St Albans AC celebrated some superb results at the English Cross-Country Relay Championships at Berry Hill Park, Mansfield on Saturday.

The club fielded teams in all but one age group, as a total of 1,281 teams competed in 10 races at the popular event.

And St Albans featured in the fastest lap times in several age groups, with Phoebe Gill first, James McMurray third, Sarah McGrath fourth and Antonia Jubb fifth fastest in their races.

The under-15 girls' A team finished in an excellent fourth place overall, as Lily Tse, McGrath and Jubb combined to great effect and were separated by just four seconds, while the B team of Hannah Barker, Sara Laitner and Sophie Lesley were 61st out of 100 teams.

James Dobbin and Amy To stepped up to national level competition in the younger age groups and took the pressure of the occasion in their stride, while the boys' team was made up of Matthew Nicholls and Rhys Bethell.

Phoebe Gill and Poppy Fisher made up the girls' team, with Gill winning the first 2k leg by 20 seconds.

Ben Gostick, Oscar Loveday and Alex Mcdonald took on the challenge of the increasingly churned up course, finishing 18th out of 86 teams with just eight seconds separating them from 12th.

The B team of Cameron Cherry and Oren Seneviratne were one short of a full team, but James Moore, James Allison and Sam Ogier had a good performance in the under-17 event.

Meanwhile, under-20 athletes Will Bowran, Rowan Daly and Caitlin Eckley all took a break from their studies at Nottingham, Herts and Sheffield University, respectively, to compete.

James McMurray, George Withers, Tom Halling and Sam Jones made up the senior team, with McMurray travelling from Brunel University and Halling from Bath.

McMurray finished the first leg in third place and the team had their highest position to date with 44th out of 161 teams.

Jones, the club's top 400 metre athlete, has taken on the winter calendar of cross-country as a chance to build mental and physical strength, while Pippa Bailey (Loughborough), Lucy Waterlow and Lauren Eckley saw the senior women's team to 38th out of 127 teams in another top performance.

St Albans race in Milton Keynes on Saturday, all welcome.