Round-up: NCAA; Twell; Students; East XC; Awards

Monday 23rd November 2015

Flat out – Rhona Auckland at the end of NCAA finals debut (photo via Twitter)

Rhona Auckland savoured team success with New Mexico University at the NCAA Cross Country Champs in Kentucky.

The 2014 Euro Cross U23 gold medallist finished 13^th in the race in Louisville in what is often described as the ‘Super Bowl’ of cross country in America.

And, with New Mexico completely dominant in terms of the women’s team race, there was a coveted gold team medal for the Banchory Stonehaven and former Edinburgh Uni Hares and Hounds athlete, who left Scotland in the summer to study in the States. Rhona clocked 20.07 for the 6K course.

Watch Flo Track video interview with Rhona (prior to the finals in Louisville)

Tulsa’s Stacie Taylor was only 63 seconds behind Rhona but, at the NCAAs, that was about 130 places with the hard-working Kilmarnock Harriers and former Glasgow School of Sport athlete entitled to be pleased with her progress in the last year or so as she placed 144th.

Stacie’s Tulsa team-mate, Luke Traynor, had a good run to finish 34^th in the men’s race over 10k. The Giffnock North athlete now heads back to Britain for the Euro Trial in Liverpool on Saturday. Neil Gourley finished 157^th for Virginia Tech Uni in a race with much more depth than anything similar on this side of the Atlantic.

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Steph Twell put down a great marker ahead of the British Cross challenge and Euro Trial in Liverpool this weekend.

The Scot raced in France at the Hyeres course which will stage the Euro Cross in December and won the Senior Women’s race in fine style.

Twell was seventh last year as she captained GB’s team, with the women winning team gold, and she would love to improve on that placing on December 13. Liverpool this Saturday comes up first, of course, with Steph among 22 athletes being supported by scottishathletics for the Merseyside event.

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Scottish Students – win for Steph Pennycook

Report on Scottish Student Sport website

Album of photos from Stirling

Edinburgh Uni Hares and Hounds bossed the Scottish Students XC at Stirling on Sunday in quite emphatic fashion.

The capital students had gold medallists both in individual terms and in the team races to take the overall trophy, too. In the women’s race, Edinburgh Uni had five of the top eight finishers!

Steph Pennycook was the clear winner in that race from Angela Robertson (St Andrews) and bronze medallist Fanni Gyurko of Glasgow. Scott Stirling took home the men’s gold as he won from Dale Colley with Andrew Lawler in third.

SSS XC Men’s Results

SSS XC Women’s Results

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The second fixture in the East League XC took place at Alloa on Saturday – and attracted record numbers once again.

A remarkable total of 861 athletes finished the races in extremely muddy conditions at Lornshill Academy with clubs supporting these fixtures now in superb fashion.

Central AC men won the team race despite being depleted ahead of some other XC fixtures like Liverpool and the Scottish Students ZXC with Alex Hendry first home. The women’s race was won by Lothian’s Edel Mooney.

Results are online now on our Events page

East clubs are reminded the East District XX Champs are coming up at Livingston on Saturday 12 December. Entries are by post to Alex Jackson and close on Saturday (28 November).

*Forms for entries are available online on the Events page.

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Maria receives her award from Mike Roberts of sportscotland

The Scottish Women in Sport awards for 2015 were held at a dinner at Hampden on Friday night.

Scottish track and field athletes were short-listed in a number of the different categories and ultimately there were two successes.

Para sprinter Maria Lyle won the Young Sportswoman of the Year award, which was sponsored by sportscotland. And Laura Muir took the Altiumi 10 ‘Best Newcomer’ award.

Tags: Alex Jackson, East District XC, East League, Laura Muir, Livingston, Luke Traynor, Maria Lyle, NCAA, Rhona Auckalnd, Scottish Students XC, Scottish Women in Sport Awards, Steph Twell