Wexford Juvenile Cross Country Championships, Uneven Ages, JFK Park, 14-Oct-2018

JFK Park hosted the Juvenile Wexford cross country championships, for uneven age groups, in sun drenched October sunshine. It proved to be a wonderful day with over forty USAC under age athletes in action, in one of the most picturesque cross country settings imaginable. The organisers started the day with a non-championship U9 event over 500m. The Striders had Isabella O’Connor and Sarah Lillis get us off to a great start in the girls event, with both finishing off their races in style and Sarah winning her first county medal. The boys had seven starters, Donagh Grennan, TJ Murphy, Sam Dowling, Darragh Mackey, Fionn McEochaidh, Liam O’Brien and Maitiu Wall, all of whom finished in medal winning positions. It was quite a sight to see these lads hurtling down the home straight, battling for those all important finishing positions. The Under 11’s raced over one lap of 1.5km and the medal winning Heather Costello led home the Striders team that also included Ava Kehoe and Ailbhe Mackey. The BU11’s were led home by Cormac Delaney and the team that included Eanna Grennan and Max Murphy all finished in the top ten and secured a fantastic team silver medal. The ever reliable Sean Lennon produced a career best performance, finishing a close up second place and leading the Striders A team to a gold in the team event. Tommaso Hickey in fourth place had his best run of the season and further top ten finishes from Luca O’Connor, Ronan Shannon, Olan Delaney and Charlie Alfred ensured that boys also landed the team silver medal at this age group. Over 3.5km Isabel Bawden’s top ten finish was the pick of the GU15 team, which also include strong performances from Hazel Hickey and Aisling Ryan. Despite being a year out of age, Myles Hewlett produced a stunning performance to lead home Ben Wall, Aidan Shannon and Robert Wall – a Striders 1-2-3-4. Ben Myers and Oisin McEochaidh were also inside the top ten, and it was no surprise that the Striders won gold and silver team medals. The U17 girls, Clodagh Foran and Aisling Power ran really well, both finishing in the top ten. Aaron Browne, in third place, led home Adam O’Connor and Ryan Kielthy, to take another team gold. All our under age athletes performed really well and then most stayed on to cheer on the senior athletes. A big well done to all athletes and parents.