Southampton AC Senior Women had another amazing day at Farley Mount Winchester. The first cross country race of the season saw Ceri Mitchell finish 2nd after an excellent run over a very hard 6km course. Followed by Laura Brenton 9th and Nicci Blandford (team captain) 10th (2nd Vet) to seal 2nd place for the team. All round the ladies of Southampton turned up in force and produced some outstanding performances with Natalie Burke 23rd, Rhiannon Shepherd 34th, Catriona Witcombe 35th, Mhairi-Clair Stewart 51st, Sophie Darling 65th, Elaine Goode 74th, Claire Gallant 75th, Rachel Evans 76th & Lynn Massey 109th.

The Senior Men had the biggest club squad of the day fielding 24 runners with the team finishing in 3rd place with M Bennett in 7th, S Phillips 13th, T. Muddiman 20th, M Hibberd 22nd & M Johnson 39th. These were well supported by D Blackman 41st (4th Vet), M Campbell 50th, P Merritt 57th, J Quint 58th, T Sherman 60th, D Currie 61st, T Spencer 69th, S Campbell 75th, A Sweeney 78th, S Underwood 79th, S Hicks 80th, M Tanner 98th, J Torres 108th, R Miller 119th, J MacInnes 128th, D Mills 142nd, H Prior 159th, D Root 194th & C Armstrong 195th.

Southampton AC’s young athlete’s got their cross country season off to a good start with some fine individual and team performances.

The highest place individual finisher was Frances Arnott who continues to improve and took a fine 3rd place in the U17 women’s race. She was followed home by teammates Daena Bennett in 6th, Laura Seaman in 13th & Becky Lord in 14th which earned the team 2nd place overall.

The best team performance was achieved by the U15 boys who came home 1st overall. Peter Ellis & George Butler both earned top ten finishes in 4th & 6th place respectively and were ably backed up by Lucas Clements in 16th place. Teammates Jamie Abrahams, Alex Prinsep & Matt Cousins also ran well in 22nd, 30th & 43rd places.

The U13 girls secured a 3rd place finish led by Lizzie Payne in 6th. Jessie Tucker was next in 14th, Carina Farrow 33rd, Elizabeth Curzen 34th, Eleanor Prinsep was 61st & Emily Tubb 62nd. Jessie, Carina, Eleanor & Emily were all making their cross country debuts for the club.

The U15 girls also took 3rd place overall led by Alana Spiers who took a superb 5th place finish. She was well backed up by Caitlin Stewart in 15th, Abbie Fisher in 18th & Briallen Taylor in 29th.

The U17 men were 5th overall. Niall Holt was 18th, David Fisher 21st & Amarpal Gill 27th.

The U13 boys were 7th in a field of over 75 individual runners. Owen Lawrence was 18th, Luke Powell 20th, Blake Miller 22nd & Lewis Bull 40th.