PITREAVIE athletes waded into action - literally - at the National Short Course Cross Country Championships on Saturday.
Torrential rain added a number of water hazards to an already soggy course in Glasgow's Bellahouston Park.
But cross country runners are a hardy bunch, and it takes a bit more than a few puddles and a field of mud to put them off.
Tyler White, who is enjoying a good cross country season, was Pitreavie's best performer on the day, splashing his way round the 3000m course in the under-17 men's race to finish in 13th place in 10 minutes five seconds.
In the same race, Ben Grant was 22nd in 10:22 and James Adam 29th in 10:28, earning Pitreavie fourth place in the team competition.
Jemma Jamieson produced a fine run in the under-15 girls' race, completing the 2000m course in 6:51 for 26th place; Ciara Bowman did well in the under-17 women's race over 3000m, finishing 27th in 13:28; and Micaela Brown was 28th in the senior women's race over 4000m in a time of 15:14.
The previous weekend, a sizeable contingent from Pitreavie enjoyed a fair amount of success at the popular Lasswade Annual Cross Country Championships, with two race winners and a number of athletes securing top 10 finishes.
Tyler White was again to the fore, winning the under-17 men's race over a 3.8-mile course in 22:43.
Lewis Dow was also a winner, clinching first place in the under-13 boys' race over two miles in 11:18. In the same race, Conor Gourley was fourth in 11:51, and Matthew Leitch 13th in 12:39, which was enough for the Pitreavie trio to finish top in the team competition.
In the under-11s, Caleb McLeod was the club's top performer, producing an excellent run over the one-mile course to finish third in 6:04.
Jemma Jamieson was also amongst the honours, finishing second in the under-15 girls' race over two miles in 12:37.
And Emily Nicholson was another award winner, picking up the trophy for third place in the combined under-17/under-20 women's race, completing the three-mile course in 19:48.
Emily's team-mates Ciara Bowman and Sophie Nethery finished 10th and 13th respectively, which was enough to secure the runners-up spot in the team competition.
Other notable performers at Lasswade included Katie Gostick (14th, under-13 girls), Lauren Blair (18th, under-13 girls), Conor Allan (8th, under-15 boys), Alice Pearson (18th, under-17/under-20 women) and Struan Ross (10th, under-17 men).
At the National Cross Country Relay Championships in Cumbernauld Park, Pitreavie had teams in the top 10 in both the young male and young female races.
Team comprised runners from three age groups - under-13, under-15 and under-17 - and each ran a leg of 2500m.
The club's top boys' team finished eighth following fine runs by Lewis Dow (9:49), Alex Johnston (9:21) and Ben Grant (9:24).
And the top girls' team managed to finish in 10th place, thanks to the efforts of Sarah Coutts (10.03), Jemma Jamieson (11:18) and Emily Nicholson (10:25).
Sarah's performance deserves special mention, as she not only won her leg, her time was eighth fastest of all the 271 competitors in the race.
She was also a winner in the recent opening meeting of the East District Cross Country League at Stirling, and will he aiming for a repeat performance in Alloa later this month.
(Dunfermline Press report, 12th November 2015)
