Well done to all the USAC Juveniles who competed at the Wexford County Cross Country Championships, at JFK Park, in the Autumn sunshine. The day got off to a great start for the Striders with our boys & girls under 10’s performing 
really well. Winning loads of medals and running strongly were Anna Murphy, Katie Costello, Moya Corbett, Lucy Power, Abby Jordan, Hugo Fernandez, Cillian Browne, Sam Myers, Patrick Pyne and Ronan Shannon.
The GU12 team of Aisling Ryan, Isabel Bawden, Emily Egan and Saidbh Rossiter all ran well, over a tough 2 Km undulating course, and must have been very close to a team medal. Shortly after, the first win of the day, for the Striders, came from Myles Hewlett, in the BU12 race. Myles dominated from start to finish, in a race that contained an incredible ten Stiders. Eoin Shannon came out of the chasing pack to record an impressive second place finish and Ben Myers 
looked equally strong to be third Strider over the line and securing the first team medal of the day. With Caolan Costello, Cosmo Hewlett, Finn Kelly, Sean Lennon, Danny Costello, Luca O’Connor and Conor Rossiter all in good form, in the same race, it was no surprise that we picked up a second team medal here also.
The GU14 team were also in the medals, securing a team silver. With the 
distance up to 3Km, Erinn Shannon was first Strider home, judging things to perfection over three laps and finishing off her race strongly. Ciara Murphy, moving up an age group, put in a fine performance to finish in the top ten. More great efforts from Louise Doyle, Eve Byrne, Clodagh Foran and Kelly Corbett secured the team medal. The boys in the same age group won a dramatic silver thanks to an exciting sprint finish by Adam O’Connor. The team of Adam, Aidan Shannon, Darragh Flannelly, Owen Lennon and Oisin McEochaigh went one better to win a really good team gold.
The GU16 race was quite a spectacle with the Striders supplying nine of the ten competitors. Over 4Km, Grace Costello ran out a convincing winner ahead of Alanah Byrne in second. In addition the Striders won team medals through great performances from Ellie Quinn, Rebecca Bawden, Aisling Power, Maeve Whitty, Aoife Ni Eochaigh, Catriona Ryan and Grainne Flannelly. Silver medals were the order of the day in the BU16 race, with Aaron Browne winning an individual silver and assisted by Cian Flanagan and Ryan Kielthy, winning a team silver.
The final races of the day yielded two medals in the U18 age group. Firstly Katie Murphy winning bronze and quickly followed up by James Boland winning silver, in his first appearance for the Striders. Well done to all athletes, who performed fantastically well on their first competitive race of the cross country season.
