Erin Friel leads the charge as Loreto shine at Irish Schools Championships

With the European Under-18 countdown gathering pace, Letterkenny teen Erin Friel maintained her excellent form with gold at the Irish Schools Track and Field Championships.

Friel led the way as Loreto, Letterkenny took team honours in the intermediate girls grade in Tullamore.

Friel was among a plethora of medallist from Donegal schools and schools from neighbouring counties whose charge was bolstered by athletes who compete in Donegal.

Friel won the intermediate girls 300m gold. Friel charged home in 39.22 seconds, pipping old foe Molly Daly in the colours of Loreto, Kilkenny, who dipped over the line in 39.27 seconds.

Loreto, Letterkenny hit a total of 35.5 points to top the team table ahead of St Angela's, Cork, who amassed 21 points.

The junior girls from Loreto, Letterkenny were joint third in their category.

Caoimhe Gallen, the Lifford-Strabane AC athlete and a student at St Columba's College in Stranorlar, threw out to a best of 59.50m for gold in the intermediate girls hammer. Gallen had the edge on her club colleague Muireann McBride.

Deele College student McBride reached out to 50.32m for silver while Gallen also added a silver in the intermediate girls shot put, recording a 12.87m best.

Cabrine Pyne won the junior girls javelin when arrowing out to 37.63m, with a 28.63m throw earning Loreto, Letterkenny's Anya Duffy sixth. The Deele College student was fifth over the 75m hurdles in 12.27 seconds.

Lifford-Strabane AC's Ashleigh McArdle, representing Holy Cross College from Strabane, won the senior girls shot via a 11.84m throw. In the same event, Ava Anderson, of Tir Chonaill AC and Abbey VS, took silver when recording a 10.83m throw.

McArdle followed with a silver over the 100m hurdles, finishing in 15.01 seconds.

Ellie McCurdy, another Lifford-Strabane AC athlete who attends Holy Cross, won the senior girls javelin thanks to a 38.56m effort.

Letterkenny AC man Harry McIlwaine left with a silver and a bronze for the Royal & Prior. McIlwaine was second in the junior boys long jump, going into the sand at 5.57m, and was third in the junior 200m, speeding home in 23.52 seconds.

Finn Valley AC woman Eimear McCarroll, in the vest of Omagh Academy, was the senior girls 1500m silver medal winner. McCarroll finished in 4:30.47 for second behind race winner, Nicole Dinan from St Angela's, Cork, who took gold in 4:27.88.

Odhran McBrearty has had a superb year and the St Columba's College student bagged silver in the intermediate boys 1500m. The Finn Valley AC athlete finished in 4:15.40, bettered narrowly by Drogheda man Lorcan Forde-Dunne, who won in 4:14.85.

McBrearty's fellow St Columba's student and Finn Valley AC athlete Riona Doherty won silver in the senior girls long jump when leaping out to 5.46m.

Aoife McGeehin of Loreto, Letterkenny, earned silver in the intermediate girls javelin, the Olympian YAC woman going out to 37.40m and she also finished sixth in the discus, just behind Alannah Anderson.

Caolan McFadden of Loreto, Milford won silver in the senior boys 800m. The Cranford AC man, a multiple national gold medallist, finished in 1:53.54 with St Brendan's, Killarney student Oisin Lynch winning in 1:53.34.

There was silver, too, for McFadden's fellow Loreto, Milford scholar Michael Moore, who clocked 1:57.14 in the intermediate boys 800m, which was won by Woodbrook College's Bobby More in 1:55.70.

Eoin Boyle from St Columba's Comprehensive in Glenties took silver in the senior boys high jump as the Tir Chonaill AC man went over the bar at 1.85m.

Abbey VS's Jamie Kennedy took bronze in the senior boys triple jump, going to 12.85m, while Magh Ene's Caolan Gilbride clocked 4:38.42 for bronze in the intermediate boys 1500m steeplechase.

Clodagh Gallagher of Loreto, Letterkenny was third in the minor girls high jump, clearing 1.56m, while Michael Donaghey of St Columba's College, Stranorlar went 2:03.94 for third in the junior boys 800m.

There was also a bronze for Finn Valley AC and Omagh CBS's Blaine Lynch, whose 48.56m throw was enough for third in the senior javelin.

Also key for the Loreto tally were the intermediate girls 4x100m relay team who finished third in 50.08 seconds. Katie Elliott, Emma Bonar, Maeve Doherty and Erin Friel teamed up for a fine bronze medal.

The Loreto, Letterkenny intermediate points were aided by a fourth-place finish for Bonar over 800m and a fifth for Elliott in the high jump, while Leah O'Hara finished sixth in the 1200m walk to bag points for the junior team.