East XC League, Broxburn

Broxburn in West Lothian had missed the worse of the wintry weather last week, with only a sprinkling of snow on the course for the third and final leg of the East District Cross-Country League and this soon dissipated under the feet of the six hundred plus runners taking part. But whilst the weather was relatively tame, the same could not be said of the course which churned up in places and incorporated a shin-deep pool of flood water as well as the aptly named Lungbuster Hill for all bar the Under 11 age-group.

Efforts from the Moorfoot youngsters helped Team Borders perform well on the day. Ethan Elder led the team scorers in the U13 Boys race with his 13th place finish in 11.10 contributing to a score which was enough to lift the league title courtesy of EAC failing to field a third counting runner. Finlay Collins was just outside the scoring positions in 24th in 11.38.

With previous regular scorer Kobe Stevens opting for the relative warmth and comfort of the Emirates Arena for the National Open (where he won his heat in a significant, if overdue, 1500m PB of 4.28.30) it was down to a Gala trio of runners to secure the league title in the U17 Men's category and they duly obliged.

The U13 Girls finished 3^rd team on the day through Beth Hobbs (6^th in 11.28), Elena McGorum (12^th in 11.46) and Rhiannon Fagan (Gala, 13^th in 11.47) and that was enough to retain clear 2^nd place overall behind league winners Edinburgh. Molly Falconer wasn't far behind in 18th and there was an encouraging first outing for Charlotte Morrison who was 32nd of the 62 runners.

Also 3^rd on the day and overall were the U11 Girls racing over 1.4km. Megan Hobbs had an improved run for 10^th in 6.25 with team-mate Madeline Collins (14^th in 6.33) and Gala’s Harriet Woodland-Broome (12^th in 6.28) the other scorers. Holly Hobbs ran well for 22nd of 42.

The U11 Boys saw encouraging debut runs from Patrick Cannon in 19th in 6.12, and Frey MacIver in 24th in 6.20 with both boys still in this age-group next season.

In the combined senior/U20 races, Scout and Jacob Adkin both had fine runs to record their best placings yet in the East League since graduating from the age-group races. Scout was home in 5^th place in 21.24 in the senior women’s 5.4km race in which Sophie Collins, running for Edinburgh University, sprinted home for 38^th and 7^th U20 in 24.39. Fellow fresher Jacob finished an excellent  10^th in the men’s 8.1km race and was 2^nd U20 home, helping Edinburgh University take the team win on the day.