MORE than 40 young runners from West Somerset took part in Saturday's annual Somerset Schools Cross Country Championships at Millfield School.
Having won selection for the Sedgemoor Area against teams from Mendip, Taunton and Yeovil, they produced some excellent runs with several earning selection for the county side.
The performance of the day came from the Minehead Middle School trio of Stefan Phillips, Luke Milton and Andrew Hawker in the Year 7 Boys event.
Stefan led from start to finish despite having been out of acton for two weeks with an injury and became county champion by 23 seconds.
Luke, who last Wednesday became Taunton Area champion and was running for the school's guest team, came second and Andrew put in a tremendous effort to finish third.
Ross Fitzgerald from Danesfield Middle School finished sixth in the same race. The school was also represented by Chris Bishop, Tom Potter and Andrew Wilson.
In the Under 15 Boys' race, Danesfield's Ben Lobley was sixth and, from Minehead Middle, Jamie Perkins was 22nd and Sam Toulson 23rd. Daniel Barnes also competed for Danesfield and Craig Sully and Chris Duffy for Minehead.
The Year 7 Girls' race was dominated by two Mendip runners, but Minehead's Stacey Sowden fought off another Mendip runner in a fast finish to claim the bronze medal.
Danesfield's Kate White and Jenny Mossman work well together to finish 9th and 10th, while from Minehead, Rachael Adams was 19th and Melissa Berry 22nd.
Running in the Under 15 Girls' race were Kate Higgie and Amy Wigglesworth from Minehead and Tessa Rosling, Amy Lewis, Jenny Bradbury and Sarah Baker from Danesfield.
West Somerset Community College had 19 students taking part.
In the Junior Under 14 Girls' event, Emily Ahern and Lucy Bosley finished in the top 30.
Robert Collins ran from the front in an attempt to dominate the Junior U14 Boys' race and finished with a bronze medal. Jason Coates was 10th and Mark Rayner 15th.
The Intermediate U16 Girls' race saw six college students competing. Cheryl Phillips led them home in 7th place, followed by Lucie Barney 10th, Carrie Knight 15th, Annabelle Phillips 14th, Romana Horstmann 19th and Gemma Kyte 28th.
Matthew Sully ran a superb race to finish third in the Intermediate U16 Boys' race and was followed by Andrew Baker 7th, Jerome Rosling 11th, Mike Auton 14th, Chas Minchin 15th, Matthew Hopkinson 22nd and Nigel Merrick 30th.
In the Senior boys' race, David Farmer produced a solid performance despite recent illness to finish 5th.
As a result of the races, the following runners have been selected for the Somerset team for the South West Cross Country Championships in Cheltenham on February 5: West Somerset Community College - Robert Collins, Jason Coates, Matthew Sully, Andrew Baker, Cheryl Phillips, Lucie Barney and David Farmer; Minehead Middle School - Stefan Phillips, Luke Milton, Andrew Hawker and Stacey Sowden; Danesfield Middle School - Ross Fitzgerald and Ben Lobley with Kate White and Jenny Mossman reserves.
l In the Sedgemoor Area event the previous week, Danesfield's best performance came from Ben Lobley of Year 8, who finished well clear of the field to win the U15 Boys' race. Several Year 7 boys ran and Ross Fitzgerald did well to finish 15th.
In the U15 Girls' race, Tessa Rosling had a good run to finish third and the girls' team came first overall.
Pictured are Danesfield's four county selections, Kate White, Jenny Mossman and Ross Fitzgerald with Ben Lobley at the front.