ST Albans Striders hit the mud again last weekend as the cross country season nears a close.

On Saturday, a number of the club’s athletes took part in the Southern Champs at a muddy Parliament Hill fields. In the women’s 8k race, Wendy Webster was the first Strider home in 66th place on her Champs debut followed by Wendy Walsh (102nd), Gill Jubb (107th) and Amy Tanner (120th).

In the men’s race, Gary Warren was 183rd with Colin Braybrook just five seconds behind in 187th. Peter McDermott (264th), Steve Smith (342nd), Richard Derrick (426th), Kevin Brookman (450th) and John Warren (540th) also completed the gruelling 15k course.

Earlier in the day, St Albans AC athletes shone in their respective age categories. James McMurray was 8th in the U20 race with Jamie Abiss 71st.

In the U17 category, Ryan Allen (116th) and Jack Simpson (122th) finished seven seconds apart while Gregory Sinnott and Ben Clarke were 46th and 80th in the U15s race.

The U13 boys had a full team thanks to Callum Walsh (92nd), Harry Bentley (132nd), Andrew Shaw (167th) and Ricardo James (182nd).

In the girls’ events, Tabith Weddell (52nd), Isabel Geraghty (64th), Lauren Eckley (101st) and Jessica Barnes (102nd) were the highest finishers in the U15.

The U13s also performed well with Emily Anders (33rd), Eleanor Hobbs (104th), Caitlin Eckley (115th), Jessica Laitner (123rd) and Freya Weddell (133rd).

On Sunday a number of runners pulled their spikes on again for the Sunday League in Watford. Tom Crouch continued his winning form to take the victory and senior men’s league title overall while XC captain Ed Blake was 10th followed by Pablo Lastras, who won the St Albans ParkRun the day before, and Gary Warren 26th.

Braybrook took the V50 league title and in the women’s race Penny Habbick was 3rd and won the V35 league category overall while Liz Walls won the V55 title.

Elsewhere on Sunday, Strider Simon Riley won the Harrow Hill six mile race and Stephen Elkan completed the Bramley 20 mile race in 2hrs 50mins.