Jim Mckeown Running Group

A selection of pics from Armagh earlier this evening - some great performances and new PBs - we won the Men’s Open 3k Team title for the 4th year in a row I think just pipping Annadale by the most slender of margins 3s! Team was led home by Alex Downey running 8.53 and a massive new PB. We also won the Men’s Jun B team race category (to be officially confirmed) - there didn’t appear to be any team prizes for Jun A - if there was, I believe we might have won both of those categories. In the Men’s 5k there were big breakthrough runs for Stephen Lyster 14.36 and Ruairi Hollywood 14.52 - Marianne Doherty was our top finisher in the ladies international 3k running 10.02, just ahead of Freya Woodhead 10.09 and Katie Keown 10.27 which placed the team in a very respectable 6th place - full results available on the Myrunresults website - Armagh never fails to deliver and it was another fantastic evening of racing that saw two outstanding local winners in Nick Griggs (CNDR) and Emily Haggard-Kearney (NBH) - thanks as always to Armagh AC for their slick organisation and hospitality - super job tonight everyone 😊

What a performance by these young ladies who represented Ireland at the European Club Cross Country Championships on Sunday where they finished in an outstanding 5th place in the Junior Women’s U20 Race. I’ll try to get a more fulsome report out in due course, but needless to say we are all incredibly proud of them at Lagan Valley AC

Happy New Year, everyone.

Enter via link below

https://www.facebook.com/share/17qLCp6DrR/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Good finish to the season for these boys picking up the team win at Sunday’s Drogheda 5k - Noah Kavanagh finished 5th in 15.00, Stephen Lyster 6th in 15.03 and Oisin McGloin 7th in 15.13 - also Jack McCausland 16.53 and Marianne Doherty 18.25 (all pictured) and Jessica Blaney 20.33. A few other results over recent weeks that I need to mention - at the Seeley Cup 10k there were a couple of big PBs - Ruairi Hollywood was 13th in 31.40 and Noah Kavanagh 11th, ran at the time I believe, a new club 10k road race record of 31.21, only for this to be claimed by Stephen Lyster’s 31.18 at the Telford 10k last week- super proud of everyone’s achievements this year 😊

Super run from Freya Woodhead (recently crowned Irish U19 XC Champion) at Victoria Parkrun this morning first female home with a 17.21 5k split - 2nd overall was the fast improving Uilleac Fitzpatrick 16.30 5k split, pictured with Olivia Morgan who finished strong in 19.35. Andrew Gawn took first place at Wallace PR in 19.09.

Golden Weekend for Lagan Valley AC

On Saturday at the Acorns AC Irwin Speers XC Meet (Cookstown) we had a good team win in the Senior Men’s race with max participation points and a good return to form for Tommy Arthur, 2nd overall (pictured with the Trophy).

On Sunday we then journeyed to Abbottstown for the National Novice and Uneven Ages XC Championships. Early on, there were a few eye-catching performances from our younger athletes, in particular new member Katie Napier finishing 13th in the U17 race running out of her age group; the U17 Boys battled well for a hard-fought 4th place, just outside the medals – your day will come.

However, it was the U19 Girls race that started a gold-rush for the Club, with Freya Woodhead (pictured - photo credit Perri Williams) taking an outstanding individual win, in what were extremely tough underfoot conditions. Freya is the epitome of hard work and resilience and so deserving of this win after a challenging season last year – many congratulations Freya you are an outstanding role model for our younger juniors. Freya’s performance also led our girls to the U19 team title with Olivia Morgan 9th and Aoife Magee 35th; the girls also helped Antrim to victory in the County championship and a win for Ulster in the inter-Provincial Championship.

Those performances certainly seemed to inspire our Novice Men as they tackled the Irish Men’s Novice for only the 2nd time in the Club’s history. Despite finishing 3rd last year, we appeared to slip under the radar per the pre-race reports. The men got off to a flyer, and we packed well early on with 4 in the top 10 and that’s pretty much how it unfolded at the end of a gruelling 6km. It wasn’t without some drama though with Stephen Lyster (pictured on the podium) securing an individual silver medal following a titanic struggle with Clonliffe’s Mahad Egaal down the home straight – a finish for the ages! After a nervous wait the result was called and with that another bit of history for Lagan Valley AC taking a first Novice title with 30 points (team pictured post race), just ahead of our friends from Nenagh and Clonliffe. Noah Kavanagh 7th, Ruairi Hollywood 9th and Noah Sheridan 12th had exceptional runs and contributed to a fabulous team performance, bringing the curtain down on what’s been a memorable championship xc season for the Club.

