IT was a great day of individual and team success for Bury Athletic Club as their athletes concluded the Red Rose Cross-Country League season at Leverhulme Park, Bolton. Bury’s Under-11s girls have been in dominant form all year and recorded a convincing fourth consecutive team victory to romp to first place in the overall league competition.

The team was led home by Hattie Vaughan in third place, followed closely by Emma Rayner, eighth, and Esme Guy, ninth. They were followed home by Daisy Worthington in 11th Charlotte Speakman-Farnworth in 17th, Grace Goodsell, 23rd, Heledd Rimmer, 24th, Ella Tyrell, 30th, Freya Potts, 35th, and Megan Donnelly, 44th.

In the overall league standings, Vaughan, Worthington and Rayner picked up individual awards, finishing third, fourth and sixth, respectively. There were more league titles in the u17s age group where both the men’s and women’s teams secured first place overall.

Although narrowly edged out in the team race, the men’s team secured the league title with solid runs from Bryn Davies in ninth, Nathan Milligan, 15th, and Benn Heywood, 17th. The u17s women were also dominant, securing a convincing team win. They were once again led home by winner Katie Buckley who retained her overall individual league title.

With Christie Cook finishing fifth, Katie Hurt, seventh, Alana Grundy, 17th, and Moira Davies, 20th, the women also held on to their overall team title. In her first year as an u17s athlete, Hurt also took fifth place overall in the individual league standings. Ben Forrest matched the achievements of Buckley by retaining his overall individual league title in the u11s boys’ race. Mikey Hodgkinson had a great run, finishing 23rd while Han Oliver was close behind in 26th. The rest of team had good runs, including Daniel Matthews, 40th, Sean Stewart, 42nd, and Brandon Wilson, 48th. The team finished fourth. Bury’s u13s boys were edged out in the overall team title competition, taking third place on the day. They were led home by George Yates, who worked his way through the field after a slow start to take fifth place.

That gave Yates an individual overall award in fifth place.

He was followed by Sam Brooks, who finished 12th despite losing a shoe during the race, Curtis Johnstone in 19th, Alex Bennett 21st, closely followed by Joseph Hull, Cian Herdson and Ben Williams.

In the u13s girls’ race, all three runners performed well with Tallulah Cullen, 20th, Teegan Brady, 22nd, and Anna Baker, 26th. For the u15s boys, Iestyn Rimmer had a good run, finishing 26th. In the girls’ category for the same age group, Alivia Gillard showed her continued improvement, finishing 10th, with Eleanor Boyle just behind in 12th and Niamh Herdson 25th. In the senior women’s race, Bury were led home by Katie Geelan, who ran strongly to finish ninth and third vet. Caitlin Cole finished 27th and Sophie Sasimowicz 48th to help the team finish seventh. Cole’s run gave her an excellent fourth place in the junior women’s race, a position she matched in the overall league standings. Luke Harreld ran well in the muddy conditions to take 16th place in the senior men’s race. With Tony Cullen 20th, Josh Williams 37th, Stuart Hodgkinson 40th, Ben Coop 53rd, Josh Taylor 61st, Les Smalley 62nd, Dave Grundy 147th and Nigel Brady 159th, the team finished an excellent fifth. Hodgkinson’s run gave him fourth place in the vet 40 category and seventh overall in the individual league standings for the season. Williams, Coop and Taylor combined for third place in the junior team race. The race at Bolton concluded an extremely successful Red Rose season for Bury AC and the athletes will now be preparing for the Championship races in the new year.