junior men retain northerns title

Morpeth's U20 champions with the giant Hardwick Shield Will de Vere Owen, Bertie Marr and Oliver Tomlinson

Morpeth Harriers Junior Men retained their title for the third consecutive year at the Northern Cross Country Championships in West Yorkshire on Saturday afternoon.
Held at a windswept Pontefract racecourse, where the going was distinctly heavy underfoot after days of continual rain, the Under 20s team of Will de Vere Owen, Bertie Marr and Oliver Tomlinson amassed a team title of 35 points to finish ahead of nearest challengers Rotherham Harriers on 51 after over five miles of racing in some gruelling conditions.
Loughborough University student De Vere Owen also collected an individual Bronze behind Clayton-le-Moors race winner Birak Aduna Kebede, who had also won last year in Cheshire, and second place finisher Jack Sanderson of Settle Harriers.
Sheffield University student Bertie Marr finished in 11th with Ponteland High School sixth former Oliver Tomlinson, in his first U/20s championship for the club, making up the count in 21st.
The club was delighted to retain a historic trophy, the Hardwick Shield, which dates back to the nineteenth century, having been first competed for in the 1890s – although it is also probably the largest and heaviest it has had to handle!
A handful of younger Morpeth Harriers also made the journey down the A1 to take part, although the club will certainly be hopeful of greater numbers for next month’s National fixture, to be held closer to home at Sedgefield.
Charlotte Marshall was the first runner in blue and white to run, finishing 73rd in the U/17 Women, run over 5k.
Heidi Wilkinson and Faye Heatley both ran in the U/15 Girls race over 4.31k, with Heidi 47th and Faye 59th.
Fellow U/15s Mason Gaylor and Jacob Thompson both ran in the Boys race, with Mason 22nd and Jacob 117th.
The club did manage to field a full team in the U/13 Boys however, with Joe Fawcett first back in 74th, brother Will 99th and Luke Thompson 94th.
Final two races of the day featured Senior athletes, with the Women competing over a challenging 8.39k/5.2 miles, or two laps of the race circuit, and the Men going three laps, or 7.5 miles.
Despite having only back in training for a couple of weeks, Morpeth’s Catriona Macdonald finished just outside the top twenty in 21st place, with veteran Morag Stead also running well for 62nd (and 3rd Over 50), some 141 finishing the race.
Senior Women’s winner was Salford Harrier Katie Hawkins, managing a ten second victory over Sale Harrier Alice Wright with Border Harrier Rachel Brown in 3rd. Some 141 finished.
Last race of the day featured some four Morpeth vests, with that redoubtable warrior Carl Avery, a past winner of the race, finishing in the club’s highest place in 14th and Ellis Hetherington 20th. Connor Marshall was just outside the top 100 in 104th and Andrew Lawrence only a few places back in 118th, despite suffering the indignity of a pair of ripped shorts having run too close to the course markers (and in so doing ignoring Club President Jim Alder MBE’s golden rule of cross-country: ‘Pick your line!’).
The race was won for the third time by Gateshead Harrier Calum Johnson, over thirty seconds ahead of City of York’s Angus McMillan with Harrys Wakefield and Johnson of Salford in third and fourth.
With six in the top eleven Salford were massive winners, turning out en masse in a field of just over 300 finishers.
Congratulations to all who turned out in trying conditions on a tough course, although the club’s overall turn out was disappointing. This year is however a bit of an odd one of course, with the National closer to home than the Northern, a rare event. It is very much to be hoped that there will be plenty of Morpeth vests out in all age categories at Sedgefield on Saturday 21  February.
PLEASE NOTE ENTRY FOR THE ABOVE CLOSES ON FRIDAY 6TH, AND LET THE CLUB KNOW IF YOU WISH TO BE ENTERED.
Link to results here: Northern Athletics Cross Country Championships
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