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DCU Athletics – Cross Country Champions
DCU Athletics – Cross Country Champions

DCU Athletics – Cross Country Champions

The IUAA 2017 XC Championships took place on Saturday 4th March in Abbotstown Sports Campus. What a day this proved to be for the DCU Athletics Club – all three team trophies are on their way back to DCU!

The ladies team performed heroically on the day with former ladies captain Mary Mulhare racing a blinder to finish 3rdbehind Shona Heaslip (Tralee IT) and Michelle Finn (UL Olympian). Elizabeth Carr moved well in the chasing pack and finished 5th with Harriette Robinson taking 8th place. First year athlete Niamh Corry raced like a veteran and stuck to her race plan of holding back early on and charging through in the second half of the race to finish 12th.

This scoring quartet dethroned reigning champions UL by 4 points in the team race. Supporting our scoring quartet were Orla Bollard in 18th, Niamh Quinn in 20th, Hannah Mc Gowan 35th, Jona Kalemi 38th, Sinead Clavin 40th, Linda Conroy 42nd, Aoife Mulroy 47th, Eimear Treacy 48th and Sorcha Fallon 53rd. The DCU ladies squad were awarded the team title minus the services on the day of Una Britton, Rachael Smyth, Ciara Wilson, Amy Hamill, Laura Whitelaw, Kate Veale, Claire Brennan and Sinead Lambe, to mention but a few!

The men’s team were the defending team champions and after witnessing the ladies team victory, pressure was on them to perform – they did! Team captain Michael Carey had his charges well prepared and with 10 athletes finishing in the top 25, DCU easily retained the team title! Kevin Kelly was the leading finisher in 5th and travelled well in the chasing pack, accompanied by Eoin Strutt in 7th. Captain Carey charged his way up to 8th with Jonny Whan 10th, Adam O Brien 12thand Gary Campbell 14th.

DCU won the team title with 56 points from UCD on 80 points and Athlone IT with 159 points. Furthermore, this entire squad are all eligible next year bar one! DCU’s back-up finishers were equally impressive with Damian Murphy in 15th, Niall Cornyn 17th, Padraig Moran 18th, Eoin Durkan 24th, Liam Naughton 27th, Jack Boylan 37th, Paddy Peters 38th, Joey Lyons 41st, Oisin Quinn 43rd, Alex Gibbons 47th, Daniel Scully 59th and Matthew Molloy 64th. On the day, the men’s team were minus the services of established international runner Pierre Murchan, Ian Guiden, Cillian Kirwan, David Scanlon and Michael Mulhare (all currently injured).

The combined efforts of both the ladies and the men’s squad saw DCU retain the Overall Best College team title yet again, our 14th win in 15 years!

Log onto www.iuaa.org for all the results from the 2017 IUAA cross country at Abbottstown Sports Campus.

Next up for DCU will be the hosting of the IUAA track & field championships in Cork IT on April 7th & 8th, where many of these athletes and our sprinters, jumpers and throwers will be seen in action!