St Michael’s got the 2014 cross-country season off to a very successful start with a good U15 team success and a second place finish at U13 level at the Antrim international meeting held at Greenmount College on Saturday. Conditions at the Antrim venue provided all the variety that only a cross-country course can, with early morning rain giving way to cooler drier weather for much of the racing, and a course which, while for the most part firm, did have some patches of wet mud which made a rhythm very hard to find.

The U15 success came courtesy of some very good team packing from Jacob Britton, who was rewarded for an aggressive opening lap by a very good ninth place finish and he was followed across the line by Oisin Morris in 11th and Domhnall Lynam 12th to help edge out Ratoath AC by just three points with Britton being the second Northern Irish finisher behind Peter Fegan of Burren. Paul Breen, Year Ten James Boyle and Bruce Worley all had excellent runs as the followed each other home in 19th, 20th and 21st places respectively although Jack Scallon may be a bit disappointed with his 22nd place having finished in the top 20 twelve months ago. Other St Michael’s athletes taking part in what was overall a very solid performance, in a high quality field, were Conor McNally 29th, Conor Maguire 35th, Gavin Green 36th, Joe Worley 40th, Daire O’Cathain 41st, Ryan Breen 44th and Rory Baird 49th.

Earlier in the U13 event Sean Vaugh continued his good form as he lead home the St Michael’s contingent in 10th with Jimmy Tormey having his best run so far in 18th and Keelan Farry just edging Jack Largo Ellis for the final scoring spot as they finished 19th and 20th respectively, St Michael’s B squad taking second spot to a good Ballymena & Antrim team. Glenn Tracey 26th, Pearce McGovern 29th, Ben Corrigan 31st, James Cox 36th, Achlinn O’Cathain 38th and Mark Monaghan 48th completed the St Michael’s finishers and when a few missing athletes return there is the basis of two competitive teams for the upcoming schools mini and minor championships.

Perhaps there is more work to be done with the senior age groups as they put in a rather subdued performance in the combined U17/U20 event over a tough 5600m. Ruairi Maguire showed some indications of the talent that had taken him to top six Ulster schools finishes as a minor and junior and there were solid enough runs too from Pierce Connolly, Mark McCaffrey, Eddie Boyd, Ryan Gormley and a very youthful Conal Boylan who only missed the U15 age group by a few days as indeed did Conor Gormley who showed good battling qualities all the way to the finish ahead of Noel Grew who suffered an unfortunate ankle injury which would have forced many athletes to drop out. Lorcan Love was unfortunately hindered by a chest infection and ran round as a training run while Garvan Jones has had, and will again have, better days as he struggled from early on. There will be a need for a lot of solid running over the next four weeks from all these athletes if St Michael’s are to make it to Cork for the Irish schools finals at senior level with St Malachy’s, St Columb’s Derry and Sullivan Upper all fielding strong senior squads this season.

In the girls events Lucia Warnock 9th, Aoife Farrell 18th and Alannah Leonard 19th all had fine runs in the colours of Enniskillen Running club while Edel Monaghan, running for Omagh AC finished in an excellent sixth place in the U15 girls and was the first Northern Ireland athlete across the line.

Conan McCaughey of ERC ran strongly throughout the senior men’s international race to finish 37th just two places ahead of another Fermanagh athlete Glen Phair running for Annadale Striders and two ahead of James Speight who runs for the Finn Valley club. As a footnote it is interesting that City of Derry Spartans won the Northern Ireland men’s senior team title and all three Fermanagh men finished ahead of their second scorer. With the likes of Steven Prentice and Mark Hoy, could a Fermanagh team take the national senior title before too long if all running under the one banner? Based on Saturday the possibility is a very realistic one, if such unity of purpose and direction could ever be achieved.

In the meantime the focus of the county’s junior athletes will turn towards the upcoming schools championships, now just a few weeks away.