Mooney doubles up for St Gerard’s club
Following hot on the heels of the even age groups last week in Darver, day two of the Louth cross country championships took place at DKIT in mild weather conditions for the odd age groups.
Representing Dundalk St Gerard’s Ac were Cara Miele, Sarah Holmes, Hazel Larkin, Molly O’Callaghan, Tom Phillips Adam Joynt, Rían McCrystal, Cillian Mullen, Finn Murphy, Ben Eccles, Grainne Moran, Abaigh Moonan, Enya Silkena, Tara O’Connor, Doireann Conlon, Nicole Mulholland, Daire McEnteggart, Leah Miele, Rachel Culligan, Amy Toal, Emily Moran, Hayden Mulholland, Ethan Mullen Logan Carroll, Ronan Campbell, Leah Mooney, Isabel Holmes, Caitlin Mulholland & Kate Smyth.
With the U19 girls race being run alongside the intermediate ladies and U17 girls race it was Caitlin Mulholland and Kate Smyth ON Sunday day 2 of the Louth Cross Country Championships took place at DKIT hosted by North East Runners.
The busy programme included the Intermediate Championships for adults and uneven ages for juveniles.
The girls under 9 race started the juvenile programme and the St Peters club had the O’Reilly twins competing over the 600m course in which the first 10 received medals. Both girls had very strong runs with Emily coming in 4th place and Hannah in seventh.
In the girls under 11 the club had two athletes competing over the 1500m course. Dearbhla Allen had another great run and although she didn’t have a great start she worked her way up through the large field to finish in fourth place, Dearbhla was followed by her club mate Catherine Carey who ran well considering she was out of age.
The boys under 11 race was a really great race for the St Peters club on two fronts, Harry Oreilly got his just rewards for his training efforts when he finished a very strong second and he also led the St Peters team home to silver with ever improving Ben McKeown and debutants Ruairi Carpenter and Michael Obrien. St Peters also had a team in the girls under thirteen which was run over a 2500M course and the girls were also in the medals with a third place finish, Niamh Brady led the St Peters challenge closely followed by Julie McLoughlin, Ellie Smyth, Isabeal Fitzpatrick and Judith Bell. who were first into action over the 4K distance. Both girls did brilliantly with Caitlin taking silver and Kate running well in 4th place. Next up were the U9 races and with large fields the races were real cavalry charges. With no team event in this category, there were medals on offer for the first 10 home. Hazel Larkin lead the girls home with a great medal winning run with Cara Miele just behind her also in the medals while Molly O’Callaghan and Sarah Holmes performed really well also. For the boys Finn O’Connor was outstanding with a superb run in second place. Tom Phillips was in the medals too with another fine display on his second outing. Adam Joynt just missed out after getting boxed in at the start along with Rían McCrystal, Ben Eccles Finn Murphy and Cillian Mullen who all ran strongly right behind him.
The U11 girls race was a really
The boys under 13 race Cian Gorham executed a very tactical race to win his first individual Cross Country Championships medal when he won bronze. Cian also led home the St Peters team to a silver team medal with Mark Litchfield just behind him closely followed by Sean Allen and the ever reliable Dean Murtagh.
New comer Calum Grant to brilliant contest. Coming into the last 500m Grainne Moran was right there in the top two with Enya Silkena beginning to make up ground on the duo. With her customary storming finish Enya swept into the lead in the last 150m to hold it all the way to the line for a great win with Grainne taking bronze followed home by the ever improving Abaigh Moonan, Doireann Conlon, Tara O’Connor, Nicole Mulholland and Dara McEnteggart. The top 4 finishers for the club Enya, Grainne, Abaigh & Doireann took a brilliant team gold medal. For the boys Ronan Campbell ran a great race finishing strongly to lead the team home followed by the ever improving Hayden Mulholland, Logan Carroll and Ethan Mullen. Leah Miele lead the way for the girls U13 team followed home by the strong finishing Rachel Culligan, Amy Toal and Emily Moran who all ran really well over the St Peter’s silver medal-winning Under-13 boys.
his credit also took to the start line in the boys under 15 race and didn’t look out of place over the 3500M course even though he was was out of age and is new to the sport of athletics.
Earlier in the day the club had two representatives in the ladies intermediate race which was over the 4000M distance and both coped very well and 2.5k course.
Leah Mooney and Isabel Holmes were the last two athletes to toe the line for the club with both girls moving up a year in the U15 girls 3.5k race. After her strong run to win the U14 championship last week Leah was looking to double up against the older girls. Throwing down the gauntlet from the off she relished the increased distance to impressively draw right away from a strong field to make it a super county championship double for Leah. Isabel ran another good race showing great heart to cover the longer trip and continued her improvement.
Training has now moved to the clubs winter schedule with sessions taking place in DKIT Sport on Tuesdays at 6:30pm, Dundalk Sports Centre at 7pm on Thursdays and Newry track at 7:30pm also on Thursday. set great example to our young athletes with Catriona McKeown and Sarah McCann representing the club with pride.
Next up is the Glenmore Cross Country meeting which will take place next Sunday for juveniles followed by a 5K road race for the adults. Training continues on Tuesday and Thursday at 6.30.