Clean Sweep for Finn Valley at Juvenile Cross-country Championships

Our Finn Valley juveniles had a fantastic start to the cross-country season at the first round of the Donegal Championships which were held on home territory. There were nine team titles up for grabs and Finn Valley won each and every one of them.

Before the Championship races began at the U11 age group there was a non-championship race for the U9s where our future stars are already emerging. In the U/9 girls Blaithnid Patton had a great run finishing 4th closely followed by Caoimhe McMenamin 5th, Paula McGroary 6th, Shannon McLaughlin 7th, Olivia Roe 8th and Melanie Penrose 9th. The U/9 boys were up next with great running from Jonathon Carlin in 5th backed up well by Niall Bonner 12th, Karl Hughes 17th, Dean Harron 18th, Brendan Hughes 19th.

Rebecca Ward led the Finn Valley team to victory in the U/11 girls finishing in an excellent 2nd position after a great battle with Cranford's Jessica Roberts with Tori Lafferty 9th, Kathleen McGinty 10th and Justine Duffy 12th to take the team title on 33 points from Killybegs on 52 and John Bosco on 72. This team had great back up from Lousie McCafferty 13th, Amanda McCafferty 17th, Michelle Bonar 18th, Ciara Bogle 19th, Grace O'Donnell 20th, Josenna Lynch 24th, Nadine McBride 25th, Vicky Stewart 27th, Sharon Heapes 30th and Niamh Gallen 31st.

Mark Bonner was also involved in a great race with Letterkenny's Ruairi Finnegan with Ruairi winning on this occasion but Mark led his team to victory with an excellent team total of 17 points. The team was Mark 2nd, Eoghin Bonnar 4th, Dean Bonnar 5th and Oisin Merrit 6th. Great back-up here also from Justin Brown 12th, Gary O'Donnell 15th, Paul Smith 17th, Ryan Porter 27th, Philip Kelly 30th, Colm Melaugh 31st, Joseph Griffin 40th. Letterkenny were 2nd on 25 points with Inishowen 3rd on 56 points.

The U/13 girls race was one of the best of the day with a terrific 1, 2, 3 from Finn Valley athletes. Karen Ferguson put in a brilliant performance to win the individual title closely followed by Niamh Doherty also running extremely well with Jodie Stewart our combined events athlete showing she can handle the cross-country equally well with a late sprint finish to take her to the bronze medal position. Emily Murphy ran an excellent race to complete the scoring team in 7th position to give a points total of 13, Milford A.C. 2nd with 28 points and Letterkenny 3rd on 54 points. Strong runs also from Ciara Devenny 19th, Aileen Brennan 20th, Rochelle Tourish 23rd, Aoife Gallagher 24th, Caroline Moss 35th and Stephanie Connolly 36th.

The U13 boys also won the team title on 24 points led home by Gerry Boyle in 4th position, Ryan McNulty 5th, Ciaran McAteer 7th and Emmet Patterson 8th. Colm McLaughlin 9th, Niall Doherty 17th, Kevin Smith 18th, Andrew Galagher 19th, Andrew Harron 20th, Sean Bannigan 21st, James Grifin 22nd, Kieran Brennan 23rd, Cormac Gallen 26th and Paul Kelly 27th provided the back-up here. Killybegs were 2nd team on 38 points.

We had another individual Champion in the form of the very talented Breda McGinty in the U/15 girls with an excellent run also from Fionnuala Lyndsay in silver medal position and Gemma Vance just pipped for the Bronze finishing 4th and Jackie Gibson 6th making up the scoring team with a points total of 13 ahead of Letterkenny on 31 points and Killybegs on 103 points. This is another very strong team with high hopes of an Ulster title with excellent back-up available from Aoife Whelan 9th, Andrea McCafferty 10th, Ailish Patton 12th, Clara Dunnion 13th, Bronagh O'Doherty 14th, Christina Campbell 16th, Tara Hegarty 17th, Denise Beirne 20th, Donna McBride 21st, Emma Coyle 22nd, Ciara Hegarty 24th and Siobhan Gallagher 27th.

