Ulster Schools Cross Country success for the College
Gold , Silver and Bronze team medals for St Colman's College at the Ulster School's Cross country Championships . Jack O'Farrell takes individual silver in the Intermediate boys race.
it was another good day's racing for the St Colmans College cross country runners at the above championships.
Our team gold success came courtesy of the first year team in a very close fought battle with Campbell College, and Bangor Grammar, Brian Grant in 8th Patrick Ruddy in 10th and Miceal Rice in 12 th set the foundations in place for this excellent win by 4 points from Campbell College.
The standard was extremely high in the 2nd year race and the College finished in 5th place, however Leo Magee had the satisfaction of qualifying as an individual for the All Ireland Finals in two weeks time.
The surprise result of the day was the Junior boys team taking the bronze medals, illness and injury have dogged this team all year, but gutsy performances by Aiden O'Hare, Cathal Farrelly, MacDarragh Hines, Oran McCafferty, and Paul OG McCormack ensured that they will also be contesting an All Ireland final
The u17 race was always going to be close between St Malachy's and St Colman's College. these two teams are ranked in the top 3 schools in the country. St Malachy's prevailed on this occasion managing to put 4 athletes in the first 9 . Jack O'Farrell took the silver individual medal , Peter Murray was sixth and Miceal McCaul 11th. Miceal is just returning from injury and should improve on his placing in the All Irelands as will Tom Magee and Coilean Connell.
Jack and Miceal also had the satisfaction of been ed on the Northern Ireland team to compete in the London Mini Marathon . Jack in the U18 race and Miceal in the U16. Peter Murray narrowly missed out on selection by 1 second and Coilean by 7 seconds.
March 11th is the All Ireland final, and with two teams competing , hopefully the College can extend its winning streak to 8 wins in the last 10 years.