League Titles Decided in Final Fixture
Tor Leisure, Glastonbury, Tue 23 March 2004
The final
fixture in this years Mendip Junior Schools Cross Country League was
held last Tuesday at Tor Leisure, Glastonbury. This year the league
has again been a great success, with an average of around 300
children and 17 schools taking part in each of the five events.
After the fine weather of the penultimate race dark clouds
threatened, and a heavy hail shower preceded the first race.
Thankfully it soon ended and the four races got off without anyone
getting wet.
As usual the year 3 and 4 girls were the
first to toe the start line for a 1km lap of the playing fields that
took in a number of twists and turns. Ruby Kelly, having already won
the league title by finishing first in three of the opening four
races did not have an easy time of it, as local girl Jo
Callendar-Wood of St Benedict's ran well to come home in front, with
Kelly (representing St Joseph's) a clear second. St Benedict's also
had third placed Naomi Neale, who was closely followed by Stephanie
Hale (Millfield Prep), Alice De-Quidt (wells Central) and Hannah
Grattan (Horrington). St Benedict's were again clear team winners
with Amber Chant closing the team in 14th place. Brookside finished
in 2nd place, a single point ahead of St Joseph's. With the gold and
silver going to Kelly and Callendar-Wood, Neale's third place was
enough to overhaul Brookside's Abigail Locke, who could only finish
eighth at Glastonbury. Hannah Hurford of St Benedicts, missing on
this occasion, closed the top five individual rankings. With St
Benedict's winning all five fixtures there was no doubt in who would
win the team trophy - though St Joseph's and Brookside could not be
separated for second as they had traded places throughout the
season.
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Kieran Young made short work of the lower
school boys race as the St Aldhelm's youngster pulled Evercreech's
Daniel D'Arcy away from the chasing pack. This was led by Liam
Hodges (St Pauls) from Elliot Rutter (Wells Central), Luke Dowding
(Evercreech) and Harry Bushill (St Viga) who came in with teammate
William Norris. The St Joseph's pair of Callum Parker and Ben Millar
were next, with Upton Noble's William Sharpe closing the top ten.
Evercreech came out as team winners, from St Viga and St Joseph's.
In the individual league standings Young triumphed over an absent
Oli Bryant of Wells Central, with D'Arcy taking the bronze medal.
Fourth was Hodges, with Rutter fifth. Despite Wells Central having a
disastrous final fixture won the team award from Evercreen and St
Joseph's.
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St
Joseph year five pupil Aoife Thorogood had her victory celebrations
marred as she was bettered in the final race by Millfield's Christy
Jones. Sophie Allin (Millfield) was third with Lydia Ruff (Wells
Central) fourth and Lucy Etherington (Millfield) just snatching a
share of the individual bronze medal by finishing ahead of another
year 5 girl in St Benedict's Shannon Kurle. Whichever was the points
were totted up both girls could not be split over the season so
joint medals were awarded to both girls. Abbey Rimmer, having shown
great promise in the opening two fixtures slipped back to seventh,
though the Millfield girl had done enough to secure the league
silver medal. The top ten at Glastonbury was filled by Millfield
teammates Jessica Goodfellow and Posy Frederick, and Emily Derreck
of Hugh Sexey. With Millfield comfortable team winners, Wells
Central just got the verdict over St Benedicts by 2 points with St
Joseph's a further 2 points behind. For the season St Benedict's
were to rank second, with Wells Central ahead of Hugh Sexey's and St
Joseph's.
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The upper school boys race
was all set to be the most exciting of the day - as any one of four
boys could still theoretically win the overall league title. Top dog
was Well's Sam Norris, who only needed to finish better than sixth,
while Well's Central teammate Dan Wright and Millfield lad's Callum
Batten and Kurtis Gibson all needed to win to keep their hopes
alive. A determined Dan Wright appeared at the head of a long column
as the boys swept past the finish line on the start of their second
lap with Batten (still only a year 5) and Joe Clake of Millfield in
hot pursuit. At this stage Norris was biding his time by sitting on
the shoulder of Gibson, with Ross Padfield once again making the
team race a close affair for Central. By the end of the second lap
Wright had pulled clear for his first ever victory in the league,
with Batten second and Clarke fourth. Norris got past Gibson on the
run-in to seal an excellent season with the individual league gold
from Wright and Batten. Ross Padfield crossed the line sixth from
Hugh Wyatt (Millfield) Laurie Olive and Ja'Mahl McMurran (both Hugh
Sexey). The top ten was closed by St Paul's Blake Brockway. With the
team orders the same for the third race in a row, Millfield were
awarded the team trophy, with Wells Central ahead of Hugh Sexey for
the runner-up spot.
The final two trophies of the day were
awarded to be best overall schools. Rather amazingly two schools
finished on the same number of points, with the small school's
trophy being awarded to St Joseph's (2nd Lower girls; 3rd lower
boys; 5th upper girls; 6th upper boys) and the large school's trophy
going to Wells Central (10th lower girls; 1st lower boys; 3rd upper
girls; 2nd upper boys). With the league now finished the winter
season in almost over - with the only event still to run being the
annual inter-area match against Yeovil, Taunton and Minehead. This
was due to take place this Tuesday at Millfield senior school in
Street - see next week's Journal for full results.
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