Eimear McCarroll accepts scholarship from Bradley University

Finn Valley AC athlete Eimear McCarroll has accepted a scholarship offer from Bradley University in the United States.

The versatile 18-year-old will head Stateside in the autumn to begin her time in Peoria, Illinois.

McCarroll will compete for the Bradley University Braves, who are in Division 1 of the NCAA.

In 2022 and 2023, McCarroll represented Finn Valley at the European Club Cross Country Championships (ECCC).

In 2022, joined by Sarah Bradley Nuala Bose, Eimear McCarroll and Emer O’Brien in Oeiras, Portugal, Finn Valley finished sixth,

Last February, McCarroll, Bradley, Bose and Amy Greene finished eighth in Oropesa del Mar in Spain.

Bradley recently took up a posting at Queen’s University of Charlotte in North Carolina.

McCarroll, a student at Loreto Grammar School in Omagh, has shown ability on track, road and cross country.

In the summer, she was silver in the Irish U19 1500m in Tullamore, beaten only by Kirsti Charlotte Foster from Willowfield Harriers.

Over 1500m, McCarroll has a personal best of 4:39.60 and has best marks of 10:24.76 over 3000m, 18:14.88 in the 5000m and 2:15.81 in the 800m.

She will become the latest Finn Valley AC athlete to go down the US scholarship route - a journey that began in 1985 when Camilla Harron, then a student at the Letterkenny Regional Technical College, took up a scholarship opportunity at Arizona University.

Bradley, Sarah Collins, Dempsey McGuigan, Arlene Crossan, Shannon McLaughlin, Cassie Lagan and Oisin Ó Gailín are among a large contingent to have previously gone Stateside