Ballymana NS’s Keevagh Barry on her way to a fantastic
Connacht title in the Junior Girls 1000m

The Connacht Primary Schools cross country took place on a rain-sodden day in Bushfield Loughrea at the weekend but it failed to dampen the spirits of some wonderful performances by athletes from the club.

Foremost amongst them was Ballymana’s Keevagh Barry who raced to a superb Connacht title in the Junior Girls 1000m, emulating the achivement of former pupil Linda Porter several years ago in the senior category of the Connacht primary schools cross country. Having placed 20th in the county semifinals, Keevagh had a superb run in the county finals to take 4th place. But her Connacht final performance was one of the finest performances by an athlete from the club, running out a comfortable winner and clearly enjoying the wet conditions!

It was a super day also for the junior girls from both Craughwell NS and Clarinbridge NS with Katelyn Walsh leading Craughwell to team silver with a brilliant 17th place followed by Mia Hollingsworth 24th, Ciara O’Connor 29th, Kelly Hallinan 36th, Lauren Morgan 51st and Lillian Walsh 67th; and Clarinbridge’s Sadbh Walsh claiming 18th place to lead her school to team bronze with Erin Dillon 44th, Aeveen Kelly 49th, Aishling Lavan 58th, Niamh Kilgannon 71st and Zara Black 107th. A downpour erupted before the Junior Boys race where Killeeneen’s Declan O’Connell had another fine run with a 12th place finish, He was followed closely by the ever-improving Jack Cahill in 15th place and Keelan Moorhead in 16th, who together led Craughwell NS to a fine team bronze with Alex Ryan 51st, Daniel Farrelly 72nd, Iarlaith Doyle 84th and Ben Moran 92nd. Ballyglass’s Orrin Gilmore also had a fine run to take 27th place. In the Senior Races, Siobhan Carr (Scoil Mhuire Clarinbridge) was the club’s only representative with a strong run to place 47th.

Also in action on the same day, Craughwell had 3 participants in the senior races with Jack Miskella having 1 of his best days in cross country with a fantastic 5th place finish in the Senior Men’s event and 3rd in the Novice Men category and Piotr Prokip a very strong 14th and 5th in the Masters men category while Ailbhe Miskella made her debut in Senior Women’s cross-country with a fine 13th place finish out of the 40-strong finishers and 1st junior home.

Craughwell NS Junior Girls Team

Craughwell NS Junior Boys Team

And a brief look back at Craughwell NS’s remarkable history in the event (if any of our coaches from our other primary schools has time to do something similar for the other schools, please do and send it to me). The weekend’s team performances mean it’s the 9th year in a row that the school have taken team medals in the Connacht finals and the 13th year out of 16 that the club have done so – a wonderful history that the school can be very proud of.

Full results of the 3 days of the primary schools cross country are below:

• Connacht finals
• Galway finals
• Galway semi-finals

I am including a brief report on the county finals and semi-finals below as I didn’t post it on the website at the time.

County Finals

In the County finals, Craughwell NS Junior Girls raced to the team title with a fine performance with Katelyn Walsh 9th, Ciara O’Connor 13th, Mia Hollingsworth 14th, Kelly Hallinan 25th, Lauren Morgan 28th, Lillian Walsh 45th, Gemma Cloonan 46th and Emily Hewitt 73rd. Clarinbridge NS took the silver medals in the same race ably assisted by Sadbh Walsh 11th, Erin Dillon in 24th, Aeveen Kelly 29th, Aishling Lavan 31st, Niamh Kilgannon 50th and Zara Black 94th. Keevagh Barry from Ballymana NS had a fantastic individual race to place 4th overall. Carrabane’s Claudia Fitzpatrick placed 53rd with Erica Coye 70th and Caoilinn Corban 88th.

In the Junior Boys race, Craughwell NS took the team silver with strong individual performances from Keelan Moorhead and Jack Cahill in 3rd and 9th places followed by Alex Ryan 53rd, Iarlaith Doyle 81st, Daniel Farrelly 84th and Ben Moran 92nd. Carrabane NS took splendid team bronze led home by Alex O’Grady in 13th place while Killeeneen NS just missed out on team bronze when placing 4th led home by a fantastic individual 2nd place by Declan O’Connell. Ballyglas NS’s Orrin Gilmore had a fine run to place 14th as did Ballymana’s Paul Barry in 70th.

Clarinbridge NS took the team title in the Senior Girls 1200m led home by Siobhan Carr in 8th place. Ballymana’s Emma O’Donovan had a fine run in 23rd place with her teammates Abaigh Molloy 34th, Beth Crowe 79th, Amelie Grogan 88th, Keely Grogan 89th and Nicole Clarke 92nd. Killeeneen’s Sophie McIlrath and Holly O’Boyle placed 28th and 31st while Ballyglas NS’s Amelie Bocquet placed 40th and Craughwell’s Claudia McGuiness and Sarah Creaven 41st and 48th.

