Ulster medallists and other Annalee clubmates at the End of Year Party at Breifne Park.

Ulster & Northern Ireland Cross Country Championships, Coleraine, 25/10/2009

Some superb performances from Annalee AC athletes resulted in one of the club’s best performances in cross country at Ulster level. Cian O’Reilly was in the race of the day. Five of the best young runners in the country competed over the 5k distance with lead being exchanged between Cian of Annalee, McDermott of Dromore, Ingram and Monaghan, both of Lagan Valley and Totten of Newcastle & District.

McDermott made a break at the beginning of the last lap and was never caught with the Monaghan finishing second and Cian taking bronze medal in a  great race.

The club’s younger runners started the day off brightly despite the horrific wet and windy conditions. Claire Young, Emer Bogue, Abbey Sexton and Orla O’Brien won the bronze medal in the club competition with both Claire and Emer finishing in the top twelve. The Annalee AC U10 Boys completely dominated their race. Ciaran O’Reilly won his first individual Bronze medal and led home the remaining team of Fergal O’Reilly (5th), Sean T Murphy (7th), Cormac Donohue (8th) Daire Connolly, Oisin McCorry and Mark Minihane. The Club team won Gold by a huge margin.

Clodagh O’Reilly had another good run to finish in second place in the U14 Girls and is still eligible for this age group next year. The team finished in 8th place.

The Girls U16 packed well with Yvette Schutten, Laura Young, Diane Trenier, Aoife Murphy and Lauren Sexton all finishing well. The U16 Girls won Bronze in both the Club team competition and also formed most of the County Cavan team which finished 3rd overall. Andrew O’Brien showed that he can mix it with the best when he finished a strong 5th in the U16 Boys. The U12 Girls battled hard and were led home by Aine Brady but finished in 7th club position and part of the 5th placed County team. Hannagh McHugh, Ciara Fitzpatrick and Carla O’Reilly were the other runners on the team. The U12 Boys all ran well but were missing runners on the team and didn’t have enough runners to score. They were part of the 4th placed County team. The Boys U14 ran very well with most of the team still a year out for this age group. Aodhagan Watters finished just outside the top twelve in a strong showing and the boys finished in 7th club and 4th County.

Full results--click here

Co Cavan Senior & Even Age Cross Country Championships, Killinkere, 01/11/2009

Annalee AC won the Men’s Senior Cross Country ‘ Ulster Arms’ Trophy and the overall Cross Country Cup in dramatic fashion at the County Crossy Championships in Killinkere on Sunday 1st November 2009. Fionan O’Reilly led the 10,000m senior men’s race from start to finish in a superb performance, increasing his lead over the remainder of the field with each lap. His brother and clubmate, Aodhagan O’Reilly,  had an excellent showing for his first Senior race and finished a strong second with Bailieboro’s Martin Fulton coming in 3rd. Finbarr McGurren and Eddie Prunty of Annalee AC had great runs to complete a gold medal winning performance by the Annalee quartet. Fionan regains the Individual trophy he won in 2008. This is the first time Annalee AC have won the Senior Cross Country Cup and its great to see the club’s name on the cup. We have a long way to go to catch up with Laragh AC who dominate the previous champions list. There was no senior Ladies team but Ann O’Donoghue had a good run in the very wet conditions in the Ladies Senior 4000m.

In the Even Age competition, Claire Young led from the start to win from Emer Bogue and Abbey Sexton in the U10 Girls. Nikki Sherlock came in 4th to produce an Annalee 1,2,3,4!

Cormac Donohue  won the Boys U10, followed in by Ciaran O’Reilly, Mark Minihane  4th, and Jarlath Brady 8th to win the team Gold.

Hannah McHugh had an impressive run in the U12 Girls race to be the first Annalee athlete home. Aine Brady, Mairead Bogue and Ciara Fitzpatrick made up the girls team which took Bronze. Unfortunately, there were only 3 runners in the u12 Boys-Sean Og Lawlor, Eoghan Ruddy and Oisin McBreen. Four runners are required for team scoring so we had no team medal in that category.

Clodagh O’Reilly followed up her Ulster bronze with an impressive win in the U14 girls. Ciara Murray ran superbly to come in second with Sarah Young also having a great run to come in 4th. Sarah is  year out of age for the U14s so this was excellent running. Aisling Brady was 5th and Orla Murphy and Dervla McBreen were the remaining members of the gold medal winning team.  Donal Monaghan was second in the U14 boys followed closely by Gavin Sherlock ,3rd, who ran very well and Paul Sexton, 5th, Breifne O’Brien,6th and Cian Connolly 7th. The remaining team members were Adrian Moore and Ross O’Reilly. The u14 Boys won gold.

Eadaoin O’Reilly had a battle with Aoibhinn Kiernan for the gold medal homours in the U16 race but Kiernan of Innyvale mad a break with 600m to go and Eadaoin had to settle for silver. Yvette Schutten and Laura Young continued their good form with 5th and 6th placings and the U16 team won gold with remaining members, Aoife Murphy, Lauren Sexton and Bronagh McBreen.

Andrew O’Brien was a comfortable winner in the Boys U16 Race. His teammates of Conor Bates, 3rd, Tadhg McGahern 5th, Liam Fitzsimons 6th, Daniel Maguire and Darren Watters combined to win gold. The U18 girls also won gold. Rebecca O’Reilly was second with Eimear Nulty 3rd. Megan Gilchreest, Mairead Tierney, Aoife O’Neill and Aoibhinn Smith lynch were the remaining members of the team which won Gold.

Full results-click here

Ulster & NI Uneven Ages & Novice Championships, November 8th 2009, Killybegs

Clodagh O’Reilly continues her impressive form this season with a win in the U13 Girls Ulster  championships in Killybegs. The crowded start made it difficult for all the runners and Clodagh worked hard to get to the top of the field by the 300m mark. From there, she led all the way to the finish and won Gold and the Ulster championship title.

Fionan O’Reilly followed up his county title from last week to come second in the Ulster Novice race in the last event of the day. The Boys U11 continued to run fantastically well and this week Cormac Donohue (8th)was first runner in, followed by Sean T. Murphy(10th). Ferghal O’Reilly, Ciaran O’Reilly and Cormac McNally made up the rest of the team to win their second Ulster Club Bronze of the season. The U11 placing is particularly good as all the boys are a year out of age and will be eligible for this age group next year. They also were the main part of the County Silver medal winning team.

The U13 Boys were led home by Aodahagan Watters(10th) with Gavin Sherlock, Paul Sexton, Donal Monaghan and Sean Og Lawlor all having good races.

The older athletes all had good performances despite this race being their third cross country in 7 days. In the U15 Girls 1500m, Yvette Schutten was first in, followed by Laura Young and then Ciara Murray, Aoife Murphy, Orla Murphy and Lauren Sexton.

The girls just missed out on 3rd club place by a handful of points but were part of the Bronze medal winning County Cavan team. Eadaoin O’Reilly was part of the leading trio for much of the race and finished 6th. Andrew O’Brien, Conor Bates, Aodhagan O’Reilly all had good races.

Full Results Link posted when available.

Clodagh O’Reilly Gold U13

Fionan O’Reilly Silver, Novice Men

U11 Boys 3rd Club and 3rd County

U15 Girls 3rd County