Star of the Sea AC Open XC 2018 (23rd Sept)
Encouraging start to the cross country season for Mullingar
The Star of the Sea AC Open Cross Country has been the traditional opening fixture of the cross country season for Mullingar. In contrast to the very low numbers that attended last year, on Sunday 23rd September a good group of nearly forty made the journey to Stamullen, Co. Meath where our underage athletes recorded 18 top-ten finish places, including three winners, and they won 7 sets of team medals to finish second juvenile Club overall on the day. While the number of underage athletes was well up on last year, there was a very disappointing representation from our adult members and only three took part.
Jack Geoghegan fought very hard in the closing stages of the u/9 boys 500m and was rewarded with a 6th place and an individual medal. With great support from Cathal Kilmurray (10th), Blaise Drummond, Zack O’Leary and Cillian Grennan, the boys finished 2nd Club and earned valuable team points for Mullingar. Finishing an excellent 5th place in a very close u/10 girls 500m race, Tianna O’Leary led the Mullingar team of Eleanor Mulligan, Aiveen Lynch and Rachel Goldsberry to team bronze to add to the Mullingar score. We had only one boy in the u/10 boys 500m where Oliver Lynch looked very strong as he finished in 5th place to win an individual medal.
Also running solo was Katie Kilmurray in the u/11 girls 1,000m and she put down an early marker of a good season ahead by finishing very strongly in 4th place. Our first win of the day came from Matthew Molloy as he dominated the u/11 boys 1,000m to win comfortably and with Luke Greene (10th) and Arthur Drummond (11th) finishing strongly in support led the team to second place. On to the u/12 girls 1,500m where Morgan Corcoran was only narrowly beaten into 2nd place and with Orla Manning (10th) finishing very fast, it was a pity we hadn’t a third girl or team medals would have been a certainty.Conor Liston won the u/12 boys 1,500m and with Jamie Wallace (2nd), Luke O’Leary (5th), James Flynn (6th), Criostoir Ormsby (11th), Alex Lynch (12th) and Hugh Carey packing brilliantly in support, it was no surprise that Mullingar finished first and second team. This is a group of boys to watch in the Leinster Championships.
The Mullingar team of Adele Geoghegan (6th), Leah Geoghegan (10th) and Aimee Wallace (11th) looked impressive in the u/13 girls 1,500m to finish second team. Only for the want of a third boy, with excellent performances by Callum Costello (2nd) and David Burke (13th) they would have collected team medals in the u/13 boys 1,800m. Ross Killalea simply ran away from the opposition to win the u/14 boys 2,200m and led the team of Sonny Drummond, Shane Ormsby and Matt O’Leary to third place and valuable team points for Mullingar.
Aoife McGouran ran a spirited race in the u/15 girls 2,200m but finished out of the medal places. Mullingar had no teams in the u/15 or u/17 races, so we never really had any chance of winning the trophy for best overall juvenile Club, but a second place was still a very good result. With the conclusion of the juvenile programme, attention turned to the women’s 3,000m, which was a combined race for junior, senior and master athletes where Mullingar’s sole representative was Linda Cunningham who battled well over the two laps of the tough hilly course, leaving nothing behind and was very happy with her race. The final race of the day was the junior, senior and master men’s 6,000m race where John Whitelaw (junior) and Garry Gavin (master) competed well over four laps, finishing strongly but out of the prizes.
We saw some great individual performances in Stamullen, especially from some of our newcomers in the younger ages, which we hope will translate into success in the upcoming Leinster Championships. Thanks to the parents and other supporters who travelled to Meath to support and cheer on our athletes.
