The second of this winter’s East District Cross Country League fixtures took place at Alloa on Saturday 22 November 2014. Potentially it looked like it was going to be a very wet afternoon with a couple of heavy downpours of rain, however we were fortunate that it stayed dry for most of the afternoon. The course itself was fairly challenging with a few hills and it was also extremely muddy, perfect cross country course and conditions!
This league covers all age groups from under 11 through to senior athletes. Unfortunately, the number of Lasswade athletes competing on the day was disappointing, particularly in the younger age groups.
The first race of the day was the under 11 girls and we had no girls in this race. Next it was the turn of the under 11 boys with good performances by Cameron Dickson finishing 25th with club mate Matthew Cartledge in 44th place.
In the under 13 girls we had one runner, Hannah Little, who despite not feeling very well finished 17th. Ethan Gordon arriving for his race in the nick of time was our only runner in the under 13 boys age group finishing 63rd place.
Cameron Steven and Sam Talebi were our only runners in the under 17 men after a late call off from Kyle MacKenzie with an injured wrist. Unfortunately Cameron was not feeling 100% and did not finish. Sam in his first race for us finished in 25th place.
The women started five minutes after the U17 men so were out on the course at the same time. Cathy Dickson led our ladies home in 47th (14th Vet), closely followed by Debra Murray who finished 48th.
The next race was the under 15 boys and it was the first race of the day where Lasswade had a complete team. Magnus Tait led the boys home in 8th place, followed by the improving Jamie Darling in 14th, Thomas Snodgrass 31st and Euan Mckay 38th. The boys finished 5th team on the day and are sitting in 6th position for the season so far.
The penultimate race of the day was the under 15/17 girls where we had the ‘magnificent seven’ competing. Lauren Dickson led the girls home in 4th place, followed by Sarah Tait in 8th, Keanna MacInnes 24th, Lauren Wilkie 34th with team mate Caroline McKinlay a few seconds behind in 35th, Eilidh Brown 38th and Lauren Pearson 48th. The girls finished 3rd team on the day and are in 2nd place for the season.
The final race of the day was the men and we were down to four runners unfortunately after one of our runners had some car trouble on the way to event. In his first race of the winter Owen Miller ran well to finish 22nd with team mate Paul Benham 46th, next home was Ben Mitchell in 82nd (25th Vet) and Doug McDonald in 154th place.
Thanks and well done to everyone who came out and competed on the day. The next and final league match is on 17 January 2015 at Broxburn. It would be good to get complete teams out for the last match so please mark it in your diaries.
