On Friday, 16 Midleton College athletes took on the difficult conditions and a testing course at Tramore Valley Park for the South Munster Schools Cross Country Championships. 

An outstanding performance from Christian Mahony saw him qualify for the Munster Championships. Christian’s improvement over the past 12 months was clear for all to see as a controlled run saw him finish 3rd in a field of 151 finishers in the Junior Boys race. He was followed home by teammates Killian Broadkorb (34th), Fionn Loughnane (44th) and Quin Buckley (52nd). A fine team performance but unfortunately not enough to secure a Munster place as the team finished 5th overall, missing out on team qualification by just one position for the second year running. 

There was a fantastic performance from Alannah Berkeley too in the Senior Girls race, as she finished 17th, just two places outside of the individual qualifying positions. Despite that disappointment, the progress arising from her commitment to training was clearly in evidence.  

In a packed Intermediate boys race Oscar Murphy led the charge finishing 23rd, followed by Colm Smiddy (86th), Max Colombet (98th) and Connor Milward Aherne (115th). 

Our Minor athletes had a good day out too. Romy Cussen (39th), Aisling Venables (47th) and Molly McSweeney (73rd) flew the flag in a girls’ race with almost 100 finishers. While Marcus O’Loughlin was our sole representative in the boys’ race, finishing 82nd amongst 128 finishers.

Our three Senior Boys rounded out the day with some dogged performances on what was by then extremely difficult terrain. Jude Buckley (31st), Sean Connolly (48th) and Christopher Twohig (62nd) fought admirably through a testing 5000m course. Congratulations to all concerned. 

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