Under-12s lead the way for St Peter’s club

ST PETER’S AC were very well represented as the 2016 cross-country season kicked off with the Star of the Sea meeting on Sunday - and they responded with team and individual honours.

On a challenging course, the first race on the schedule was the Girls Under-9 and both representatives did very well over the 500m distance, with Orla McLoughlin finishing strongly for 10th place and Catherine Carey not far behind.

Dearbhla Allen was the sole competitor for the club in the Girls Under-10 500m and worked her way up through the field to finish 10th. Harry O’Reilly and Ben McKeown worked really well together in a large field in the Boys Under-10 section, with both finishing strongly.

The Girls Under-11 race was over a 1,000m course and all three of the St Peter’s athletes put on brave performances. Ellie Smyth finished sixth to claim an individual medal and was greatly supported by her teammates Katie Mulligan and Izabel Fitzpatrick as they won the bronze team medals.

In the same age group for boys both Conor Litchfield and Cormac McKeown performed bravely and achieved massive improvements.

The Girls Under-12 race was over a 1500m distance and Niamh Brady and Lucy Smith battled well to finish seventh and eighth. It proved to be a strong age group for St Peter’s as Sean Allen led home the Under-12 boys with a fourth-place finish and Cian Loy was a fine eighth, with Mark Litchfield the third scoring athlete en route to a silver team medal.

Morgan Quigley was also in action in the Boys Under-15 race which was over 2,000m and he ran strongly to finish in seventh place.

On Saturday evening the Blackrock 4-mile Road Race took place, with Brendan Rogers the first of the club’s athletes to cross the finish line, followed by Eoghan Smyth and debutant Eilish Brady.