Local athletes shine at Delamont estate

Local athletes shine at Delamont estate

3 February 2016

OVER 26 schools took part in District A Schools’ cross-country championship at Delamont last Wednesday afternoon.

Local honours in the team events went to to Down High School who finished first in the junior girls’ event and second in the mini boys’ race. Individual plaudits went to Down High’s Hannah Gilliland, who won the junior girls’ race and Edie Carroll, who was second.

Laura Gardiner  from St Mary’s High School, Downpatrick, was second in the senior girls’ 

grace

The mini boys and girls got the day off to a flying start with Grosvenor’s High School’s Dylan McBride taking the honours in the boys’ race and school mate Tara McDonagh winning the girls’ event.

Down High School’s George McBratney took second place and along with Jakob Hamilton (Down High), who finished ninth and Oran O’Connor (St Patrick’s, Downpatrick), who took 12th spot qualify for the Ulster finals.

Shimna Integrated’s Jodie Cunningham was the highest placed local in seventh place in the girls’ and she and Down High School’s Abbie Ross, who finished 10th, have qualified for the Ulster finals.

In the minor girls’ race Assumptions Grammar School’s Sophie Senior finished sixth and along with Shimna’s Eve Kenneally, who finished 8th, sailed through to the finals.

Tom Smyth, from St Patrick’s Grammar School, finished seventh in the junior boys’ race and is the only local through to the finals. 

It was in the junior girls’ race that Down High School and Hannah Gilliland and Edie Carroll really came into a class of their own, taking first and second place respectively.

They will be joined in the Ulster finals by Chloe Galloway from St Mary’s, Downpatrick, and Down High School’s Alice Cross.

Brendan McKey from St Malachy’s High School, Castlewellan, took ninth place in the intermediate boys race and will be joined in the finals by James Smyth from St Patrick’s Grammar School, Downpatrick. 

Assumption Grammar School’s Aoife Cochrane finished fifth in the intermediate girls’ race and will be joined in the finals by Shimna’s Laura Greene and Down High School’s Naomi Donnan.

Down High School’s Daniel Molly took 8th place in the senior boys’ race and will be joined in the finals by Shimna’s Jack Quinn. 

Laura Gardiner form St Mary’s High School, Downpatrick, pulled out all the stops to take second place in the senior girls’ race and was only four and a half seconds behind the winner, Rebekah Nixon from Banbridge Academy. Laura will be joined in the finals by Assumption’s Emma Smyth and Niamh Doyle. 

In the team event Down High just missed out on a finals place in the mini boys and girls’ events, but qualified in the junior girls’ race along with Strathearn and Glenola Collegiate.

The school also qualified for the intermediate girls’ final with a third-place finish behind Strathearn and Lagan College and the senior boys’ with a third-place finish behind Bangor Grammar School and Sullivan Upper.

Assumption qualified for the minor girls’ final with a third-placed finish and also the senior girls with a third-placed finish behind Regent House and Strathearn.

St Patrick’s Grammar School, Downpatrick, qualified for the intermediate boys final with a fourth placed finish behind St Colman’s, Newry, Abbey Grammar School, Newry and Campbell College, Belfast.