Young Harriers in prizes
The NE Harrier League annual presentation was held at Newcastle on Thursday. The evening brought to a close the 2017/18 cross-country season with awards for individual and team performances.
The Alnwick U3 girls have had an outstanding season, winning their league after six tough fixtures against the top North East clubs. A strong core of six athletes from a two-year age band formed the team. The senior runners Millie Breese, Lauren Brown and Hannah Johnston ran all season from the fast pack and did exceptionally well to routinely finish with top ten placings.
Sam Potts made her cross-country debut, winning the Aykley Heads, Durham, fixture, gaining promotion in her first race. This excellent result pushed the team to the top of the league, a position which they managed to hold and extend until the end of the season.
First year runners Ellie Price and Beth Carragher won valuable points from the slow pack, Beth regularly placed highly, racing in all six fixtures. The girls will form the backbone of next year’s U13 team.
The girls’ success continued outside the Harrier League where they won the NE Counties Championship and placed highly in the Northern Championship. Lauren was then selected to represent the NE at the National Team Championship in Loughborough. Millie and Lauren were both successful in selection for the Northumberland team at the English Schools Championship.
In the Harrier League individual grand prix, Lauren had a spectacular season, running fastest in all her races to secure the U13s title. Alnwick also had success at senior level with Jo Gascoigne-Owens and Steve Carragher taking second and third places in the Veteran categories.