CROSS COUNTRY: Rugby & Northampton take 52 to national championships

National Cross Country Championships

February 25, 2017

Rugby & Northampton AC had 52 athletes taking part for the club at the English National Cross Country Championships held at Nottingham’s Wollaton Park.

The highest placing of the day came from Midland Champion Adam Caulfield, who finished in 20th place in the U15 Boys race. He recorded a time of 15 mins 9 secs over the 4.5k course with Ben Hope coming home next in 139th spot on 16:41 followed by Tobias Heayns (207th in 17:22) and Cian Hutton (248th in 17:45) to put the squad in 18th position in the team race.

The best team performance came from the U13 Boys who finished 7th with Noah Bennett being timed at 13:02 over 3k to cross the line in 27th place and led home a quartet, which included Aidan O’Brien (51st in 13:17), Louis Buttrick (75th in 13:30) and Lewis Panter (176 th in 14:07).

The U17 Women were one athlete short of completing a team, but Northants Champion and Midland top ten placer Amy Walker finished in a creditable 54th spot in a time of 21:15 over the 5k route. Her club colleagues Hollie Moore and Olivia Sheehan finished in 214 th and 222 nd respectively with 24:50 and 24:56.

Adam Searle recorded 22:24 for 6k in the U17 Men’s competition, which put the County Champion in 70th position and he had back up from Joe Musgrove (114th in 23:09), Matthew Chronicle (116th in 23:10) and Finn Hutton (193rd in 24:06), which put the squad in 12th place.

Junior Ladies’ club champion Rebecca Leadbeater finished a superb set of races this season to place 72nd in the U20 Women’s 6k with 27:06.

The U20 Men had to cover a 10k distance and Ben Musgrove led home R&N with a time of 37:18, the club champion finishing in 103rd spot. Haydn Arnall has made a return to the sport and he finished in 154th on 39:16 and a good team performance was completed by Joe Childs (195th in 42:39) and Oliver Munns (202nd in 44:02) for an excellent 15th place.

The only female age groups to turn out a full team were the U15 and U13s.

Molly Williams claimed 97th spot in the U15 event in a time of 18:19 over 4k and Abigail Pearce followed her over the line in 18:48 for 150th position. The team finished in 21st overall when they were closed out by Isabelle Ripon (155 th in 18:50) and Holly Walker (223rd in 19:25).

The U13 Girls’ team finished just one place lower and the 3k distance was completed by Claudia Searle in 14:38 to head the R&N squad in 79th place. Just six seconds behind was Olivia Williams in 100th and completing the quartet were Alice Bates (184th in 15:21) and Elspeth Unitt (279th in 16:04).

The Senior Men were led home for the second year running by Robert Male in 251st spot with a time of 45:52 for the 12k distance.

Joe Lantsbery was next in 51:32 for 705 th and the rest of the six man scoring team were completed by veterans with National debutant Jonathan Taylor (720th in 51:43), Brendan Moen (746th in 52:06), Nigel Roberts (832nd in 53:00) and Vince Carroll (1122 nd in 57:04). The team finished in 68th place.