Northern Schools Inter Counties Cross Country Championships

Event hosts Cumbria were the overall winners of the Northern Schools Inter Counties Cross Country Championships, held on a brand-new course at Lowther Castle, near Penrith, on Saturday 8th February 2020.

Although all surfaces were easily declared as runnable, conditions could only
be described as heavy going for the later events in the eight-race programme.

Northumberland managed to scape home in second place overall, beating third placed Durham
by one point, however both areas were nearly two hundred and fifty points adrift of the winners.

Out of the five counties in action, only the three already mentioned could mount an overall
team challenge, with both Cleveland and North Yorkshire out of contention in the Girls events.

Northumberland’s best team result came from their Intermediate Boys,
who won by one point from Durham in their 5.4k event, however the county’s best on the day
achievement was that of Morpeth Harrier Ross Charlton’s individual run in the Senior Boys event,
where he finished a very close second, (five seconds), to Cleveland’s Archie Lowe,
both the North Eastern, and Northern Under 17 Men’s Champion,
​with whom he had battled vigorously with throughout their 6.536km event .

Charlton led Northumberland Senior Boys to third team place behind winners Cumbria,
and second placed Durham, only losing out for second by three points.

Amongst the Northumberland scoring six, were fellow
Morpeth Harriers Daniel Melling (6th), and Tom Balsdon (19th).

Back to the Northumberland Intermediate Boys team success,
where Morpeth’s Dylan Davies was fifth counter in fifteenth place overall.

Other Morpeth Harriers in action in the Intermediate Boys event
were Euan Duffin (32nd), and Sam Tate (65th).

Second best team performance in the Boys events, came from the Juniors,
who finished second to Cumbria, and had three Morpeth Harriers amongst their six counters.

Ryan Davies certainly had one of the runs of the day, finishing an excellent fourth, and leading the squad home.
Further team support included an under the weather Joe Dixon, who under such circumstances, still did his best to come home as third counter in ninth place.

Another Morpeth Harrier getting amongst the scorers was Will De Vere-Owen,
who finished thirteenth, on what was a greatly improved run.

Not far behind Will, but outside the scoring six, was Theo Dragoi, who is currently training
with Morpeth as a second claim athlete, his first claim club being Gateshead Harriers.
Dragoi finished seventeenth, eight places ahead of Morpeth’s Liam Roche.

Morpeth’s Bertie Marr bravely battled around despite a niggling injury, to finish in 57th place.
Northumberland’s Minor Boys finished as third team behind Cumbria and North Yorkshire in their 2.7k event.

Morpeth’s Oliver Tomlinson and Ollie Calvert had an intriguing battle
with North Shields Poly’s Zac Brannon at the front end of the event.
Whilst Brannon finished sixth as Northumberland’s leading counter,
Tomlinson and Calvert came home as second and third from the county
in eighth and ninth places respectively, with only two seconds dividing them.

The best result achieved by Northumberland in the Female events,
in terms of team performance, came from their Senior Girls in their 4.5k race.

An over enthusiastic start may have cost Morpeth’s Holly Peck a bit of ground on her front running rivals,
who included Northumberland Champion Chloe Wellings of Gateshead Harriers,
who was a close second to Cumbria’s Chloe Rylance.

Peck did stick to the task in hand, to emerge as second for Northumberland, finishing eleventh for her efforts.
Completing the Northumberland Senior Girls scoring count was Ella Duffield, who finished in 31st place.

Second claim Morpeth athlete Millie Breeze led Northumberland
Intermediate Girls home to fourth team place in their 3.83k event.
The first claim Alnwick Harrier finished fifth.

Another Morpeth Harrier having an excellent run in this event was
Abi Leiper, who was third counter in thirteenth place.

Outside the scoring counts in the Intermediate Girls event was
Morpeth Harrier Sophie Coaker, who finished 57th.

Morpeth’s Kate Kennedy had an excellent run in the Junior Girls 3.5k event,
finishing ninth overall, and leading Northumberland home to fourth team place.

Another Morpeth Harrier in action here was Zara Naughton,
who was outside the scoring counts in 61st place overall.

There were no Morpeth Harriers competing in the Minor Girls events.