North Midlands Cross Country League Race 3 Berry Hill Park, Mansfield
On the 5th December the penultimate round of the North Midlands cross country league season took place at Berry Hill Park; due to a cluster of races throughout November there were only a few Harriers members who competed.
The first race of the day was the combined U13 Boys and U15 Girls race, unfortunately with the Harriers missing Jack Hope, Josh Cara and Ethan Mehmet who all took a well earned rest this weekend after running three races in a row the U13 Boys team didn’t hit the heights this round but Ben Tierney stepped in and ran a very good race to finish 19th with a time of 13.16 minutes.
The U15 Girls team only consisted of one runner which was the ever present and solid Gina Diazsantana who ran well with wet and muddy conditions under foot to finish 19th with a time of 13.38 minutes.
In the corresponding age category the U15 Boys team of Matt Stewart and Daniel Waples both ran well in to finish 21st and 28th respectively. Matt produced a top half finish with a time of 19.20 minutes edging out a Sutton Harriers athlete who was closing him down. Also competing in the U15 Boys age group was Daniel Waples who produced a battling performance in his first cross country race of the season for the Harriers to come 28th with a time of 20.04 minutes.
The next race was the Senior Women’s race where the Harriers produced their best individual performance of the day, Sian Edwards returned back from university to run a tactical race to edge out a win (23.04 minutes) from a Stoke AC athlete. Also running for the Women was Kelly Barnett who ran very well in a competitive field to finish 34th with a time of 28.13 minutes. As the Harriers didn’t have a third athlete they came 9th in the team, standings and are 10th overall. Most of the Harriers women team was resting as they had a race the following day so we look forward to the last race of the season where the Harriers women could overtake Corby and they still have a chance of finishing 3rd!
Due to racing the next day the senior men were short on numbers too; Jonathan Goringe, Peter Goringe and Shane Smith made up the Men’s team, although Jonathan had to pull out due to injury. Peter Goringe came 179th with a time of 44.01 minutes and Shane Smith came 187th with a time of 443.53 minutes returning back from that awful injury he sustained at Loughborough in the summer.
The U17 Men had a full team competing; Jake Waples ran another good race to achieve a top half finish to come 6th (21.39 minutes), supporting Jake was the reliable David Edwards 19th (24.06 minutes) and Daniel Thompson came 25th (25.09 minutes) as the last scoring athlete for the team. The U17 Men finished 5th in the team standings and currently lie 5th in the overall standings too.
The last race of the day was the U13 Girls race, Gemma Vaughan made an improvement from her last North Mids race to finish 9th (13.18 minutes). Megan Sanders came 14th (13.49 minutes) and Lauren Mehmet came 24th with a time of 15.28 minutes. The U13 Girls came 6th in the team standings and lie 5th in the overall standings, with a chance of finishing 3rd placed team too.
Well done to all those competing for Kettering Town Harriers; full results are available on the North Midlands XC website. The next fixture is at Nottingham on January 16th.
Report by Dan Thompson