North Leinster Schools XC 2024 (26th Jan)
The schools cross country season got underway for a large number of our juvenile athletes at the North Leinster Schools Cross Country in the Phoenix Park on Friday 26th January and as expected, by day’s end a great number of them had booked their places in the Leinster finals in Santry in early February.
Daniel Horohoe raced to an excellent 6th place in the Minor Boys 1,600m and led the Colaiste Mhuire team that included Oisin Clarke and Oisin Kilmurray to 2nd team and a place in the finals. Evan Nohilly (St. Finian’s College) also competed but finished out of the automatic qualification places.
Among the big entry in the Junior Girls 2,000m was Blathnaid Peters, Lisa O’Brien, Emma Lagan and Meadhbh Armstrong (St. Finian’s College) and Beibhinn O’Reilly, Aoibhinn Smith and Sorcha McNamee (Loreto Mullingar), but despite racing well they finished out of the medals. In the Junior Boys 2,200m Daniel Glennon (St. Finian’s College) finished strong in a great 10th place to earn an automatic place in the finals, but despite great support from Aaron Conroy and Andrew Lillis, the team finished out of the medals. It was a similar fate for the Colaiste Mhuire team that included Greg McDonnell, Morgan Isdell, Cian Hyland and Cormac McGrath, though top marks for effort.
St. Finian’s College had two girls in action in the Intermediate Girls 1,600m and with a great 14th place finish, Ailbhe O’Farrell booked her place in the finals, but not so for Evie Kilmurray though she ran a really good race against tough opposition. It was 5th for Oisin Kehoe (St. Finian’s College) in the Intermediate Boys 3,800m race and with terrific team support and packing from Matthew Molloy (7th), Donagh Carey (13th), John Glennon and Txema Lozano, the St. Finian’s College team placed 2nd team. Jamie Wallace (9th) and Luke Greene (15th) booked their places in the finals but despite great support from Conor Walsh, Conor Geoghegan, Niall Brady and Daniel Hickey the Colaiste Mhuire team was very unlucky to finish just out of the medals in 4th place, so only Jamie and Luke advance to the finals.
In the Senior Girls 2,200m the Loreto Mullingar team of Grace Byrne (2nd), Louise Callaghan (5th), Jessica Cunningham (9th), Shauna Callaghan and Siofra O’Halloran simply dominated to win by a big margin, which is little surprise given the talents of these girls. It was the same showcasing of talent by the Colaiste Mhuire team in the Senior Boys 4,200m, led home with a brilliant 1-2 from John Ryan and Conor Sherwin, closely followed by Ross Killalea (5th) and Pablo Lozano (10th) to easily finish 1st team.
