West Cross Country League - Strathaven

 

Saturday was the first out of 2 west league cross country events where we had representation through the different age groups. It was great conditions for running, cold, not windy and not too muddy underfoot. The course was set in Kirkland Park in Strathaven which is set on a hill with the course mainly being either uphill or downhill, with not very many flat sections, however the hill wasn't anywhere near as bad as the Linn Park hill last year!

The first race we had harriers taking part in was the U13 boys race. Innes McMonegal and Luca MacArthur both gave a good account of themselves with Innes finishing in 12:32 in 34th place with Luca around a minute behind in 13:43 in 43rd place. The incomplete boys team finished in 13th out of 17. We had 3 U13 girls competing who also all gave a good account of themselves. Charlotte is getting back to full strength after her long injury lay off and was pleased with her run , finishing in 13th place in a time of 11:43. Nina McMonegal finished not too far behind in 30th place in a time of 12:43, depsite losing a shoe in one of the muddy patches and finishing the race in one shoe. Lucy Rooney completed the girls team finishing in 50th place in a time of 15:17. The girls team finished in 8th place out of 13. We had 2 harriers taking part in the U15 boys race. Finlay McMonegal had a strong run finishing in 9th place in a time of 12:35 with Robbie Rooney not too far behind in 13th place in a time of 13:06. The boys did well with Calderglen Harriers finishing as 2nd team out of 11. 

The senior harriers ran a combined race with males and females running together. There was some close contests throughout with the 2 Andrews (Buchanan and Higgins) resuming their battle for grand prix points. Kai Wheeler finished as first harrier in a time of 25:40. Martin MacDonald running his first cross country as a harrier wasn't too far behind finishing in 25:56. Iain Maclean was around a minute behind finishing in 26:49, with Jason not much further back in 27:16. Andrew Buchanan got the better of Andrew Higgins this time, finishing in 28:08 with Andrew H 6 seconds behind in 28:14. There was a few minutes before Alison finished in a time of 30:52. Richard Lawton was next to finish in 32:11. Despite thinking she'd never run a cross country again while running Decembers West District Championships, turned up again and ran strongly to finish in 34:01. Russell Couper completed our male entrants finishing in 39:33 and Lorraine Buchanan completed our female entrants (also running on her birthday - hope you enjoyed your wine and birthday cake later), finishing in a time of 40:19. Currently with some teams still to submit their results  the overall male team is sitting in 9th out of 24 teams, with the masters sitting in 6th from 13 teams. The female master steam are currently sitting in 3rd from 7 teams.

Thanks to Alan Derrick, Peter Moyes, Robert Pattinson, Susan and Heidi Grant and Charlotte Buchanan for  coming along to support. It was much appreciated, along with Marie Neil and Richard Stark from Strathaven and the EK marshalls there seemed to be support all the way round.

Lets see if we can get a good turn out for the 2nd and final league match at Balloch on the 7th February to keep these positions up.