Thank you to everyone who has raced with such pride and conviction this year in the sky blue and navy and to the extended coaching team without whom all this success would not be possible.

Congratulations to all our winners, nominees, newly appointed Committee Members and re-elected office bearers at last night’s Lagan Valley AC AGM & Awards, special mention to those in the endurance group - Marianne Doherty Most Improved Female (joint award with Hannah Cochrane), Scott Owen Most Improved Male, Katie Keown U17 Girls Winner, John Jackson and Kate Bradley our respective Masters Winners, and Stephen Lyster, recipient of the Brian Downing Endurance Award - pictured is proud dad John accepting the trophy on Stephen’s behalf - other winners included Beibhinn Bourke and Adam Hanna who have recently graduated from Jacqueline Murtagh’s Lvac Minis Group and a final well done to Jacqueline a very worthy recipient of the Billy Black Coaching Award - Jacqueline and her team do fantastic work providing a great environment for our young athletes to thrive and enjoy their athletics!

On Saturday at the prestigious University of Manchester XC Relays a 'young' club side comprising Stephen Lyster, Noah Kavanagh, Tommy Arthur, Jack McCausland and Stephen Lunn finished 1st club team and 6th overall, with Noah running an impressive 8.57 over the undulating 3k course for 7th fastest leg of the day (pictured). Robertho Dos Santos (LJMU), Jessica Blaney (University of Leeds) and Lauren Edwards (University of Manchester) all ran strong legs for their respective Unis.

On Sunday we had the small matter of the NI & Ulster Even Age Group XC Championships and the Club was well represented across most of the age categories. The U18 Boys and Girls both won team golds - the scoring team for the boys included Noah HARPER (3rd), Scott OWEN, Jude MCGANN and Alex DOWNEY; the girls were led home by a resurgent Freya WOODHEAD (4th), followed by Katie KEOWN, Chloe YOUNG and Olivia MORGAN. (Both winning teams pictured)

The U16 Girls race proved to be a titanic struggle between ourselves, Enniskillen and Finn Valley with the lead chopping and changing throughout; in the end Enniskillen took the spoils on 43pts, closely followed by Lagan Valley 47pts and Finn Valley 48pts - a big shout out to Katie Napier making her club debut with an outstanding 3rd place, followed closely by Kaiya McCrabbe 4th with Georgia Storey and Georgina Garland completing the scoring 4. The U16 Boys finished 5th with Ollie HANNA, Harry MOFFITT, Matthew SABERIAN and Daniel MORIARTY top scoring - most, if not all those lads, are expected to qualify for Nationals via the County route.

In the U14 age category, our girls finished a close 2nd behind Ballymena & Antrim with top scorer Beibhinn BOURKE (4th), Simone RAMOS PLEWMAN, also making a club debut, an excellent 8th with Natasha GARLAND and Clodagh BRADLEY closing out our top 4 scorers. Our U14 Boys comprising Jake SMYTH, Adam HANNA, Conor MCCRORY and Conan MURPHY finished just outside the auto qualifying spots for Nationals (6th team), but again most of these lads will have a strong chance of making it through to Nationals via the County pathway (Antrim finished 3rd).

In the U12 Boys race, we finished 3rd just a single point ahead of City of Derry (114pts v 115pts) - you know the old adage 'every place counts' - great work by the scoring 4 of Eimhin BOURKE, Prame HUMPHRIES, Hugo LOWRY and James FINLAY. In the U12 Girls race our top scorer was Olivia Snodden in 20th.

Also on the card on Sunday was the Senior Men's race, where we did exceptionally well to finish as 4th team, with top scorer Ruairi Hollywood (7th) well supported by John Jackson, new recruit Tibo Kolmel and Richard Edwards. The Sen Women finished 7th with Madison BOWYER, Kate BRADLEY, Liz DAWSON and Katy DUNN.

