16 November 2018
On Wednesday, a young cross-country squad travelled to St Albans for one of the most competitive fixtures of the season. The team consisted of three sixth formers, two 4th years and two 3rd years, which is encouraging for the future of the cross-country squad over the next few years. The younger athletes were thrown in at the deep end, competing against some extremely strong teams including the national champions, the Judd School, but they held their own with some outstanding performances.
The first Abingdonian to complete the 5km course was club captain David Bunn, just about clinging onto the front pack for most of the race to finish 9th. Shortly afterwards, Alex Pennington crossed the line, he busted a gut to finish just ahead of the flying 3rd year Will d’Arcy.
The race to make the final spot of the A team was won by 4th year Rowan Miell-Ingram, with Matthew Kunov running a well-judged race just behind. Seb McAllan rounded off a strong team effort in 27th out of a large field of high calibre athletes. Promising 3rd year Johnny James unfortunately had to pull out due to illness but will look to come back strongly for the National Schools Cup in two weeks time.
Overall, the team took a very commendable 3rd place against a stacked field, which is an excellent start to the season and shows promise for the future.
Results
9th – David Bunn
11th – Alex Pennington
13th – Will d’Arcy
22nd – Rowan Miell-Ingram
23rd – Matthew Kunov
27th – Seb McAllan
See a full breakdown of results.
Written by David Bunn (Captain of XC).