Bucks & Herts Schools and BUCS Cross Country Championships

Buckinghamshire Schools Cross Country Championships
 
The Bucks Schools Cross Country Champs took place at Stowe School on Wednesday Feb 5th, with a good turnout of Chiltern youngsters running for their schools.
 
It was a fine, sunny day and the tough undulating course was quite firm underfoot making for fast races.
 
In the Year 5 and 6 Boys race Freddy Higgins ran well to be ninth.
 
The Minor Girls (year 7) race saw a good run from Lottie Monnington to be 11th from a big field of 111. The Minor boys had strong efforts from Barnaby Willians in 13th, Thomas Cooper in 16th, and Jack Dixon 32nd.
 
The Junior Girls (Years 8 and 9) featured several Chiltern girls well up in a field of 107. Juliette MacDougall was second, Maya Davis fifth, Loren Gerber sixth, Alice Martin seventh, Nell Frost eighth, Annie-Rose Quantrill 10th and Holly Knott 12th. Aiyla Haigh was 27th, Carys Jones 28th, Lana Wahlberg 37th, and Mala Bahia 38th. Bea Robinson was running  well but had to withdraw with ankle pain.
 
Logan Gaskell ran well to be third in the Junior Boys race and Harrison Lawrence continued his great recent form to be fourth. Toby Reynolds was 11th, Colin Miles 15th, Isaac McCall 24th, Isaac Taylor 25th, Jacob McCall 38th, and Oliver Atkinson 81st.
 
The Inter Girls (Years 10 and 11) and Senior Girls (Years 12 and 13) ran together on the same 4k course as the Junior Boys. In the 52-strong Inter Girls race Megan Lockwood had an excellent run to be sixth, Issy Robinson was eighth, Katie Allsop 13th, Lydia Cross 19th, Lara Milburn 20th, and Abi Masters 23rd. There were 20 girls in the Senior race and Alice Peckham came seventh, Jo Snelling tenth.
 
There were 63 Inter Boys and 18 Senior Boys in the final race of the day, on a tough 5.6k route. In perhaps the best race of his strong season Edward Johnson won overall and became Bucks Inter Boys Champion. Also amongst the Inters were Aidan Suleyman (fourth), Zach Cleary (17th), James Malin (30th), and Seb Mano (52nd). Archie Pinder was second Senior Boy with Euan Pinder third, Callum Powell fifth, Daniel Munn seventh, Jack Turner 11th, Rory Hilton 12th and Max Baxter 18th.

Hertfordshire Schools Cross Country Championships
 
Several Chiltern athletes were taking part for their schools in the Herts Schools Champs in St Albans on Saturday.
 
The course was an undulating twisty circuit on the old golf course at the back of Verulamiam Park. It was sticky underfoot but it was a dry day.
 
The Senior Girls race saw good runs from Emily Ford in second and Roxie Jones in sixth.
 
Tom Ford had another great run to win the Intermediate Boys event with James Holdsworth running well to be third. James Henderson was 20th and Ben Reeder 30th.
 
The Junior Boys race saw Isaac Brown 31st, Hector Gamblen 33rd and Josh Woodward 46th, all running well as first years.
 
Lauren Dwyer had a good run to be 38th in the Junior Girls race.
 
In the Pre-Junior (Year 7) Girls race Emilia Ingham was third, and Phoebe Gorman 43rd.
 
Emily, Roxie, Tom and James are invited to represent Herts Schools at the English Schools Cross Country on March 15th in Sussex and Emilia to the Primary Schools Championships on March 22nd in Northamptonshire.

BUCS Cross Country Championships
 
The British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Cross Country Championships took place in Cardiff on Saturday with several Chiltern athletes taking part.
 
This is a big event with four races featuring well over 1500 runners in total. The male long A race, features the top six from each university, and a short B race for all others. The B race can feature many hundreds of runners.
 
In the top level men’s A race, Angus Williams in 94th and Ash Finch in 105th both representing Bristol University, had excellent runs.
 
The men’s short B race saw a big field of 768 finishers. Ben Jackson (Nottingham) was 283rd, Alex Johnson (Manchester) was 394th, and Charlie Stone (Nottingham) 477th.
 
The women’s short B race saw 638 complete the course. Katie Repper (Bath) was a commendable 99th, Ellie Shield (Leeds) 232nd, Alice Brown (Birmingham) 304th, and Jinaan Lockwood (Southampton ) 422nd.