Historic Results For Sussex At English Schools

Sussex youngsters came away with the county’s best ever results at the English Schools Cross Country Championships at Pontefract Racecourse.

With overall team wins for the inter girls and junior boys as well as golds for the Best 8 Runners category in the junior girls and senior girls, Sussex won a phenomenal 4 trophies.

There were also three top 10 finishers, ten top 20 and an astounding 31 Sussex athletes placed in the top 100. With around 340 athletes in each race, these are impressive statistics.

The day started with the inter girls’ race where the gold scoring six were first year in the age group, Freda Pearce (Eastbourne), who came 14^th (13.13) followed by Ava James (lewes) in 15^th (13.17), Esme Stephenson (Lewes) 19^th (13.25), Daisy Connor (Eastbourne) 31^st (13.39), Eva Winton (Lewes) 41^st (13.49) and Julieana Walsh (Brighton & Hove) 44^th (13.51).

Next up were the junior boys scoring a collective 196 points. Eastbourne’s Fin Lumber Fry led the team home in 12^th (10.24) followed by George Gilbert (Brighton & Hove) in 17^th in 10.30, Ben Stewart (Chichester) 19^th in 10.31, Michael O’Connor (Lewes) 36^th in 10.45, Jonah Messer (Eastbourne) 53^rd in 10.51 and Byron Roberts (Eastbourne) in 10.53.

The junior girls were winners in the Best 8 category where all 8 athletes finished in the top half of the race. Florence Goodwin was 24^th (11.38), Amelie Whitehouse (Crawley) 42^nd, Isabella Buchanan (HY) 48^th (12.01), Elise Aston 57^th (12.04), Florence Tewkesbury (HY) 77^th (12.12), Elizabeth Hutchinson 94^th in 12.22, Elodie Hill (Chichester) 100^th and Gracie Fox (Brighton & Hove) 123^rd.

In the inter boys Finlay Goodman (Brighton & Hove) placed 7^th in 15.29, earning him a place in the England team for the SIAB competition the following weekend, where he went on to place 8^th and win a team gold.  

Lucas Gorril (Bodyworks) was the nest scoring inter boy in 13^th in 15.41 followed by Thomas Matthews (Brighton & Hove) in 77^th (16.34). The team were 7^th overall.

All eight Sussex athletes finished in the top 135 to win the Best 8 trophy for the senior girls. Led by Eastbourne’s Elenor Strevens in 11^th (15.59), Rosie Gasson (Brighton & Hove) in 37^th (16.35), Rae Le Fay (Hastings) 40^th in 16.38, Eloise Hudson 83^rd, Cerys West (Worthing) 104^th, Anya Barrett (Chichester) 110^th, Dulcie Yelling (Brighton & Hove) 114^th and Tilly Wilburn (Brighton & Hove) 134^th.

The final race of the day was the senior boys where Sussex placed 4^th overall and had two top 10 finishers with Miles Waterworth (Phoenix) 4^th in 19.34 and Alexander Riley (Brighton & Hove) 8^th in 19.54. Next to cross the line was Phoenix’s Owen Wallek in 33^rd (impressive for first year in the age group) then Luke Newton (Crawley) in 42^nd, Finton Pearce (Eastbourne) in 103^rd and Ben Brown in 124^th.