Six pupils from Queen’s College in Taunton were selected for the national ESSA Cross Country championships last Saturday 15 March 2014 at Castle Donnington where Somerset won the national title. Six races took place in total including Junior (Years 8 and 9), Intermediate (Years 10 and 11) and Senior (Years 12 and 13) girls and boys races, each with eight runners taking part in each team. In addition the Junior Somerset girls’ team, made up of girls in Years 7 and 8, came second nationally.
Holly Brown (Year 12), Elen Falkingham (Year 11), Dan Wilde (Year 10), Amelia Vance (Year 9), Jessica Brown (Year 9), Sophie Jones (Year 8) and reserve Matt Keogan (Year 8)qualified by representing Queen’s College at the area finals before being selected to represent Taunton at the county championships.
The pupils, who also have strong links with Taunton Athletics Club, next qualified for the South West championships which took place in Bournemouth before final selection for the nationals where all six Queen’s College runners were selected to represent Somerset. 45 counties were represented at the national championships on Saturday and over 360 runners took part in each race.
Said Queen’s College Headmaster, Chris Alcock: “Having six runners in the winning team nationally is a tremendous achievement and one I and the rest of the school is really proud of. Competing at this level requires real grit and determination and to win the national title is extremely exciting. Queen’s College is swiftly gaining an outstanding reputation for its sport with not only our hockey players, riders and swimmers competing at national level, we now also have tremendous success in cross country and the support from our staff , who have given hours of time coaching and supporting these runners, has been exceptional.”
Queen’s College also won three of the four races at the Junior Cross Country Championships on 25 February. Becky Brown took first place in the Year 7 girls’ race, Sophie Jones was placed first in Year 8 and Charlie McNeice was on excellent form, achieving first position in the Year 8 boys’ race by a considerable margin. Queen’s College (Becky Brown, Fay Graham, Verity Vance, Kirsten Hill, Henrietta Ewell and Emily Fry) also won the Year 7 girls’ team event.
Queen’s College Junior School runners also proved very successful in the Somerset Primary Schools Cross-Country Championships on Saturday 8 March 2014. Both the Year 5 and 6 teams stormed to victory with Christian Stride securing the individual win in the Year 6 competition in a photo finish with other Queen’s College pupils Thomas Russell. Jo Keogan finished first and Beatrice Fender third in the Year 6 race and Bunny Cordeaux won the Year 5 race with Libby Woodberry placed third. This was a tremendous performance with all of the children running with determination and gaining excellent results against tough opposition.