Tremendous field of CAC runners at Cornwall XC Champs

A superb 76 CAC athletes turned out in blustery, showery conditions at Newquay on Sunday for the Cornwall County XC Championship (and second Westward league fixture).  Highlights were team wins for the ladies, veteran ladies, unofficially the U11 girls and boys and the veteran men, plus getting 4 out in the U17 men’s race – well done lads!

The U13 Girls were first up and there was a decent field of 36.  All our girls are first year U13s (I believe) and did very well considering this, placing 4^th team, with Catherine Groves leading the way in 11^th, Rebecca Benney in 19^th, just ahead of Ella Henry-Brock in 20^th and Saskia Adie, feeling a lot better than at Plymouth, taking 27^th.

It was good to see 4 CAC runners out in the U13 Boys too – again a young team taking 5^th on the day, with Ed Mitchell first home in 9^th, with Leon Telford placing 13^th, Isaac Murray 19^th and Josh Waller 21^st.

A fantastic turnout of 20 CAC ladies toed the line for their race over just short of 4 miles – our best ever!  It was great to see Emma Stepto racing again to help the team on her way back to fitness, and after a steady start she soon began to make her way through the field to eventually take a fine 2^nd position and, backed up ably by Amy Sole, in her first x-c race for many a day, and Katie Hughes, in 11^th and 13^th respectively, they took the team title, with Emma taking first V45 and Katie 3^rd U17. 

A very strong B team of Donna Raggett (15^th), a returning Issy Steele (16^th) and Kathryn Burgess (25^th) took 5^th team position and the impressive wave of yellow and green continued with Janna Eyre 36^th, Nell Savage 39^th, Julia Pearce 45^th, Nancy Hill 50^th, Rachael Thomas 51^st, Jenny Almey 61^st, Debbie Nugent 62^nd, Naomi Rescorla-Brown 72^nd, Helena Stackhouse 75^th, Amy Rundle 88^th, Tamzin Davey 89^th, Kerry Poole 96^th, Di Boardman 98^th and Lorna Martin 99^th out of the large field of 126.  A big welcome to Janna, Nancy, Debbie and Helena who all raced first for CAC either here or at Plymouth in the first fixture.

There was great news for us in the U17 men’s race, held in conjunction with the ladies’ race, as we had 4 runners!  Tom Slattery and James Williams have struggled on right from the U13s as a duo or singly, but Tom’s persuaded his brother Jason to run and Doug Fenney has joined us as he’s moving down from North Devon in the summer – numbers!  Tom didn’t quite go as well as his 2^nd at Plymouth, placing 6^th, but Doug’s improvement to 8^th, James’ 11^th and Jason’s 15^th ensured 3^rd team position on the day.

Our U11s are looking very strong again this year and there was a dominant display by the CAC girls, with Maisy Luke and Erin Devery running strongly together up front, before Maisy pushed on to win comfortably, with Erin taking 2^nd and Abi Jose having a great run to take 4^th and tie up the unofficial team win.  Mia Rickwood also ran well for 6^th, and with Georgina Gray in 13^th, Erin Golding 15^th and Caitlin Keaney 16^th, the B team came a close 3^rd to Newquay and Par!

Our U11 Boys were almost as dominant, with Zak Clemens taking his 2^nd win out of 2 and James Horton looking 100% again as he kicked hard to take second place.  George Mitchell backed them up with a great 7^th to ensure team victory and Jago Leuzzi and Ben Wodskou ran excellent first x-c races for the club, placing 10^th and 11^th respectively.  A sixth runner would be good to finish 2 teams – any ideas?!

Grace Brock is flying at the moment and she had the biggest winning margin of the day, despite only running for 15 minutes. Her first position was backed up by Trinity Earnshaw in a solid 16^th and Sofia Rescorla-Brown in 21^st to place the team 3^rd on the day in the League.

Our U15 Boys are looking good in both quality and depth, with our teams finishing 2^nd , 4^th and 5^th at Newquay.  Harris Mier led them home in a fine 2^nd, to Finn Birnie, though his brother Elliott wasn’t well and had to drop out.  Abu Gupta continued his fine form in 4^th, with Kristof Klimek not far behind in 6^th.  Sam Goodchild took 9^th, with Jacob McAlone 11^th and an under-par Archie Vingoe in 13^th making up the B team on the day.   Jacob Milligan has switched effortlessly back into x-c  from heptathlon mode and took 16^th, with Hayden Jenkin running well for 20th and Matt Railton placing 25^th to round off a great team showing.

19 men made the start line (minus Colin Snook and Justin Thomas – many congratulations to them for their selection for the England Masters team in the Home Countries International in Dublin next Saturday!) and the A team did well to only lose by 8 points on the day to Bideford and just keep Exeter University out of 2^nd position.

Finishers were:  Callum Jones 8^th, Paul Whear 15^th, Jordan Clay 19^th, Jonny Dry 25^th, Paul Smith 26^th, Chris Harry 29^th, Tony Dunn 32^nd, Dave Buzza 36^th, Dave Angilley 62^nd, Paul Sole 64^th, Andrew Eddison 74^th, Mike Dowrick 76^th, Matt Robinson 79^th, Phil Bolt 87^th, Dale Triggs 95^th, Gordon Adie 113^th, Nigel Trevena 129^th, Lee Burrows 133^rd and Trevor Elliott 163^rd.  Special mention to Jordan and Trevor on their debuts for CAC – welcome aboard lads! – Paul Sole and Phil for running on tired legs after recent marathons, Mike for racing twice on the day, Dale and Gordon on returning after injury, Callum for coming down from Bristol for the race and Jonny and Jordan for getting a series of trains and buses to the race!

See pictures (lots of pictures!) on Cornwall AC Facebook page – just ask Emma to be added.

Author: Dave Buzza - Date Added: 10/11/2015 at 12:06:51