Double North Leinster XC Champions

There were four Team Titles and four Individual titles up for grabs at yesterday’s North Leinsters 2025 In Phoenix Park. 

St Paul’s travelled with 32 athletes and at the end of the day came away with 3 of those 8 titles, a truly outstanding achievement. Victories for our Junior and Intermediate teams and an Individual Gold for Conrad Latham in the Intermediate were the highlights. 

Our Minor team of Luke Harris, James Minogue, Mirko Nemeth and Sullivan Higgins were first into action. All 4 gave a fine account of themselves . The team were 14th in a very competitive race.

Next up the Juniors. The result was stunning. Led home by James Smith 7th, Patrick Ryan 14th, Daire Quigley 20th and Amanuel McGovern 34th in a thrilling Team battle St Paul’s total of 75 points was a single point better than St Aidans Whitehall, 76 points with Colaiste Maguire Mullingar 3rd on 77 points. This was a really good example of how in Cross Country running every single place is vitally important. 
Backing up our 4 scorers were Nathan O’Regan, Joe Murray, Fionn O’Connor, Matthew Clarke, Daniel Lawless, Eric Thompson, AJ Donnelly, Logan White and Evin Daly.

Inspired by the Junior success our Intermediate team tore into battle. None more so than Conrad Latham who led from gun to tape to take his first North Leinster Schools title winning by a yawning 18 second gap. With superb back up from Tom Collier 7th, Donagh Kirwan 9th and Alex Daly 23rd another St Paul’s title was secured ahead of the reigning champions St Mary’s Diocesan Drogheda and St Finians Mullingar. Equally important to the St Paul’s victory were the efforts of Liam Mancini, Theo Duffy, Eoin Clinton and Diyon Koswattage.

The Senior race was a very unsatisfactory event with a huge mix up over the start, resulting in our team never getting a proper opportunity to compete. Matei Ursachi did manage to work himself up to 4th place but for Rafa Almeida, Luke Bolton, Matthew Dowdall , Jake Daly, Kevin Rio Calvo and Seppi Baumeister it ended up being a frustrating outing. 

Onwards now, To the Leinster Championships, once again in Phoenix Park on February 12th.