The College Cross Country team enjoyed a very successful day in glorious conditions at the Clonliffe Schools invitational competition in Santry, Dublin.

The Year 8 team started the day with a promising 2nd place finish in their first race in St. Malachy’s colours. They were led by Sean Murray’s fine individual 2nd place finish, Sean just missed out on the individual victory in a sprint finish. He was chased home by Luke Kelly in 6th, Conall McGirr in 11th and Luke O’Connor in 20th.

In the next race the Year 9’s made it one better with a fine team victory. Daniel McComiskey made his way up through the field throughout the race to claim an excellent 3rd place. He was closely followed by Ruari Gallagher in 5th. Callum Morgan 11th and Oscar Smyth in 18th rounded out the scoring quartet.

The Year 10’s were not to be outdone and secured a second team victory of the day. Adam Ferris headed the team in 7th place. Fionn McQuillan, Niall O’Connor and Ciaran Beattie packed well, finishing in 13th, 15th and 17th respectively to complete the scoring.

The Intermediate team (Yr11 & 12) continued the winning streak with an excellent victory. Despite the team relying heavily on year 11’s they showed their class to wrap up another team success. Tim Scott continued his rise to prominence with a tremendous 5th place finish, He was closely followed by Conal Browne and Cormac O’Rourke in 9th and 10th. Kieron Conway reaped the benefit of some excellent recent training to complete the scoring in 14th. Such is the quality of this team that Matteo Lavorca in 18th did not count in our team scoring, but was ahead of any other school’s third finisher.

The success of these teams resulted in St. Malachy’s claiming the famous Lar Byrne trophy for the best overall school for the first time since 1994.