A day that started with rain and a cold wind turned into a sunny day with performances to match as the Birchfield young athletes cross country team finished third in the West Midlands Cross Country League, their best performance for six years.
Our U17 teams took both the women's and men's team titles with Ella Semple cementing her position as the overall winner of the women's event by finishing second on the day. Ryan Shields secured second place overall in the men's event with an excellent win 16 seconds ahead of the second placed runner. Both these athletes have another year in this age group so it was an excellent set of races for them and sets them up well for the forthcoming Inter Counties and English Schools cross country championships.
For many of our U17 men it was their last West Midlands cross country league race, some of whom have run this since they were nine, and they went out with a bang. Daniel Swain finished in fifth, Michael Gayle in ninth, Jarred Malcolm-Roberts in 10th and Nathan Casey 19th. With Sam McFall the third counter in seventh, Jamie Cooper in 8th and Ben Parker in 42nd it was a great team performance and meant on the day they won as a team by 22 points securing the league title.
In the women's race Ellen Taylor was fifth, Savannah Causer 13th and Chloe Pettit 28th which added to Ella's score put them second on the day, but only by four points so they secured the overall league comfortably.
The U15 boys had suffered with injury and illnes during the season but were still fighting for a team medal. Josh Robins, followed up his excellent win at the Midland Counties by another good run to win by a significant margin and secure the overall title with a maximum 800 points from four wins. Next to finish was Max Price in sixth an improvement of 13 places from the last race followed by Alex Dickson 16th, Isaac Searle 27th, Leo Merritt 36th and Daniel Hawes 45th. Although the result put them in fourth in this race, they still retained their position overall so another set of team medals was won by a delighted group of young athletes.
It has been a similar position for the U15 girls, who started out very strongly in the first fixture but lost athletes over the season to injury and illness. However a strong turnout at Wolverhampton put them in medal contention. Emilie Bullock was the first home in fourth then came an ever improving Amy Harland in fifth, Aliya Westwood 8th, Lucy Semple 19th, Amelia Taylor 38th, Olivia Scott 39th and Ria Nahar 69th.
The girls finished second on the day and second overall. Emilie Bullock was also rewarded for a series of excellent runs with an individual medal for her second place and Aliya Westwood was awarded the 6th place medal.
In the U13 boys Finnan Robins was lying in third overall going into the race but the team were not in medal contention as we are short in numbers in this age group. He finished in third position once again for the fifth race in a row and this consistency meant he won the individual third place medal. Ash Burgess, one of the smallest runners in the race was 8th, (and 7th over the five races), Charlie Smith had an excellent run to finish in 15th and finally Thomas Foster gained much needed team points in 73rd place.
The U13 girls have some promising athletes who are improving with every race. Tilli-Beau Tyson had a storming race to finish in 10th with Tulah Searle in 17th, Lola Orton 32nd, Belle Skidmore 81st, Katie Collis 85th, Kelzey Tozer 90th, and Ava McMorrow 95th. Overall the team finished in sixth place at Wolverhampton and fifth across all races. Amira Hamilton, who had sustained an injury over the weekend was unable to run but had secured enough points in the first four races to take the individual medal for sixth place.
Our U11 boys had their best result of the season amassing 719 points. All these athletes are in their first year of competing in this league so it was a learning experience for all and they will only improve as they get fitter and stronger. The first Birchfield athlete to finish was Oliver Cressell in 29th, his best position of the season. Next was Simeon Swain, who was a little under par having been sick during the week. Close behind him was Oliver Shortman 63rd, Kristian Corbin 65th, Daniel Ryan 67th and Matthew Sharpe 71st. Jacob Bennett 78th, Henry Baker-Yearwood 85th and Samuel Thompson 95th made up the team.
Finally the U11 girls race showcased another of the Robins family, this time it was Lexie who showed her ability in cross country. She had her best race of the season finishing in second place to give her third place across all five matches. Cassie Pearson continued her remarkable improvement this season finishing in 20th place. In the first league race in October she came home in 83rd place so has improved by 63 places! Livia Casey was 56th and Tessa Burgess also improved her position this race in 71st. Our final athlete Kira Mitchell was 84th out of a total of 129 runners.
Thanks go to team managers, Karen and Steve for all their hard work and organisation and for putting up the tent and standing in the cold. We also thank all the parents who support their children and the coaches, particularly Tracey and Cath, who work hard to help the young athletes perform to the best of their abililty.