The Striders, both young and old, made the trip to the New Forest Golf Club, Tyrellspass, Co Westmeath, for some provincial cross country action. In the non-championship U10 boys race, both Ronan Shannon and Sam Myers were fantastic, and in a big field, our boys won individual medals. Over 2km, in the GU12 race, Leona Berry and Isabel Bawden were excellent. Both girls went out at a steady pace and on the second lap, made great progress to finish strongly. 
The BU12 race will go down in history as one of the most prolific races, at this level, in terms of medals. Myles Hewlett was right up with the pace, from the starting gun and stayed on strongly to finish fourth. Eoin Shannon put in a blistering second lap, to slice through the field and finish twelfth. Both boys earned, vary rare, individual provincial medals. With four to score for the club team, Ben Myers and Finn Kelly contributed with great finishing positions to win a provincial club medal for the Striders. The silver medal is only our second, in recent years, at this level. To top it off, Caolan Costello, Cosmo Hewlett and Seam Lennon all contributed to the Wexford team, which meant all seven boys picked up another provincial silver, in the county competition.
In the GU14 race, the distance was up to 3km and the Striders team were led home by Erinn Shannon, ahead of Eve Byrne, Ciara Murphy and Kelly Corbett. The girls all competed well and weren’t too far off another club medal. In the boys event Aidan Shannon picked up yet another Leinster individual medal, with a fantastic top ten finish, despite being a year out of his age group. With Joe Byrne of SBR leading Wexford to a team county gold, that meant medals for Adam O’Connor, Darragh Flannelly, Owen Lennon and Oisin McEochaigh, all of whom made big contributions to the victory. The GU16’s were led home by our county champion, Grace Costello ahead of Rebecca Bawden and Alanah Byrne. The last juveniles in action for the Striders were Cian Flanagan and Ryan Kielthy, who both continue to improve as the season goes on and both will be looking forward to racing on the same track again, in two weeks time, in their own age group.
The Senior men were in action over an undulating 6km course. John McGrath was in contention from the start, in a big field, and stayed on strongly to be first Strider over the line. Alan O’Connor continues to go from strength to strength and finished ahead of the Flannelly boys, Ted and Matt.
It was a great day out for all who attended, with lots of great performance, medals and an eventful bus trip home to round things off. Go Striders!
