The cross country club met as usual this year every Monday and Thursday afternoons. We had over 50 attending most weeks attending, when we did a variety of training sessions, ranging from speed work, through to hill sprints and endurance runs. A lot of chatting also too place too! It was pleasing to see a good number of Year 8 pupils coming along and enjoying the fun.

The NEBSSAs returned this year and took place at Ballyclare Six Mile Water Park in November. Attendance was exceptional, with more schools than normal taking part. Ballymena Academy had runners in most of the races. Notable performances came from Naomi McClelland, 2nd in the Year 9 girls race, Emily Hilditch and Lucy Cumberland who were 1st and 3rd respectively in the Year 10 girls race, and Katie Hilditch, 5th in the Senior girls race. Ryan Black was 6th in the Year 8 Boys race, James Kerr and Ryan Millar were 4th and 10th respectively in the Year 10 race, and Luke McClelland was 6th in the Senior boys race. The Senior girls came 3rd overall in the competition.

January saw the Districts event take place, where Ballymena Academy performed very well. No less than 14 of our runners qualified to compete at the Ulster Cross Country championships in Mallusk in February. Our Minor girls team came 2nd overall, with Naomi McClelland 2nd, Darcy Henry-McCool 21st, Sloan Park 31st, Megan McCartney 32nd and Grace Kennedy 59th. The Junior team were also 2nd, led home by Emily Hilditch 3rd, Annabel Mulvany 21st, Lucy Cumberland 24th, Eva Oliver 61st and Alannah-May Kehoe 62nd. In the Mini Boys race Ryan Black came an excellent 6th place. Our Minor boys team ran well with Elliott Holmes and Mason McNeill finishing 4th and 8th respectively. At the Ulsters both teams ran well but were unable to achieve top 3 places. Individually however we did see two of our runners excel, with Elliott Holmes coming 5th and Naomi McClelland coming 9th in Ulster. This qualified them to travel to Galway in March for the All Ireland Cross Country championships. At this event Naomi had an outstanding run and came 24th overall in her race. Elliott also ran well and was placed 41st. Both runners enjoyed the experience of competing against the very best in Ireland.