Finn Valley athlete Eimear McCarroll to make ‘Braves’ US move

Finn Valley AC athlete Eimear McCarroll heads to the United States on Monday to begin her latest, exciting chapter. 

The 19-year-old is taking up an athletics scholarship at Bradley University. 

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

During her time across the Atlantic, McCarroll, who hails from Eskra in Co Tyrone, will study dietetics and nutrition Stateside in the autumn to begin her time in Peoria, Illinois. 

McCarroll has set personal best marks over 3000m (10:06.26), 1500m (4:26.60), 800m (2:12.16) and a mile (4:54.80) this year while a 5000m PB of 18:14.88 was clocked in 2023. 

In January of this year, McCarroll clocked a new championship best performance to take gold in the National Indoor U20 1500m. 

At the subsequent National Senior Indoors, she was fifth in 4:30.53.  

In March, McCarroll was fourth at the Irish Schools Cross Country.  

This summer she was part of the Finn Valley AC senior team which won bronze at the National League. 

She finished third in a 1500m and helped the 4x400m relay team to a third-place finish.  

Her 3000m personal best was set at the National Senior Championships in Santry, where she finished fourth.  

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

McCarroll, who has completed her studies at Loreto Grammar School in Omagh, has shown ability on track, road and cross country.  

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, a Castlefin native then a student at the Letterkenny Regional Technical College, took up a scholarship opportunity at Arizona University. 

She will follow the footsteps of the likes of Sarah Bradley, Sarah Collins, Dempsey McGuigan, Arlene Crossan, Shannon McLaughlin, Cassie Lagan and Oisin Ó Gailín who are among a large contingent from the club to have previously gone Stateside. 

Finn Valley AC’s Flanagan twins, Eilish and Roisin, competed successfully while at Adams State University.