Oisin Doyle and Grainne McDaid both made a fantastic return to top form this week in the Connacht Schools Cross Country finals which were held in Sligo on Wednesday.

Grainne placed 3^rd in the Junior Girls 2500m to help the Pres Athenry to retain their Connacht team title. This was Grainne’s best race in possibly 3 years and fantastic to see her getting back to where she belongs – at the top! Likewise Oisin Doyle had a fantastic race after a quiet year in 2012. Oisin took 4^th place overall in the Junior Boys 3500m and led the all-Craughwell Calasantius Oranmore team to the Connacht title with Liam Moran 6^th, James Cahalane 9^th, Matthew Barrett 26^th , James Delaney 39^th. Dearbhaile Walsh continued her return to action after autumn injuries with a strong 8^th place finish in the Minor Girls 2000m with Aoife Greene also having a great race when placing 11^th, Ben Sharkey placing around 7th and Brian Loughnane around 20^th in the Minor Boys 2500m. Ciara Greene put in her customary top-notch performance to take 3^rd place in the Intermediate Girls 3500m.

800m specialists Nicholas Sheehan and Damien O’Boyle placed 4^th and 7^th in the Intermediate Boys 5000m race to take yet another team title for Calasantius Oranmore with Matthew Moran 11^th and John Cormican 12^th. Matthew put in a Trojan effort despite struggling with illness and had to receive medical attention after the race. Given that the rest of the team are all 800m runners, it was a super achievement to land the Connacht title without Matthew in full form and without the injured Jamie Fallon-Spellman.

Conor Gillen wrapped up a good day’s action with a 4th place finish in the Senior 6500m race.