Another brilliant weekend for the Club - thank you everyone for your exceptional support 🙂

Some Group results to catch up on over the last couple of weeks! On Saturday 11 October, the fast improving Uilleac Fitzpatrick kicked off a good weekend with a new PB at Victoria Parkrun running 16.53; at the Irish University XC Championships held in Tymon Park (Dublin) Noah Kavanagh had a great run to finish top scorer for Queens in 8th, Louie Woodger was also in good form coming home in 13th, with Ruairi Hollywood in 31st and Noah Sheridan 48th. Last Sunday at the Comber Cup XC Meet, there was a fine run by Beibhinn Bourke (one of our new graduates from the Minis) with 2nd place in the U14 Girls race, with strong support from a fast finishing Catherine McLaughlin. Alex Downey produced a strong 2nd half in the Boys U18 race and finished clear of the field for the win, again with good support from Joshua Hanna. In the U18 Girls we had a 1-2 courtesy of Freya Woodhead and Olivia Morgan. In the Senior Men's race, the lads kept up the momentum following their team win at Armagh with a 2nd place this time round. The fast finishing Stephen Lyster was top scorer in 3rd, a special shout out to Ruairi Hollywood who turned out only a day after the Uni XC to bag himself a very creditable top 10; and also a mention for Tibo Kolmel who made his debut for the Club - thanks everyone on the team for their support.

On Saturday back on home soil at the Bere Island 5m (Kerry) Tommy Arthur finished 2nd in very challenging conditions running 29.33 with around 450-500 feet of ascent - great work Tommy! Today at the Autumn Open/National XC Relays held in Abbotstown (Dublin) we broke new ground when we fielded not 1 but 2 Senior Teams in the Mixed Relay, with the respective teams finishing in an outstanding 4th and 5th place (all pictured) - much thanks to those who flew back to compete - fair to say it was a fun event and we'll definitely be back next year! Last word for John Jackson who took 2nd place (1st M40) at the Saintfield 10k this morning in 34.12 and I noticed one Jacqueline's minis Euan Kelly had a cracking run in the 5k with 5th place in 19.01. Well done everyone.

And I thought this was going to be a quiet weekend….

Outstanding run this morning by Rebecca Wallace with a new Club Record of 16.09 at a stacked Rathfarnham 5k - such an inspiration for our younger junior girls, we are all very proud of you Rebecca.

On Saturday, at a rain soaked Annaghmore running festival there was a 1st and 3rd with Scott Owen 16.43 and Ollie Hanna 18.06 - we’ve enjoyed good recent success at this one!

Also on Saturday, at the Seaton Classic 10k (NI 10k Championship race) John Jackson backed up his fantastic new PB at the Belfast Half (72.22) with a 33.37, 18th overall and enough for 2nd in the M40 category. Alex Downey secured the MJ prize with a steasy 36.45 (pictured post race with dad Chris and the man himself, Davy Seaton).

Meanwhile over in Missouri, at the Gans Creek Classic (home to this year’s NCAAs) Charlie Jones (Butler) produced another fine performance over an undulating 8km course with a swift 24.26 (Charlie pictured front left).

Let’s go LVAC!

A landmark day for Lagan Valley AC at the TJ McElmeel XC Meet hosted by Armagh AC.

Not only did the Club field 12 senior men for the first time at an ANI Cross Country League meet, but also came away with the win, showing the depth of talent we now have. Hopefully we can build on this result throughout the rest of the XC season. Noah Kavanagh had a great tussle up front with Tom Fleming (Loughview AC) and Brandon McKeown (Annadale Striders) and led the team home with an individual 2nd place finish - the other 3 team scorers included Ruairi Hollywood 6th, Stephen Lunn 8th and Tommy Arthur 14th. In the U18 Boys Race we also had a good turnout (9 in total) and packed well for 1st team with Noah Harper 3rd, Jude McGann 4th, Scott Owen 7th and Alex Downey in 9th. In the girls equivalent, there was a great return to form for Freya Woodhead 3rd, with Olivia Morgan 5th and Isabelle Conlon 22nd - unfortunately we lost Katie Keown to an injury when travelling very well - wishing you a speedy recovery Katie. I don’t have the other junior race results to hand, but safe to say there were some very encouraging performances - I believe the club ranked as the 3rd best junior club on the day - another proud day for LVAC!