Ben Ashcroft has maintained his fine standards in the Summer track seaon and established himself firmly on the Cross Country season in his first year at u15 level. Running in the leading group throughout, Bens reward was a 2nd place finish, an improvement on the opening fixture. Dan Lucas finished strongly in 13th as he made his way up the field after a steady start.
Both Abbie Lavis and Rebecca Wetton were unable to finish the course in the u15 girls race due to illness and injury respectively.
Becky Peet again was the lone runner for SAC in the u13 race, and despite being off the pace, managed to work her way back up the field to a comfortable 19th position.
Our boys faired much better in the u13 race where the benefit of having a team mate was evident. The 2 lap undulating course was clearly to the liking of Ross Kirby and Luke Howes who both broke into the top 10 in fine form. The two boys are closely matched and they used this to work together to establish themselves in the leading group throughout the first lap. Into the second lap, and Luke edged ahead as both boys picked their way through the course to finish 3 seconds apart in 7th and 8th place, Luke first home. Making his first appearance of the season, and first at this distance, Andrew Hickman struggled to stay in touch, finishing in 20th place.
Six runners were fielded in the u11 boys race, Alex Wetton and Dan Parry both making their first appearances at cross country.
Eddie Brittleton again led the field home, no doubt bouyed by recent wins in school competition, to finish again in 6th place.
After a strong summer season of track wins, Alex was next home in 9th, leading a trio of SAC runners to complete a great team grouping as the first four scorers made it back inside the top 11. Separated by only a second between each of them, Alex, Freddie Turner and a fast finish from Hamish McCartney earned the boys a 2nd team position on the day. Tom Turner finished 15th, with Dan Parry stealing 3 positions with a long sprint home to finish 30th.
Another 2 debutants in the u11 girls race, as Isobel Lewington and Emily Carter made their bow alongside Eve Lucas and Katharine Smith.
It was Smith who took on the field from the starting gun, running without the nerves from her debut 3 weeks previously. A strong run spread the field as Smith led until the final 300m stretch where the chasing group finally caught up with the blistering pace set early on.
Katharine finished in 3rd, with Isobel in 16th only a second off the two Telford runners ahead of her with Eve Lucas back in 23rd and Emily in 24th.
The team overall is clearly competitive, and with the new faces coming in, the rivalry between the clubs athletes should carry them forward into the final two fixtures. Not only do we have Katharine Smith and Ben Ashcroft in strong contention for individual medals, but we have a number of teams within reach of medalling too.
The u11 boys placed 3rd, U13 boys in 4th and the two man U15boys also in 3rd place in the team standings a strong turnout for the next is important to cement the medal positions for SAC.
The club would encourage any young athletes in the Under 11, Under 13,Under 15 and Under 17 age groups to come and run at the next fixture at Much Wenlock on 15th November. It would be great to be able to put out full teams in a number of age groups for the last two meetings.
