BUCS Cross Country Championships

Exactly a week after crowning herself in glory, in becoming the first Morpeth Harriers Senior Woman to ever win a Northern title, Mhairi MacLennan finished a well placed seventh out of 700, in the Women’s 6.5k event,
at the annual BUCS Cross Country Championships, held at a very wet and muddy Brunel University,
in Middlesex on Saturday 3rd February 2018.

Posting a finishing time of 23m14s, the Edinburgh University student was thirty-five seconds adrift of fellow European representative Harriet Knowles-Jones, who was representing Manchester University.
MacLennan was certainly amongst good company behind the winner, names such as Phoebe Law (2nd), Phillipa Bowden (3rd), Emily Hosker-Thornhill (4th), 2017 English National Champion Jessica Judd (5th),
and Jennifer Nesbitt (6th), with only a mere thirty-one seconds dividing all six finishers.
Led by MacLennan, Edinburgh University finished fourth in the team race behind
winners Loughborough, with Judd leading them home.

In the Men’s Long Race, covering a total distance of 10k, Morpeth Harriers Jonnie Nisbet
and James Young finished in 126th and 135th places, representing Stirling,
and Lancaster Universities, who finished as twelfth and twenty fourth teams respectively.
343 finishers took part in the Men’s Long Race.

The later run Men’s Short race, run over a 7.9k distance, saw Morpeth Harrier Phil Winkler finish
in an excellent thirty seventh place, leading Leeds Beckett University to nineteenth team place.
Winkler is certainly feeling a much welcome resurgence of true form,
having finished as the sixth counter for his club at last week’s Northern Championships.
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Representing St Mary’s College, Winkler’s Morpeth Harriers club colleague Ryan Green finished in 175th place.
There was a total of 561 finishers in the Men’s Short Race.