The Manchester Cross Country league started this weekend (13th October) which was evident by the number of Buxton AC Juniors who headed to Wythenshawe Park for a blustery first meeting.

The under 13’s saw Ben Hawtin finish in a strong position of 23rd with team mate Joseph Thorogood finishing in 55th out of a very strong field of athletes.  The only Buxton representative in the under 13’s girls Category was Sienna Phillips who comfortably finished inside the top 20 in 16th in a challenging race.

The first full team to race for the juniors was the under 15 boys’ who saw the team end up in a strong position of 11th. The team was lead by Harry Bond in 20th, followed by one of three Winfields racing on the day with Caleb ending up in 40th closely pursued Dougie Wilson in 47th respectively. Amy Whelan followed up her silver medal in the recent Manchester airport road race by finishing 20th followed by team mate Abbie Fryer Winder who ran fantastically to finish 43rd.

The under 17 boys started the league off on fire with the team finishing 2nd in the overall standings. Sam Soles finished just outside the podium finish in 4th followed by the Diamond twins Stuart and Edward with finishing one after the other with Stuart in 15th and Edward in 16th. The under 17 girls took the same 6.1 km course as the boys and Ellie Wilson dominated the race finishing in 2nd position out of the mass of athletes followed by Heather Wilshaw who finished in a very strong position of 20th.

In the men’s under 20 race, Jacob Winfield finished in 5hn place just missing out on the podium followed by Jacob Miller who finished in the top 10 finishing 9th position.

So with the first Manchester meeting over and Buxton AC teams looking like they could fly high in the overall standings in both Manchester and North staffs competition, it looks as though cross country is really back for Buxton!