National Cross Country Relays

It was a sunny but fairly cold day at Cumbernauld yesterday for the National Cross Country Relays with reasonable conditions underfoot. Only the top of the course was a bit squelchy in places. The junior females were off first with us having 2 incomplete teams due to no U17 athletes.

Charlotte Buchanan and Lucy Rooney were off first on the U13 legs. Charlotte ran strongly to finish in 11:29 after an injury disrupted year with Lucy also running strongly to finish in 14:51. Nina McMonagle took over from Charlotte on the U15 leg even although she is also U13 and also ran strongly to finish in 13:00. Well done girls.

The junior boys were the next race off where we had 1 full team and 1 U15 athlete running a solo leg.

 Luca MacArthur ran first and had a great run finishing in 12:21, Hamish Anderson took over and stormed round the course overtaking many to finish in 10:13. Robbie Rooney was on the last leg and finished strongly in 11:08. Finlay McMonagle running the U15 solo leg was set off 13 minutes after the U13 start, also had a brilliant run to finish in 10:27.

The next race of the day was the senior ladies race where we had 1 complete team.

Alison Lessells was on first leg and finished in 19:24 (same time as last year!), Frances Ferguson was on the next leg and ran strongly to finish ish in 20:02, Lorraine Buchanan was on the next leg and despite being ill battled round to finish in 25:50 to hand over to Rachel McPhillips who had a great run, running the fastest female harrier leg of the day to finish in 18:29.

The final race of the day was the men’s senior race where we had 2 complete senior teams, 1 complete V50 team and an incomplete team of 2. 

Jordan Stewart, Jason Grant, Iain Mackean and Geo Ferguson were all off on the first leg. Jordan is definitely on a return to form after his injury problems and finished in 14:37, fastest harrier by a clear margin, Jason and Iain both had good runs with Iain hanging on to Jason all the way round with Jason finishing in 17:15 and Iain in 17:20 (a massive couple of minutes improvement from last year). Geo who was part of the incomplete team had a strong run to finish in 21:26. Andrew Buchanan took over from Jason in the men’s A team and completed the course in 17:43, Robert Pattinson was 2nd leg in the men’s B team and had a great run finishing in 18:09 (4K must of seemed like nothing compared to his ultra races), Gordon McInally was 2nd leg in the Men’s V50 team and ran well finishing in 19:42. Russell Couper was the 2nd and final leg of the incomplete team and finished in 24:19.

Kai Wheeler was 3rd leg on the men’s A team and despite injuring himself on the way round and visibly being in pain at the finish was the 2nd fastest harrier of the day completing his leg in 15:55. Francis Santangelli was the 3rd leg runner for the B team and was making his debut as a senior harrier having been an U17 last year had a great run to finish as 3rd fastest harrier and finish in 16:17. Stephen Phimister was another to unfortunately injure himself on the course but despite this got round to the finish in a time of 18:12 to bring the V50 team home in 19th position. Andy Higgins and Kevin McPhillips we’re both on the last leg of the men’s A & B team. It was Andy’s first time racing here and ran a great time of 17:14 to bring the men’s A team home in 72nd position. Kevin McPhillips ran his fastest time on this course and finished in 19:51. Well done Kevin.

Happy anniversary to Frances and Geo who decided to celebrate their wedding anniversary by running at the cross country 💛🖤 Thanks to all supporters and those who arrived early/stayed on to cheer everyone on. It was also good to see us represented from U13 all the way up to 60+ and especially good to see us with 3 U20 athletes taking part in the senior races 😁