TAVISTOCK athletes headed to Exeter for the Devon Cross Country Championships.

In the championships medals and potential representative places for the National Inter-Counties event in March were up for grabs.

The event opened with the U11 develop-ment race. First Tavi-stock runner was Joe Dax in 13th, with Leighton Howe 17th narrowly holding off Tilly McDowell one place behind. Next was Lucy Steven 31st, Tegan Holdaway 42nd and Tayla James 43rd.

Race one combined U17 men and ladies with the senior ladies. Cornish U17 champion Sam Lane DeCourtin returned to form with his best race of the season. After a cautious start, he sat in a small group before hitting the front with 2km to go, followed by Erme Valley's Will Battershill who beat Sam in the opening fixture. This time Sam put in a late acceleration to draw away from his rival and take his first league win of the season. Not far behind were Will Dax 14th and Josh Blake 17th, which put them in contention for representative places and the team in a strong Westward League place.

The entry in the ladies' race saw a strong Tavistock team of eight. Despite a recent marathon, Jo Meek led the way for Tavistock, running a strong race to finish second, first over-35 and 22nd in the combined race. Tavistock's Tess Masse-link took 27th overall and second U17.

A weekend away from pentathlon training meant Alice Rogers was available and took third for Tavistock in 37th.

Veterans Rebecca Exley-Deane and Caroline Steven were in 58th and 59th, with Rebecca missing out on a county medal in the over-40 category by one place. Kate Rogers was final scoring runner for the veteran ladies' team in 99th place, just ahead of Anne-Marie Chater 105th and Jessica Williams 106th.

Glory in the U13 girl's race followed as Natasha Farrinton continued her strong form to run a final km, holding off strong challengers to take county bronze and fourth in the league. Not far behind, on overall 12th, combined with previous league finishes could be enough to get Jenny Milburn an invitation to the nationals.

With Olivia Bull taking 28th, the Tavistock team earned third in the county team race.

In the boy's race Lachlan Fulton took 7th, Tom Brew 14th and Lee Shipton 38th.

Sian Temple was the sole representative in the U15 girl's age group, and took second in the Westward League posi-tions.

The U15 duo of Harry Herdman and Charlie Shipton found the competition tough, but finished 19th and 20th.

The final race, for the senior men, had the largest entry of the season of over 175 runners. First to finish for Tavistock was James Best, in his first season as a senior runner. James finished 42nd which also gave him fourth place in the U20 age group and the chance to represent Devon.

Tavistock dominated the over-50's age group with Richard Drage in 70th place, despite team-mate Tony Symons running strongly for silver and 76th position.

U20 Harrison Baker faded to 90th, suffering from a cold, followed by over-60 silver medallist Allan Herdman 134th, Richard Best 142nd and Mike Baker 145th. The Tavistock contingent was rounded off by Jason Shipton 152nd and Kurt Masselink 156th.