STRATFORD AC’s Alex Adams claimed victory in the under-17’s Men’s race at the third meeting of the West Midland Young Athletes Cross Country League.
Adams ran a superb race to come home in a time of 15minutes 23seconds some 52 seconds ahead of his closest challenger at Aldersley Stadium in Wolverhampton.
Stratford’s Charlotte Marshall impressed in the under-17’s Women’s race as she finished seventh in a time of 15mins 15secs matching her result from the previous race.
And the club enjoyed a good finish to the event in the under-15 girls race as Maisie-Joy Spriggs crossed the line second in 11mins 45secs to record her highest ever finish.
Stratford AC placed fifth out of 21 clubs in Wolverhampton and sit fourth overall in the league table with a total of 17,979 points.
Marshall was followed home by Ellie Deaner in 21st (16mins 59secs) in the first race of the day with the latter moving up ten places from her first race of the season.
A depleted under-11 boys team saw Henry Sims first home in 33rd (6mins 23secs) closely followed by Toby Spriggs in 35th (6mins 25secs) who secured his highest finish of the season whilst Henry Thomas 60th (6mins 59secs) completed the side.
Adams’ event followed and he led for virtually the whole race in his sublime victory with Theo Skirvin 17th (17mins 25secs) moving up to 10th in the league for the season and Caleb Spriggs 22nd (17mins 46secs) finished strongly.
Stella Sant 16th (6mins 24secs) placed highest for the under-11 girls with Jasmine Mothershaw 32nd (6mins 40secs), Amelie Marshall 34th (6mins 41secs), Rachel Sparrow 38th (6mins 52secs), Alice Richards 57th (7mins 7secs) and Georgia Sharpe 64th (7mins 12secs) completing the team.
And Zach Lambert also placed 16th (11mins 19secs) for the under-15 boys with his highest finish of the season and was followed closely by Will Mayes 21st (11mins 25secs), Henry Wheeler 25th (11mins 28secs), James Day 37th (11mins 53secs), Hugh Markham 40th (12mins 3secs) and Gabriel Gaiser 42nd (12mins 3secs).
Marijke Tear-Verweij came home eighth (9mins 13secs) for the under-13 girls having fallen back from fifth in the last few hundred metres whilst Annie Silvers impressed with an 11th place finish (9mins 27secs) having raced in Cornwall the day before with Lois Ford 38th (10mins 25secs) and the returning Tessa Parkin 47th (10mins 40secs).
The team performance of the day belonged to the under-13 boys as Aran Cooper 10th (8mins 49secs) was closely followed home by Samuel Plumb 11th (8mins 50secs) and Joel Ledgard 12th (8mins 54secs) which marked the highest position for all three runners this season.
Strong finishes from Alfie Musk 30th (9mins 28secs) and Arthur Mansbridge 37th (9mins 45secs) helped move the team into second position on the day.
The last race of the day saw a fine performance by the under-15 girls with Spriggs second place finish cementing her second-place position in the league and was supported by Niamh Hillard in fifth (12mins 3secs) and Maddie Linfoot in ninth (12mins 19secs) whilst Caitlin Boyle 40th (13mins 38secs) and Emily Cottam 44th (13mins 48secs) claimed the last two scoring positions for the team.
Last over the line for Stratford were Abbi Cooper 46th (13mins 51secs), Alice Cottam 49th (13mins 55secs), Lucy Thomas 52nd (14mins 8secs), Charlotte Skinner 55th (14mins 12secs) and Tilly Campbell 60th (14mins 49secs).
Stratford AC return to action in Walsall on Sunday, January 16 trailing thrid place Wolverhampton by just 137 points.
