MORPETH Harriers' Young Athletes squad were badly hit by a number of absentees when they finished fourth in their opening Northern League Division One match at Monkton Stadium on Sunday.
Nevertheless, team managers Tony Ward and Josie Goodfellow did their level best to tactically place those who could turn out to the best advantage.
Despite the loss of athletes there were a number of excellent performances across the three age gro
ups.
In the U17 Women's section Rachel Moody claimed excellent victories in the Long Jump (4.23m) and Shot (8.57m).
Stevie Goodfellow went alone in the Triple Jump to gain maximum points with a best of 8.66m and followed that up with an excellent second in the 200m (28.9s) with Kathryn Lake taking second in the 'B' race in 29.0s.
After a hard previous day at York competing for the Seniors, Deborah Oakley competed in the 3000m to finish third in 11m32.3s, then later finished third in the 1500m in 5m35.4s, and Jessica Caldwell took the 'B' race in 5m48.3s.
There were good performances to be seen in the U15 age group with Rachel Denton, Hannah Rank and Jonny Nisbet all capturing the spotlight.
Denton claimed a superb victory in the Girls' 800m in 2m23.3s, a new personal best, which saw her finish well clear of her nearest rival.
Ellen Welsh ran well to finish second in the 'B' race in 3m05.3s.
Morpeth claimed an excellent double victory in the Girls' 1500m with Hannah Rank taking the 'A' race in 5m06.7s and Miriam Inverarity took the 'B' race in 5m50s. Rank also finished second in the Shot with 5.92m.
There were excellent second places for Anna Matthews in the 200m (28.8s) and Ismay Kitson in the Javelin (10.77m).
Jonny Nisbet and Tom McGhee combined well to claim an excellent Morpeth double victory in the Boys' 200m with Nisbet taking the 'A' race in 27.4s and McGhee the 'B' race in 31.2s.
Nisbett also finished second in the 1500m (4m47.2s), a new personal best by almost 30 seconds, and McGhee finished second in the Long Jump with 4.15m. Another highlight was Philip Caldwell's second in the 80m Hurdles with 18.1s.
In the U13 age group Joe Robertshaw's victories in the 100m (13.9s) and 200m (27.9s) certainly caught the eye. And he was agonisingly 9cm short of making a reasonable claim of a hat-trick of victories with his best Long Jump effort of 3.91m.
In the Girls' events Adele Stewart and Eve Shashova's performances were outstanding with a double victory being claimed in the 800m with respective clockings of 2m51.1s and 2m58.9s.
Stewart also finished second in the High Jump with a best clearance of 1.10m and Steph Purvis came second in the 'B' String with 1.05m.
There were good debuts for Ryan Dodds and Liam Brooks. Dodds finished third in the 75m Hurdles (16.7s) and Brooks also placed third in the 1500m in 5m30.9s.
Final match result: 1 Harrogate 360pts, 2 Lincoln Wellington 354, 3 Chester-le-Street 233, 4 Morpeth 195.
The full article contains 533 words and appears in Morpeth Herald newspaper.
