ALEX ADAMS and Taylor Stubbins secured a one-two finish for Stratford AC in the West Midland Young Athletes Cross Country League at Walsall Arboretum.
Adams and Stubbins took the top two podium places in the under-17 Men’s race with the former coming home in 15mins 55secs and the latter in 16mins 27secs.
Alex led from the start in what was the fourth race of the season whilst Taylor broke clear from a small group of runners on the final lap to take second.
Victory for Alex means he has clinched his age category league title with one race to spare and is unbeaten in over five years.
Elsewhere, Ben Stockhill finished 18th in 17mins 52secs to ensure Stratford finished first in the race overall with Caleb Spriggs 29th and Tom Cox 30th.
And in the under-17 Women’s race, Charlotte Marshall achieved a fourth place finish in 15mins 54secs to secure her best result of the season.
Olivia Robinson came home in 10th in 17mins 5secs, her first top-10 finish this season, with Abigail Skinner bringing the team home in 41st in 20mins 43secs.
Stratford produced another strong performance in the under-15 Girls race as Maisie-Joy Spriggs took second in 12mins 17secs to secure second place overall in the league standings.
Niamh Hillard placed fifth in 12mins 36secs and was closely followed by Maddie Linfoot in eighth in 12mins 52secs with Lucy Thomas 31st and Martha Peters 36th completing the scoring.
The other finishers were Alice Cottam 45th, Abbie Cooper 46th, Caitlin Boyle 49th, Charlotte Skinner 51st, Emily Cottam 55th, Hannah Wilkinson 65th and Ella Peeke 68th.
And the under-15 Boys team had five finishers in the top-40 to secure second place overall with Milo Cullimore first across the line in 12th in 11mins 42secs, his highest finish this season.
Henry Wheeler finished strongly in 18th, followed by a close group of Stratford finishers in James Day 30th, Zak Lambert 33rd and William Mayes 34th whilst Hugh Markham 53rd, Seb Hillard 66th and Joe Lewis 73rd completed the team.
Stratford’s under-13 Boys had three finishers in the top-20 with Aran Cooper’s fast start helping him finish 13th in 9mins 48secs, Joel Ledgard took 18th in 9mins 56secs and Sam Plumb was in 20th in 10mins 11secs.
Alfie Musk came home 24th to secure his highest finish of the season whilst Arthur Mansbridge 56th held off a strong challenge at the finish and Ewan Sparrow 71st completed the team.
Stella Sant starred for Stratford in the under-13 Girls race as she finished 14th in 6mins 54secs to continue her strong season with her highest finish with Jasmine Mothershaw 46th, Rachel Sparrow 47th and Georgia Sharpe 55th coming home in the middle of the pack.
In the under-11 Boys race, Stratford were led home by Harrison Geden 25th in 6mins 38secs, followed by the sprinting Toby Spriggs 36th in 6mins 59secs who went round the outside to get past a few more runners in the finish straight.
Henry Sims 56th, Callum Linforth 57th, and Henry Thomas 59th were bunched in the middle of the field with Toby Wilkinson 78th and Ben Harrison 93rd making up the remainder of the team.
And lastly, in the under-13 Girls race, Marijke Tear-Verweij recovered from a fall at the start to finish 26th in 11mins 2secs with Lois Ford 39th, Ava Sheppard 42nd, Tessa Parkin 47th and Amelia Peeke 53rd.
Stratford finished fourth overall on the day to leave them fourth in the league out of 21 clubs and can still achieve third place should they perform well in the final race of the season which takes place in Nuneaton on Sunday, February 20.