Ballymana NS’s Conor Gilligan was the top finisher from the club in the Senior Boys 1200m with an 18th place finish. Clarinbridge’s Eddie Silke and Fionn Higgins took 8th and 30th places while Carrabane‘s Cian Connaughton and Darragh Reidy placed 39th and 77th. Craughwell’s Conor Cahill placed 55th with Killeeneen’s Liam O’Connell 60th.

County Semi-Finals

The primary schools cross country kicked off with the semifinals held in Renmore on Tuesday 25th Sept. First race of the day saw Clarinbridge sweep to the West Division title in the Junior Girls 1000m with Sadbh Walsh leading the team home in 16th place followed swiftly by 18 Erin Dillon, 21 Aeveen Kelly, 24 Aishling Lavan, 44 Niamh Kilgannon and 65 Zara Black. Clarinbridge repeated this performance in the Senior Girls 1200m led by Siobhan Carr with a fantastic 3rd place finish. A good day at the races was completed for Clarinbridge with Eddie Silke taking individual 3rd in the Senior Boys race and leading the team to 4th place with Fionn Higgins 6th and Sean Lavan 28th.

In the East Division, Craughwell NS swept to the Junior Girls title with a low score of 28 led home by Ciara O’Connor in 3rd and followed by 5 Katelyn Walsh, 9 Lauren Morgan, 11 Kelly Hallinan, 18 Mia Hollingsworth, 25 Lillian Walsh, 29 Gemma Cloonan, 36 Emily Hewitt, 65 Jessica McGlynn, 67 Saoirse O’Donnell, 79 Kiera Mernagh, 122 Leah Ryan. 123 Meda, 126 Abbie Donoghue, 129 Chloe Keane, 155 Eabha Molloy and 181 Aoibheann Dolan. There were good runs also from Keevagh Barry (Ballymana NS) 20th, Claudia Fitzpatrick (Carrabane NS) 22nd, Erica Coye (Carrabane NS) 56th, Caoilinn Corban (Carrabane NS) 62nd, Sophie Keenan (Ballymana NS) 77th, Alison Canavan (Coldwood NS) 82nd, Adriana Berzanska (Ballymana NS) 84th, Katie Leen (Ballymana NS) 101st, Remy Aylmer (Coldwood NS) 104th and Laura Flynn (Ballymana NS) 118th,

In the Junior Boys race, Keelan Moorhead had a super run to become East Division Champion and also led Craughwell NS to the team title with Jack Cahill in 10th followed by 32 Alex Ryan, 36 Daniel Farrelly, 41 Ben Moran, 56 Iarlaith Doyle, 65 Eoin Middleton, 113 Eanna Morrissey, 114 Daniel Gilmore, 115 Jack Doyle, 120 Ethan Whyte and 155 Joseph O’Dwyer. Ballyglas NS’s Orrin Gilmore had a fine run to take individual silver, as did Killeeneen’s Declan O’Connell in 8th place and Ethan Horan 57th; and Ballymana NS’s Paul Barry in 21st, Jason Greaney 51st, Gavin Clarke 72nd, Tom Malone 74th, Liam Egan 96th and Liam Reilly 121st.

Craughwell NS’s Sarah Creaven was the leading runner from the club in 9th place, with Emma O’Donovan (Ballymana NS) hot on her heels in 10th and Sophie McIlrath (Killeeneen NS) 11th, Amelie Bocquet (Ballyglas NS) 14th, Holly O Boyle (Killeeneen NS 15th and Claudia McGuinness (Craughwell NS) 17th. Ballymana NS’s team packed very well taking 4th place with Amelie Grogan 26th, Keely Grogan 28th, Abaigh Molloy 29th, Nicole Clarke 39th, Beth Crowe 60th and Isabella Boland 112th. Craughwell NS placed 9th with 67 Katie Slevin, 73 Chloe Callanan, 87 Alanna Farrell, 95 Caoilin McNamara, 113 Jenny Cloonan, 116 Isobel Doyle, 119 Aoife O’Meara, 156 Sinead Kelly, 162 Alanna Clancy and 163 Ruby McElwee.

In the Senior Boys race, Conor Gilligan (Ballymana NS) was the leading runner from the club in 7th place, leading his Ballymana NS team to 15th place (74 Gavin Keenan, 80 Rian Comer, 127 Cíaran Leen, 150 Lee Whelton). Carrbane’s Cian Connaughton, Darragh Reidy and Eoin Spellman placed 20th, 33rd and 123rd while Killeeneen’s Liam O’Connell and Luke O’Sullivan were 59th and 72nd. Craughwell NS were led home to 8th place by Lukas Keane 24th who was followed home by 31 Conor Cahill, 47 Liam Donoghue, 63 Darragh Kelly, 95 Oisin Bergin, 113 Eamonn McGlynn, 124 Cormac McFadden, 132 Colm Doyle, 149 Gene Higgins, 165 Eoin Woods and 181 Cathal Fitzpatrick .