The U/15 boys were next to go with yet another individual Champions this time in the form of Ian Ward who battled it out as usual with Dan King from Milford A.C. with Ian looking very good for the season ahead. Ryan McDaid coming back into good form won the Bronze medal here with Darren McGlinchey 4th and Aiden Connolly 5th bringing the team total to 13 points with John Bosco 2nd on 77 points and Letterkenny 3rd on 92 points. This team also has great depth with Jamie Crawford 7th, Shaen Bonner 8th, Aaron Boyle 9th, Eunan Neeson 10th, Kevein O'Donnell 12th, Sean Ferry 13th, Lorcan McMenamin 16th, Philip Browne 17th, Dermot Brennan 19th, Martin Doherty 20th, Shane McBride 21st, Dean McNamee 27th, Emmet Blee 30th and Karl Bradley 33rd.

Laura Reid had a great run in the U/17 girls winning the Bronze medal with a very fast finish, great running also from Maeve Culhane 5th, Fionnuala Bruton 8th and Nikki Alcorn 9th who were the scoring team. The team race was the closest of the day with every finishing place vital as both Finn Valley and Letterkenny ended up on 25 points each. The title was then decided on whose 4th scorer was in first and with Finn Valley's 4th scorer, Nikki Alcorn, in before Letterkenny's 4th scorer Finn Valley won by the narrowest of margins. Bronagh Sweeney 10th and Emma O'Neill 11th were also very valuable members of this team.

The U/17 boys race provided yet another individual medallist with Maurice Boyle running very well to win the Silver medal ahead of Anthony Dorrian of Letterkenny A.C. and lead his team to victory with Stefan Connoly 5th, Enda Doherty 6th and Darren Stevenson 7th all putting in very strong performances. Excellent back-up here also from Conor McConnell 8th, Diarmuid Fullerton 9th, Kevin Gallagher 11th, Sean Doherty 13th and Ronan McCabe 14th.

Our U/19 boys of Brendan Alexander 5th, Stewart McClean 6th and Declan Hennessey 7th put in very brave performances to win the team title on 18th points bringing our total of team victories to nine out of nine and individual medals to eleven.

Novice Cross-country Championships

The Donegal Novice Cross-Country Championships were also held on Sunday with Teresa McGloin from Finn Valley easily winning the individual women's title.

Frank Chaney had a great run in the Novice Men's Championships winning the silver medal and also leading his team of Joe McGee 9th, Mark Connolly 11th, Michael Gallagher 13th and James Gourley 14th to silver medals on 33 points.

Rathfarnham 5K

Charlie Gallagher had an excellent run on Sunday in the Rathfarnham 5K finishing 3rd behind Noel Berkeley and Gerry Ryan. Charlie had a very good time for this course of 14 minutes 47 seconds.

Primary Schools Cross-Country

There was a fantastic turnout of both primary and secondary schools on Wednesday and Thursday at the Finn Valley Centre with over 1400 young athletes competing over the two days.

Shauna Guthrie

Best wishes to Shauna for a speedy recovery after her accident on Thursday from all at Finn Valley A.C.

Awards Night

Finn Valley's annual Awards Night was held in the function room at the Finn Valley Centre on Sunday night. There was a great turnout of athletes and parents and a very enjoyable night was had by all. Awards were presented to 58 athletes who had won a total of 160 All-Ireland medals between them over the past twelve months in National Cross-country, Irish Indoor Championships, Scottish Indoor Championships, Irish Schools Championships and outdoor Track & Field and Relay Championships. Congratulations to all of the award winners and to all our other athletes who performed so well during the year.

Donegal Juvenile Even ages Championships at Milford on Sunday coming

The 2nd round of the Donegal Cross-Country Championships even age-groups will be held in Milford on Sunday along with the Donegal Masters.

Coaching Weekend

Bernie Alcorn, Patsy McGonagle, Neil Martin, Sean Carlin and Gerard Doherty will be attending the National Jumps & Throws conference at the weekend in Dublin.

Bernie Alcorn, P.R.O.