Match Report By Des Webb

Team Southampton's younger runners put up another good showing at the National cross country relays at Mansfield over the weekend.

The club sent 3 teams to compete across the age groups plus 2 individuals and the best performance from the Teams came in the youngest age group, the U13 girls where the team finished in 18th place out of over 60 competing on the day. Nicky Humphrey set the youingsters off to a fine start running a very fast time of 7 mins and 43 secends over the 2km course. She put the team in 7th place after the first leg and in the process ran the 14th fastest time of the day of all the runners in the age group. Mhairi-Clair Stewart took over on the second leg and maintained a good pace to bring the team in 9th after leg 2 in a personal time of 8 mins 11 secs. The youngest member of the team, 11 year old Laura Seaman then ran very well on the final leg in a time of 8 mins 16 seconds to allow the Team to finish 18th place overall.

In the u15 boys the team also performed strongly with a fine 24th place finish out of more than 70 teams in the age group. All three runners ran similar times with Aaron Bennett completing in 7 mins dead on the first leg, Martin Nottingham running a time of 6 mins 50 seconds on leg 2 and Simon Nimmin bringing the team home in a time of 6 mins and 53 seconds.

The third team competing on the day was the Junior boys with the first two legs being filled by Loughborough based students Oli Williams and Alex Wall-Clarke who both did identical times of 9 mins and 52 secs over the longer 3km course for their age group. Ross Fripp brought the team home in a time of 11 mins and 22 seconds for a top 50 placed finish for the team.

Also running on the day were Jamie Knapp in the U17 boys and Laura Brenton in the Junior Women's race, both competing strongly but in incomplete Teams.

The clubs next Cross country fixture will be this coming Saturday for the second round of the Hampshire League, at Goodwood racecourse near Chichester.

Please Note:
These results are based on information sent to me. Any problems with names / times / positions then e-mail teamsouthampton@hotmail.com