Winter league under way
THE FIRST round of the winter league got under way on Friday night on the track in Enniscorthy.
The competition was good with excellent races at all age groups and some keenly-contested finishes.
Last year’s winners, United Striders, were hoping to get a good start to repeat their recent successes. It is early days yet as the clubs score over the four days of the league, but Striders did emerge the winners on day one.
It was not plain sailing however, as Bree were performing particularly well in the younger girls’ ages along with D.M.P. in the younger boys.
Although Striders have a good lead, the scores are particularly tight between chasing teams Menapians, D.M.P., S.B.R. and Bree. Lea Bolger of Bree won the Under-8 girls with Niamh White (Menapians) second and Judy Sinnott of D.M.P. third.
Ciara Laffan of Bree won the Under-9, with Stephanie O’Connor of Enniscorthy second and Eabha Keane of D.M.P. third.
The Under-10 went to Katie Doyle of Bree with Layla Stafford (D.M.P.) second and Stephanie Deegan of S.B.R. third. Abbie Doyle of Bree was first in the Under-11 with Cliona Kearney of Menapians second and Danielle Stone of D.M.P. third.
Under-12 honours went to Orla Deegan of S.B.R., with Sinéad O’Reilly second and Ailbhe White third, both from Menapians. Ciara Martin of St. Paul’s won the Under-13 with Chloe O’Toole of Taghmon second, and Aoibhinn Mernagh of D.M.P. third.
Danika Gilshinan of Menapians won the Under-14 from Erinn Shannon of United Striders who was second and Eve Byrne of U.S. who finished third.
The Under-15 result went to Róisín O’Reilly of Menapians, with Maeve Hayes of St. Paul’s second and April Keeling of Menapians third. Rebecca Bawden won the Under-16.
In the boys, Jayden Kenny of Bree won the Under-8 from Thomas Brennan of E.A.C. and Liam Kenneally of United Striders.
Seán O’Brien of United Striders won the Under-9 with Cian Donovan of Bree second ahead of team-mate Conn Fraser.
The Under-10 result went to Kevin O’Mahoney of D.M.P., followed by Ronan Shannon of United Striders and Cian O’Dowd of D.M.P. who was third. Seán Lennon (United Striders) took the result in the Under-11 with Patrick Kinsella of S.B.R. second and Ben O’Toole of Taghmon third.
Myles Hewlett of United Striders won the Under-12 from team-mate Eoin Shannon, with D.M.P’s Alex Rafferty third.
Aidan Shannon of United Striders won the Under-13, followed by Conor Doyle of Bree in second and Darragh Flannelly of Striders who was third.
Adam O’Connor of United Striders won the Under-14, and Nathan Murphy of Menapians was second ahead of Joe Byrne of S.B.R. in third.
Aaron Browne of United Striders won the Under-15 from team-mate Cian Flanagan, with Patrick Doyle third, and the Under-16 title went to Edward Kinsella of S.B.R.
After day one the scores look like this: United Striders, 351; Menapians, 433; D.M.P., 444; S.B.R., 449; Bree, 455; Enniscorthy, 485; Taghmon, 511; St. Paul’s, 512; Macamores, 531; Adamstown, 536.
Round two is on Friday, December 9, in Enniscorthy, with the first race at 7 p.m. This will be preceded by a tiny tots race at 6.50 p.m.