The schools cross country season kicked off with the South Connacht Championships held in Bushfield Loughrea last Wednesday. Despite all the rain of recent weeks, Bushfield was bone dry and a pleasant day greeted the large numbers of runners from Galway, Mayo, Roscommon and Westmeath schools.

The official results are not available yet so here is a quick synopsis of how athletes from the club got on. In the minor girls 1500m, Fiona Commins and Shauna Tobin (Pres Athenry) placed 22^nd and 23^rd out of the 100 strong field with teammate Anna Farrelly also high up in 30^th place.

In the minor boys 1500m, Oisin Lyons (Calasanctius) was a clear winner and was followed in by teammates Sean Delaney in 6^th and Luke Finn in 13^th for a good team performance. Gavin Lee (Pres) also had a good run but I don’t have his finishing position to hand.

In the junior girls 2500m, Dearbhaile Walsh (Seamount) had a very strong race to take 2^nd place while Aoife Greene (The Bower) put in one of her best cross country performances to take 8^th place. Another athlete with a fantastic run on the day was Ciara O’Boyle (Pres) who was next in 9^th place. Laura Keane (Calasanctius) was next in 12^th place, Laura’s best run to date with a lot more to come from this athlete. Ciana Reidy made a return to cross country in the same race while Eibhlin and Mairidh NicCormaic also had good performances on their debut in cross country.

In the junior boys 3500m, Conor Lee (Pres) was the leading runner from the school with a strong run to take 8^th place, with Ben Garrard (Calasanctius) 14^th, Brian Loughnane (Loughrea VS) close behind and Peter Martin (St Raphaels) also running strongly.

A strong contingent took to the field for the Intermediate Girls 2500m with Ciara Greene (The Bower) having a fine race to take 4^th place and the ever improving Caron Ryan next in 5^th place followed by Grainne McDaid 9^th, Erin Fitzpatrick 36^th and Caoimhe Reidy 41^st. Liam Moran (Calanctious) took charge of the Intermediate Boys 4500m early in the race and built up a 100m lead but was reeled in slowly by a chasing athlete who went on to win it with a strong finish. Liam took 2^nd with teammates Oisin Doyle 3^rd, James Cahalane 5^th and Matthew Barrett 22^nd. Diarmuid Harvey had a strong run to take 16^th, as did Ronan Nevin who placed 13^th.

In the senior girls 1500m, Laura Porter and Emma Byrne (Loughrea VS) placed 7^th and 8^th while Calasanctius fielded a team at this level for the first time in the girls race, with all 3 girls running well including former club member and camogie stalwart Niamh Hannify. The senior boys 6000m saw a strong run  by Jamie Fallon (Calasanctius) to take gold with Paul Joyce (Athenry VS) and Damien O’Boyle (Calasanctius) having a good battle for silver and bronze – Paul making the decisive move on the final lap to open a gap to take silver.