Brilliant Patricians tops in Leinster Cross Country finals

Friday, February 27 will live long in the memory as another famed chapter was written into the annals of the Athletics Department in Patrician Secondary School, Newbridge, when they were crowned Overall Best School on the back of their results at the Leinster Schools Cross-Country Championships at Navan Adventure Centre.

With the weather having twice disrupted the event scheduled for Phoenix Park, a mayday call to Dunshaughlin AC resulted in them hosting the Championships on a fantastic and challenging course. This time, the weather co-operated well.

Two team golds and two individual silvers were dream stuff for the young men from Kildare, although they had travelled knowing they were going to be in the mix for medals.

The day started off with a huge performance from 1st Year student, Aidan Keyes, who was the only Patrician qualifier from the South East Championships with his 6th-place finish.

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Feeling very relaxed throughout, Aidan had to fight his course (minus team-mates) and he gave all Newbridge supporters a huge lift when he came around the first lap leading. In fact, he led until about 200m from the finish, when All-Ireland Club Champion Daniel Greene had to call on all his experience to get home just one second ahead of Aidan.

While expecting the Juniors to go well, with the talent of Jack Brennan and Jayden Murphy leading the group, again it turned out better than expected.

In their first year in the grade and trading against older opponents, Jack and Jayden were in a leading group of five heading out with a lap to go. Eventually, they finished in second and fourth place — Michael Moran (Blackrock College) was just ahead of Jack in 10:33.

After a phenomenal run in Carlow three weeks ago, Callum Gibbs again ran strong in 20 place to keep Newbridge's hopes of a medal very much alive. And similar to the South East event, it was Cormac Holden who finished strong to put Patrician Newbridge in the Gold medal position. Rian Coleman, Oisin Roche, Franciszek Malicki and Donnacha Archbold ran a fantastic support race.

Next were the Inters, who had expectations, especially with International Ronan Keaney back from his travels. But he was going to have considerable help from the talented Ben Crampton and another International Alexander Guther. And that's how it played out.

A tactical race up front eventually saw Kyrell Mtinsi (St Kieran’s Kilkenny) win in 15:35 with Ronan following in 6th place. Mtinsi's pace over the last lap left a long train snaking to the finish, and eventually Alexander and Ben appeared around the final bend to support each other to the line, claiming 18th and 19th place, respectively.

Patricians were in pole position but needed that fourth individual spot on the team to be filled quickly with pressure mounting from Mullingar CBS and St Kieran's. Matthew Grogan stood up to that challenge and crossed the line in 25 place, helping

Patricians secure 68 points, ahead of Mullingar. Ciaran Coogan, Cole Christie, Oisin Byrne an Shane Matthews all bunched well in support.

There is no time to rest for the lads, as the focus has already turned to the All-Ireland's, which take place in Mallusk Playing Fields, Newtownabbey, Belfast, next Saturday, March 7.