Cross Country

Final results and medal positions for NYSD XC season

The final standings for the x/c season can be found on the New Marske website. The medal winners from our club are:

u/13 girls 3rd Shannon Parkin

u/15girls 1st Grace Rodgers

sen women 2nd Angharad Owen

v1 women 2nd Julie Mastrolonardo

v1 women 3rd Nicola Kent

u/20 men 1st Lewis Rodgers

sen Men 3rd Dave Parkin

v3 men 1st Alan Howard

Yorkshire Vets XC Championships here
Yorkshire Veterans Road Relay Championships here
Flatts Lane NYSD Nov 16th here
Yorkshire Cross Country Championships here
Whitby NYSD here

Yorkshire Vets XC Champs 2009 Report

Loftus and Whitby Athletics Club had a fantastic day at the Yorkshire Veterans Cross Country Championships in York recently when they had runners entered in both the male and female races. The course was as expected, a very wet, muddy and slippery experience which for the women entailed a 5k 2 lap course and for the men a distance of 10k saw them endure 4 laps amongst sloping woodland, open fields and part of the York racecourse. Weather conditions were icy cold but dry and were therefore near perfect for the ardent lover of Cross Country events. The ladies had an excellent team comprising Julie Mastrolonardo, Nicola Kent and Jo Braithwaite, and when all runners had crossed the line it was with great cheer that we found they had come first taking a win by just one point over Ilkley runners who, it should be noted, were last year’s National Champions. Individually, Julie won 1st Lady Vet medal in her age category and was second in the race. Nicola won 3rd place medal in her age category and fifth overall while Jo was just out of the medals being 7th in her age category, so all in all it was a superb day for the ladies. The men had a strong team of good runners from the club, and whilst taking home any medals, Dave Parkin ran extremely well to come 5th in a very competitive race and 4th in his age group just missing out on a medal. Other notable high positions went to John Hunter and Kevin Pattinson coming 5th and 11th in their categories, respectively. Altogether it was a great day for the Club particularly with the women scooping such a prestigious title making it all the more rewarding. Photos of the event can be seen in the gallery .

It was an early start to the day but fortunately the weather looked good considering the gales and rain on Saturday night. Our regular team of Dave, Norman, Neil, Mally, Brenda, Freddy and I quickly had the course marked out and we were ready for action at 11.30 am with the car park filling up and plenty of primary school children warming up. Trevor was there as usual but was obviously in a lot of pain after a fall on Saturday evening; a stern lecture from Brenda sent him off to the hospital where he was found to have badly bruised ribs.

The Primary races were well attended with 41 boys and girls in the Yrs 3 & 4 race. Alice Hoggarth was 2nd finisher with Maddie Mastrolonardo close behind in 3rd place. In 6th place was Natasha Kent but with 4 girls in the first 6 she was just outside the medals.

The second race for years 5 & 6 had 33 runners. In first place was Josh McMillan from New Marske, his younger brother Adam, being 1st in the previous race. Isabelle Mastrolonardo finished in 19th place. The team trophy was won by Lythe School with Ruswarp 2nd and Lealholm 3rd.

It only takes a little more effort to include these races in the league fixture and I feel it is well worth the effort to encourage and offer some competition for them.

With the primary races completed the league fixture commenced at 1pm and in the second race we had our first winner of the day. Shannon Parkin was a very confident and convincing winner, this being her first victory in the league. Unfortunately we had Charley, Maria and Georgina missing due to a hockey tournament but Catherine Urban in 25th place and Megan Trowsdale in 26th place both did very well to give us a team score.

After a great run at the Cleveland Counties where he finished 2nd, Nathan Parkin was a little bit below par to finish in 10th place in the U15 boys. The U15 Girls’ race saw Grace and Dani taking part, Grace finished in 3rd place and showed she was well on her way to recovery after illness, but unfortunately Dani suffered a re-occurrence of an injury and had to drop out when she was in a very good position.

The women’s team were a bit depleted due to illness and a fixture clash. Angharad was 4th, Julie 5th, and Julia 17th all running well in a field which was smaller than normal.

