harriers to fore in schools xc champs

The Northumberland Schools Championships Cross Country Championships were held at Temple Park, South Shields last Tuesday, with pupils representing schools from across the region and competing for the areas of North Northumberland, East Northumberland, Tynedale, North Tyneside and Newcastle.
 
Once again there was a strong presence from runners attached to Morpeth Harriers, most of whom represented East Northumberland, and several notable individual victories.
 
The first of those victories belonged to Ewan Line in the Boys Minor Championship race for pupils in Years 6 and 7. Line’s fine run was backed up by Ruben Jones, 7th, Evan Laude, 27th, and Daniel Vermaas, 31st, with the team from East Northumberland finishing 2nd.
 
There were also four Harriers out in the matching Girls fixture, with Faye Heatley 4th, Abi Potrac 10th, Sophie Pledger 11th, all representing East Northumberland, and Cecily Findlay, running for North Northumberland, 40th. The East Northumberland went one better than the boys with the team overall winners.
 
In the Junior Boys race, for pupils in Years 8 and 9, George Mavir was highest place in 4th, while Ben Bowen was 45th, Michael Leeson a place behind in 46th, and Thomas Roche 53rd. The East Northumberland team were 3rd.
 
Emma Tomlinson was 6th in the Junior Girls, Megan Potrac 13th , Charlotte Marshall 26th and Iris Dungait 29th , with the team this time 2nd.
 
The second individual victory of the day came in the Intermediate Boys race for Years 10 and 11, where Oliver Calvert pulled off a fine win, with club colleague Elliot Kelso also ensuring selection for the next round in 3rd. Oliver Tomlinson was 4th, Harry Armstrong 34th and Stephen Craske 39th, with the team unfortunately however only able to finish in 5th.
 
One of the day’s most pleasing wins came in a keenly-contested Senior Boys race for pupils in the Sixth Form, where Joe Dixon marked his comeback after a long spell of injury-enforced absence with a tremendous run to come in 1st, ahead of North Tyneside’s Josh Blevins, who had won the U/20 race in the North East Championships on the same course in December, and no less than eight other colleagues from Morpeth Harriers.
 
James Tilley was 3rd, Will De Vere Owen 4th, Matthew Walton 5th, Liam Roche 6th, Ethan Philips 7th, Ryan Davies 8th, Bertie Marr 13th, all representing a dominant East Northumberland team, and Ralph Robson, running for Tynedale, 16th.
 
Duchess High School triathlete Millie Breese had to settle for 2nd in the matching Senior Girls race, where she lost out to North Tyneside runner Holly Waugh, while Caitlin Flanagan, running for Newcastle, was 11th.
 
The first three in each category will go forward to the next round of the Schools Inter Counties competition.