HALESOWEN Athletics Club's under 15 girls team proved they are amongst the best runners the region.

A number of club athletes competed in the Midlands Cross Country Championships last Saturday at Woollaton Park in Nottinghamshire, but it was the under 15 girls team that came out on top beating tough competition including Rugby and Northants AC and Charnwood AC to win the team category prize.

This was due to great individual runs, which clocked up the best scoring points.

Lily Higgins was first in for Halesowen over the 4k course in sixth place in a time of 15.24, 24 seconds behind the leader from Sutton in Ashfield Harriers. She was followed in by Casateria Ferreira (12th, 15.44), Katrina Simpson (17th, 15.56) and Abi Saker (23rd, 16.09).

Other junior age categories sadly weren’t able to raise a team but individual performances were as follows: Tom Gill ran in the under 15 boys 4k competition for the club finishing 55th in 15.52, Max Price finished 65th in 12.23 in the under 13 boys 3k competition and in the girls under 13 3k race Grace Pritchard placed 56th (13.37), Hannah Sahota placed 77 (14.06) with Megan Parker finishing 81st in 14.10. Isobel Hall ran in the under 17 girls 5k race finishing 41st in 22.05 and Joshua Timms placed 19th in 21.32 in the under 17 boys 6k race.

The senior athletes were able raise teams and placed 20 out of 30 team in the senior women’s category (8k) and 16 out of 38 teams in the senior men’s 12k race. The men’s team comprised of Richard White (66th, 41.34), Mark Hadley (105th, 43.38), Matthew Allen (143rd, 45.22), Kevin Monk (190th, 47.29), Phillip Scarr (204th, 47.56) and Bill Nock (230th, 48.55). The ladies team were Kerri James (72nd, 34.54), Sally Spencer (125th, 37.32), Sarah Smith (165th, 40.20) and Caroline Lambert (167th, 40.23).