After his success at the Yorkshire Champs, Alec Duffield continued his fine form with a great run to win easily from Rob Cole, Lewis Rodgers finished in 5th place with Dan Middlemas returning to form with 8th place. Our other league scorers were Dave Collett 18th , which was his best finish of the season, Paul Wildmore 24th , and Steve Hardy 28th . After spending all morning preparing the course Neil Duffield, Dave Horness and Mally Peggs changed to spikes to finish their races in 37th, 55th, and 58th respectively. Other club positions were Mark Walker 31st, Allan Howard 52nd, Chris Ellis 54th, Jimmy O’Brian 74th, Alan Bottomley 61st, and Mike Clarke 64th. With a score of 84 points we were convincing winners of the team event and with 2 events left both the men and women are in 1st place.

I would like to thank everyone who played their part in a successful day for the club including Sandra, Sian and Elaine who spent their time in the youth centre providing refreshments and Andy for stepping into the role of starter.

There was a reasonable turn-out of L&W runners for the 2009 Yorkshires held on an excellent new course at Winter Hill, Rotherham. The course was aptly named on the day as the temperature was sub-zero and the fields coverered with frost. Underfoot it was firm and conditions for fast running were good. There was success and disappointment in equal measure.

First to run were the U13 girls (all in their first Yorkshire Champs) - Shannon Parkin in a creditable 19th, Charley Rodgers 40th and Maria Mastrolonardo 44th. This brought the team in in 10th place out of 20 clubs - some much larger than ours - well done to you all!

The U15 girls saw Grace Rodgers and Danni Braithwaite toe the line. After a brave start Grace had to pull out due to illness. Danni ran really well but had to settle for an excellent but frustrating 9th place. (First 8 runners are selected to run in the Inter-Counties)

The U15 boys race saw a lone entrant from Loftus and Whitby in Nathan Parkin who finished in an excellent 14th place in a strong field of 44 runners.

In the combined Senior and U20's womens race, won by GB International Hatti Dean, Angharad Owen ran consistently to finish in a creditable 27th place. Julie Mastrolonardo, who was suffering from a cold, started very conservatively but worked steadily through the field to finish in 32nd place. In the U20s race, after a characteristically fast start, Megan Ellis settled down, held her nerve, and passed 2 U20's to finish 4th U20 and 40th overall gaining a Yorkshire vest. The women's team finish overall 8th out of 20 clubs which is an excellent result.

In the Senior and Junior Mens combined event, all eyes were on in-form Alec Duffield who has obviously benefited from his move to Leeds Carnegie Uni. Alec stuck to his race plan and kept in the leading group of 4 runners until the last lap when he slipped back but still finished 5th to win a Yorkshire vest. Lewis Rodgers also had a great race, finishing in 5th place in the Junior men and also gaining selection for Yorkshire.

L&W next counter was team captian Dave Parkin with an excellent 34th place followed by Dan Middlemas in 48th, Robert Howard in 169th and Peter Briggs in 190th.

Yorkshire Cross Country Championships
to be held at Rotherham on Saturday 10th January 2009

Tony also has entry forms for the Northern XC Champs to be held at St. Helens.

Sunday mornings should not start before 8 am, but it did for four intrepid veteran members of the Club on the 12th October as they set off on the 85 mile trip to Esholt, home of the original set of Emmerdale.

Dave Horness, Dave Collett, Mark Walker, and Neil Duffield were heading for the Yorkshire Veterans Road Relay Championships. The course was set in the grounds of a Yorkshire Water estate. It was traffic free, but the start was located right next to a sewerage treatment plant.

Despite an average age of 48, the team were running in the over 40s age group. Each runner wore a mini number on their back showing the category, its soul destroying when someone two ages up goes flying past! The legs were 2.5 miles long, the big question was, could the team break the hour.

Mark took the first leg and put in a credible 14:44, Dave C followed with 15:19. Neil finished with a solid 15:03 and Dave H anchored the team home with a 16:14 for a total time of 61:19, bringing comments of ‘When I was a lad, I ran faster on my own!’

There was no time to rest, or wait for the results (although Dave H did manage to wolf down a plate of Pie & peas); the gang had another race venue to get to.

With Neil driving at 69.99 mph, and Dave C knowing a short cut, the crew arrived at Croft for the NYSD XC just 17 minutes before the Senior race was due to start.

The gun went, and four creaking bodies set off tentatively. The finishing order replicated the mornings times with Mark and Neil working their way through the field to score for the A team.

