THERE were four individual Craven champions as Ermysted’s Grammar School hosted the Harrogate and Craven Area Cross-Country Championships last Wednesday at Skipton’s Aireville Park.

The races, which followed undulating course around the park, involved nearly 400 runners from 15 secondary schools from as far afield as Giggleswick, Ripon and Harrogate.

They are a starting point for the Individual English Schools’ Cross-Country Championships as the best runners are selected for the Harrogate and Craven team for January’s County Championships, from which the team for the National Championships is selected.

The Year 7 girls race had Craven’s first medallist as Skipton Girls’ High School runner Hannah Robinson was third. Schoolmate Megan Wilkinson was fifth with the South Craven pairing of Olivia Aldham sixth and Mollie Smith 11th. The top 12 will be picked for the Harrogate and Craven team with guest spots likely for those coming between 13th and 16th.

The boys making the team were Upper Wharfedale’s Jacob Reeday, who was a few seconds adrift of the winner and had to settle for a silver medal.

He was followed home by an Ermysted’s quartet, who were very unlucky not to win the team shield. Sam Bentham sixth, Finlay Petrucci eighth, Lachlan Wills tenth and Sam Smith 16th, had a score of just 40 points for the total of their finishing positions but were three behind winners, St Aidan's.

Year 8 and Year 9 share a team in the County Championships, so run the same course and distance and times are used to pick the top 12 and 4 guests.

The Year 8 Girls race had Settle College’s Daisy Pilkington ninth as Craven’s first runner home with and South Craven’s Anna Fryers tenth and Catrin Fergusson 11th.

The boys finishing in the top 12 were three from Ermysted’s Freddie Marsh sixth, Oscar Smyth 11th and Aryaan Ghafoor12th, but on time only Freddie is likely to make the combined team.

The Year 9s were generally quicker than the Year 8s in both the boys and girls races. This means that Skipton Girls' Emma Peel fourth, South Craven’s Tui Brooks fifth and Skipton Girls' Mia Petrucci eighth are likely to make the team, but Skipton Girls’ Hannah Jackson 12th will just miss out.

Craven’s first area champion was in the Year 9 boys race as they were led home by Upper Wharfedale’s Sam Headley with Ermysted’s duo of silver medallist Donnabhan Rudden and eighth placed Rohan Smith likely to make the area team but ninth placed Owen Thompson from South Craven just missing out.

The Year 10 and Year 11 girls had three Skipton Girls' runners in the first five home as Alice Jones won the race for Craven’s second individual champion.

She had schoolmates Lilli Carr fourth and Ruby Firth fifth but with no fourth counter they could not win the team event. They did all qualify for the County Championships though.

The boys at this age group from Craven are unstoppable. They occupied 11 of the first 16 places with eight of those runners coming from Ermysted’s.

However, pride of place went to Craven’s third area champion from South Craven School as Sam Smith came out on top following a battle with Ermysted’s Alex Thompson.

The bronze medal went to Ermysted’s Sebastian Seggar-Staveley, with schoolmates Louis Hudson fourth, Arthur Peel seventh, Joe Carnelley 11th, Jath Lee 12th, Ben Rees 13th and Will Atkinson 16th.

With such a strong team Ermysted’s clearly won the team event and their B team would have been second. Other Craven athletes made the team as South Craven’s Jack Muir sixth and Settle’s Rhys Watmough came 14th.

The senior girls (Year 12 and 13) saw a repeat of what happened in the inter race as Skipton Girls again should have won the team event with bronze medallist Emily Jones third, Katie Atkinson fourth and Angelina Bairstow sixth but no final counter meant they again missed out. Marisa Allen from Giggleswick was seventh and also made the team.

Ermysted’s were at it again in the senior boys category as all six of their runners made the top ten to qualify for the area team.

They were led home by Joe Hudson, who become Craven’s fourth area champion and also helped his school pick up another team award.

Tom Barrett fifth, Will Thompson sixth, Laurie Petrucci seventh, Sam Thom ninth and Henry James tenth were the Ermysted’s runners and will be joined in the area team by silver medallist Ryan Watmough.