WADAC juniors finish Hampshire League XC season with record medal haul

There was an end-of-term feel to the final fixture of the Alton Sports Hampshire Cross Country League season. With many of the team and individual titles having been clinched at the previous meeting, and with a number of Winchester athletes absent for a variety of reasons, there were smaller fields and a relaxed atmosphere as the outstanding issues were settled.In the Under-11s races, both Scarlett Anderson and William Hasan carried forward the good form from their district schools wins earlier in the week. Scarlett finished 9th in the girls race, a little ahead of team-mates Poppy Taylor and Hannah Lowe. There were good runs too from Ella Stout, Kali Ruffell-Moreira on debut, and Darcey Thorne-Henderson. Will continued his winning streak with a gun-to-tape victory, supported by Ruben Price (4th) and Sam Nicholson (6th). Casper Wilson (8th), Ethan Skipwith (10th) and Joe Hasan (11th) made up the next team of three, with a further 15 WADAC athletes following them in, as Winchester colours again dominated the race.Our Under-13 girls once more took 5th team place, although this time it was Aisling Hitchman (11th) who led the team home, ahead of Emma Shedden, Lara Bassett, Jemima Hodges, Zara Barker, Phoebe McGee, Safiya Husain, Lauren McGee, Emily Staggs and Izzy Stout.Although the seasonal team and individual titles in the Under-13 boys event had already been decided in favour of Winchester and James Lewis respectively, there were other individual place medals to be decided. The race on the day was again won by James, who thus completed a superb clean sweep for the season. 7th and 8th on the day were Ben Chesterfield and Michael Shingleton-Smith, both completing fine individual campaigns and securing the medals for 6th and 5th respectively in the aggregate table.Winchester's Under-15 girls completed an incredible season, with their fifth team win from five races. Rose Chesterfield (3rd on the day) had already secured the individual silver medal for the season, Lily Neate (4th) had her best run of the season, as did Millie Burgess (5th on the day and 5th place medal for the season), but WADAC eyes were on Amelia Moore, who was in poll position to secure the individual aggregate bronze. This she duly did, finishing 6th on the day despite a recent knee injury that had curtailed her training. With Hannah Foster (6th place aggregate medal), Ellie McErlean and Katie Nicholson completing the WADAC finishers, this was another great display of team strength, which will be needed again next year when Southampton's all-conquering U13s step up to join them at U15 level.The Under-15 boys race was once again dominated by Aldershot, but WADAC's strong season was completed by 2nd team place on the day which in turn secured the seasonal team silver medals. Doug Scally (10th), Dominic Exworthy (13th) and Sam Roberts (19th) again formed the scoring team, followed by Harry Harvey, Connor Dutton and Ben Schofield.There was one more WADAC medal to be decided, and it was won in style by Issy Beck, who came home in 3rd place in the Under-17 women's race, just two seconds behind the leader. This secured the seasonal individual silver medal for Issy, a great achievement in an interrupted winter season.