A steady drive back to the coast saw the travellers home safe and sound, ten hours, 200 miles and two races later.

The 3rd fixture in the NYSD league was held on a new course at Flatts Lane. The course featured an initial climb of about 800m to reach the circuit which provided excellent running on a demanding course.

Hosted by New Marske they provided an u/11 race in which Maddeline Mastrolonardo was 11th (2nd girl) and Jen Duffty 15th and 3rd girl.

In the u/13 girls race we had 3 runners in the top 10 with Shannon Parkin 5th,Georgina Estll 8th,Maria Mastrolonardo 10th, the 4th member of the team Megan Trowsdale was 18th to put the girls in 2nd place.

After running at Gateshead on Saturday where she finished a brilliant 11th place Grace Rodgers showed her strength by winning the u/15 race.

We fielded a strong team in the Ladies race and Angharad Owen recorded her first senior victory in the x/c league. After leading from the start she was put under pressure by Tracey Waller but she responded brilliantly to record a well deserved victory.

The rest of the ladies backed her brilliantly with Julie Mastrolonardo 4th,Nicola Kent 7th and Julia Jackson 13th.With a score of 25 points they regained top spot in the league and now have a 2 point lead over R&Z.

The men’s race also saw one of our runners in top spot, Lewis Rodgers led a group of 5 athletes through the early stages, mid race he appeared to lose contact but on the final lap he moved back through the field and as they approached the downhill finish he only had last years champion Gary Dunn for company. At the bottom of the hill Lewis had opened up a 25m lead which he held to the finish.

Dan Middlemas fresh from his victory in a fell race the previous week came home in 6th place and Dave Parkin was 10th. The other team scorers were Rob Williamson 26th,Dave Collett 32nd,and Robert Howard 48th. Their score of 123 points put them into 2nd place behind Billingham Marsh House.

Interestingly Grace, Angharad and Lewis had all had hard races on Saturday at Gateshead and Dave Parkin had travelled to Swansea to get his first England vets vest.

After the meeting over a coffee the discussion amongst the old members was about the number of winners the club had had in the senior races over the last 25 years.

I reckoned apart from Lewis, Dan Middlemas, Stephen Hepples, Paul Trott and Craig McBurney had all won. We also had someone else in the same year as Paul, it may have Mike Anderson. I am not sure about John Hunter and Alec Duffield.

In the ladies apart from Angharad, Catherine Hare has won recently but then we go back a long time to Sally Kay and Julie Easton.

The last fixture of the 2007/08 season was held at the old racecourse, Richmond, this being a new venue high above the town. The running surface was perfect for cross country running with the biggest hazard being the cold northerly wind.
Because many of the individual and team trophies had been decided the number of athletes taking part was down on normal.
We had three girls in the U13 race; Shannon Parkin continued her improvement finishing in 6th place, Catherine Urban finished 20th and unfortunately Nicole Hutchinson had to drop out with an injury.
Nathan Parkin had a good first lap in the U15 boy’s race but faded a little on the second lap to finish in 12th place.
The women’s team were looking to consolidate overall 2nd place. With Angharad Owen 4th, Julie Mastrolonardo 6th, Megan Ellis 7th and Julia Jackson 14th as team counters and Joyce Hutchinson finishing in 15th place, the team were successful in their bid by finishing in 2nd place on the day.
The men’s team required only 1 point to win the title for the third year running. Lewis Rodgers, after his exertion at Nottingham finished in 6th place. Dan Middlemas and Rob Williamson had competed in a fell race in the morning but to ensure the club had sufficient finishers they doubled up and Dan was next counter in 9th place and Dave Parkin 10th. The other team counters were Paul Wildmore 18th, Dave Horness 41st and Alan Howard 44th. Rob was 46th and Jimmy O’Brian 68th and running in their first race of the season Mally Peggs finished 71st and Tony Hare 72nd. The team finished in 2nd place which gave them the championship.
We also won the U13 girl’s title for the third consecutive season and there were four individual winners; Lewis Rodgers U20, John Hunter V1, Dani Braithwaite U13 and Brenda Hare V3. There are also numerous individual awards and all the trophies will be presented at the club’s presentation evening on Friday the 25th April at the Bunch of Grapes.

If you want to see the previous 3 years XC pages please click on one of the archive links in the left hand column.