ENGLISH SCHOOLS CROSS COUNTRY 2023 Nottingham 18 March

46 weary athletes wended their way home from Nottingham after a stupendous effort at this years ESAA Cross Country. 

Full teams had arrived early after a 6:30 am start from Oxford. Only the Senior Girls were two short due to late illnesses.  So, 8 athletes in each of the 3 age groups (u15, u17 and u19 both boys and girls). There are around 360 athletes in each of the 6 age group races.

Hopes were high that Oxfordshire would do well and the weather was kind with little occasional drizzle on what was actually quite a warm and windless day. 

Inter Girls (u17)

The Inter girls started the programme and with last year’s Junior Girls Silver medallist leading the team out :  Isla McGowan – we wondered if she could repeat her performance.  Isla was in the group of 6 leaders at the half way point with newcomer Florence Williams in the second group in around 30th place. With Florence Salmon in close attendance in 52nd the team were looking good for a high place finish.  At the close Isla had managed to hold off the challenge from the rest of the group and she held 3^rd spot for the last 1k to finish with a deserved bronze medal and a place in the ESAA England team at the Home Counties international next weekend.  This was to be our one medal from the day but all the team celebrated for Isla. Meanwhile Florence Williams was taken ill and limped over the line and Florence Salmon came in in 123^rd spot. Overall, the girls team came 28^th Individual results for all the age groups are in the table at the end. 

Junior Boys (u15)

Kit Kingsbury led the junior boys home finishing in 101^st place.  Jonas Tipping and Josh Hatt grouped well behind him in 118 and 124 places respectively but with such a high finishing number the team could only manage 30th spot overall, 

Junior Girls (u15)

Mollie Davies and Charlotte Campbell gave everyone a lift as they pushed hard to be in the top 40 in their race Cecilia Huepfl would have been right with them had it not been for a fall and that would have given the team a really high finish. As it was Mollie came in 24^th – remarkable finish for a first year in the age group and Charlotte similarly in 36^th. This all bodes well for next year when all three girls will return at top of the age group.

Senior Girls (u19) 

As with the Inter Girls the seniors boasted an ESAA medallist amongst the reduced team numbers. Olivia Martin was 13^th at this event last year but did get the bronze medal at the ESSA champs in the summer in the 3000mts. Olivia challenged early on as you might expect of a 3000m runner however mid race she was down in the high teens. With an astounding finish however reminiscent of her track 3000m finish she soared past runner after runner right to the finish line to achieve 7^th spot. Anna Joliffe and Tilly Lainchbury had excellent runs to finish 132 and 156 respectively with the team of 6 grabbing 24^th place overall.

Senior Boys (u19) 

With a couple of internationals in our senior boys team it was hoped that this would be our best result. The boys did not disappoint with Johnny James finishing 20^th and Quinn Meill-Ingram finishing 27^th. Both boys set out with intent but having gotten into the second group they didn’t manage to breakout but neither did they lose ground maintain roughly the same position throughout. Backed up by other good performances the boys did achieve the highest team result EVER! By an Oxfordshire team finishing 6^th overall. 

With only a few exceptions, due accident and illness, the team had acquitted itself really well and moving forward the future looks bright.

The full results are tabled below.

Pete O’Keefe
Team Manager 
Oxon Schools