Wins for High School Clonmel, Loreto Convent and Scoil Ruain Killenaule.

The Post Primary Schools Cross Country competition took place in the Clonmel OG Complex last Thursday, 24^th November with ten schools competing on an ideal day. We had teams from St Ailbe’s Tipperary Town, Abbey CBS Tipperary Town, Scoil Mhuire Carrick on Suir, Comeragh College Carrick on Suir, St Joseph’s Borrisoleigh, Scoil Ruain Killenaule, Rockwell College, Clonmel Vocational School, Loreto Convent Clonmel and Clonmel High School. Competition was keen in all eight races as this was an ideal opportunity for Schools to have a look at their athletes well in advance of the County Schools Cross Country Championships that will be held towards the end of January.

The first race of the day was the 1^st Year Girls race and here we had a great race with Kellyann Doyle of Scoil Mhuire Carrick on Suir winning well from Lorraine Doyle of Rockwell College with the Bronze medal going to Aisling Keller of St Joseph’s Borrisoleigh, who were competing for the first time in this competition and they had some very impressive performances. Kellyann had the distinction of leading her School team to Gold medals on 20 points with Loreto Convent Clonmel 2^nd and St Joseph’s of Borrisoleigh 3^rd. The 2^nd teams from these same Schools occupied similar position in the B Section.

 In the Boys equivalent we had a clean sweep of the individual medals by the Clonmel High School with Anthony Tobin winning Gold, Aaron Egan winning Silver and Damon Gregory winning Bronze. Clonmel High School won the team event on 11 points, with Scoil Ruain Killenaule winning the Silver and Abbey CBS Tipperary Town the Bronze. These schools occupied similar positions in the B Section with their teams.

In the 2^nd year Girls race we had another great race with Loreto Convent athletes winning Gold and Silver in the persons of Orlaith Moynihan and Aoife Laste with Ailish Conneely of Scoil Mhuire Carrick on Suir winning the Bronze and preventing a clean sweep by the Loreto athletes as Laura Tobin was a fast finishing 4^th. Loreto Convent Clonmel won the Gold medals on 13 points with Scoil Mhuire Carrick on Suir winning the Silver and St Joseph’s Borrisoleigh capturing the Bronze medals.

The 2^nd year Boys race saw Abbey CBS Tipperary Town athletes winning both the Gold and Silver medals with great performances by Brian Fanning and Shaun Brennan respectively. Then we had Styn van der Wal of the Clonmel High School finishing strongly to win the Bronze medal. In the team event Abbey CBS Tipperary Town won the Gold medals with 19 points from Clonmel High School and Comeragh College Carrick on Suir who won the Bronze medals.

The 5^th race was the 3^rd year girl’s race and here Clare Horgan led home a 1 – 2 for the Loreto Convent when winning the Gold medal from teammate Megan O Brien with Siobhain McCutcheon of St Joseph’s Borrisoleigh winning the Bronze medal. Loreto Convent Clonmel won the team event on 17 points with St Joseph’s Borrisoleigh winning the Silver medals and St Ailbe’s Tipperary Town winning the Bronze medals.

Then we had the 3^rd Year boy’s race with victory going to Michael Carey of Clonmel High School with Jamie O Connor of Scoil Ruain Killenaule and Noel Ryan of St Joseph’s Borrisoleigh winning the Silver and Bronze medals respectively. The team gold medals were won by Clonmel High school with Comeragh College Carrick on Suir winning the Silver and St Joseph’s Borrisoleigh winning the Bronze.

In the Senior girls race we had Cliona Doyle of Rockwell College winning very convincingly from the Scoil Mhuire Carrick on Suir duo of Colleen Kennedy and Clare Grace. In the team event victory went to Scoil Ruain of Killenaule.

In the Senior Boys race Sean Tobin and James Murphy of Clonmel High School tied for 1^st place with Brian Looram  and Reece Maher also of Clonmel High School finishing 2^nd and 3^rd. In the team event Clonmel High School won the gold medals with Clonmel High School also winning the Silver medals by one point from Comeragh College Carrick on Suir.

In the overall competition we had Clonmel High School winning the Elizabeth McCarthy Perpetual Shield from their good rivals Comeragh College Carrick on Suir, last year’s winners and the Shield was presented by Emby Walsh to the School captain, Sean Tobin. The Eugene O Donnell Perpetual Shield for the Best Girls School was won by Loreto Convent Clonmel and the Perpetual Shield was presented by Anthony Moynihan to his daughter Orlaith Moynihan the School captain. The Best combined School award was won by Scoil Ruain Killenaule and the Perpetual Shield was presented by Emby Walsh to Shane Quigley, the School captain.

Both Clonmel and Carrick on Suir Athletic Clubs would like to thank Clonmel Og GAA for the use of their fine facilities. The Clubs would also like to thank the many teachers for all their help in making this competition such a success.

By   Niall O'Sullivan