Wednesday 9 February saw the very best cross country runners from every school in Ulster gather for the annual Championships at a cold, but dry, Mallusk playing fields.  All the athletes had previously qualified through their District championships and with a field of over 100 athletes in all 10 races, it was sure to be a challenging day.

Stars of the day for the Banbridge Academy were Year 8 pupil, Casey Cousins, and Year 13 pupil, Simon Ferris, who each finished 8^th in their respective races with Simon qualifying for the Irish Schools’ Championships at the same venue on Saturday 12 March.

Casey was first to race in the Mini Girl event and her 8^th place finish was backed up by Daniel McKee in the Mini Boys’ race, finishing in 34^th spot.  In the Minor races, Ross McCombe ran to 30^th place while Clara Lewis placed 39^th.  Alex Moran was our only junior athlete, (Ellie Cousins and Charlie Tumilty were forced to withdraw due to injury), and she competed well after illness to finish 86^th.  In the Inter races, Anna McKernan finished 54^th and Grace Hamilton was 66^th while Kian Moran also ran well to 66^th place, again he was recovering from illness.  In the Senior races, Holly Fisher ran very strongly to 28^th place and the day was nicely bookended with Simon Ferris racing his way to the Irish Championships with his 8^th place finish.

All the Academy athletes showed real grit and determination and it was a joy to see them back racing at this level after the enforced break from competition in 2021.  The entire school will now get behind Simon when he races in the Irish Championships on Saturday 8^th March.