One felt this was a serious session. Perhaps some of that resurfaced today among the Wicklow hills. Avondale was the venue for the uneven ages cross-country. And our uneven age athletes were up for it. The under 11 girls got the show on the road and all ran well with Emma Kelly and Amelia O’Brien scoring on the 4th placed county team. (Emma 40, Amelia 48, Jasmine Timmons McEneaney 72, Lucy Maher 90, Alicia Slawinski 94). And if the girls ran well the boys were brilliant. Having a “get me to the front” Darragh O’Callaghan helped. But this is no one man team. Each played his part and with the said Darragh coming second and Daire O’Flaherty taking the bronze the team were in a good place. A very good place indeed as they captured first team medals. The aforementioned duo plus Emmet Murphy also scored on the silver winning county team. (Darragh 2, Daire 3, Emmet 39, Peter Quinn 45, Dara Foley 57, Aidan Malone 84, Fiach Crowley 94).
Our under 13s also ran well. The girls, very much an u12 squad, were competitive throughout. Sinea Cormack n 14th scored on the second placed county team. The other team members were Ellen Cormack, Kara Canavan, Emma Kennedy, Clodagh Maye and Ellen Millea. Just two bous entered in u13 – Paul Millea and Kyrell. Both ran seriously well. Paul placed 15th scoring on the county winning team. Kyrell in 32nd came closeto scoring on county.
We had four girls running in the u15 race. All ran well but no medals this time. (Hannah Quinn 51, Eimear Cormack 52, Evelyn McEvoy 77, Anne Foley 102.)
We had no club teams under 17. For the girls Isabella Burke 17 and Alexia Albertin Molinera 32 were the first two scorers on the 5th placed County team. Matthew McCarthy 18 and Ruairi McEvoy won gold with the county team.
Under 19 we were represented by Eleanor Godden 17 and Pia O’Grady 19. Unfortunately with neither club nor county team fielding the girls were not in line for medals. With one or two more finishers medals would have been gold!!!!
It was a somewhat similar situation for the seniors. Just three Harriers took to the course. Thankfully there was a county team and Ella Richardson in 14th place was second scorer on the third placed county team.
Well done athletes on good running ang bringing home 16 Leinster medals.