TYNEDALE schoolchildren aim to make an impression as they represent Northumberland at the North-East Inter-Counties Schools Cross-Country Championships.

The district has many qualifiers for the regional round at Cleveland on Saturday, some great displays across all age categories just seeing the district miss out on a second successive team title.

The district‘s best hope of a medal lies with Hexham‘s Queen Elizabeth High pupil Max Pearson who goes into the event as Northumberland champion.

He is looking to maintain his excellent form which has seen him crowned Scottish and Northern champion at U17 1500m events in the past month.

Max is joined by many QE schoolmates in the intermediate race with Alex Wood (third), Chris Jackson (sixth), Cameron Gray (seventh), Nick Ryan (11th) and Robbie Langford (16th) also making it through.

Queen Elizabeth will be well represented with Hannah Pinkney, who medalled with third in the counties, expected to be high up in the field in the senior girls race.

Close friend Ellen Rickets was third in the intermediate section, and qualified alongside QE’s Arabella Chicken who finished 11th.

There will be five Tynedale junior girls on show with Olivia Stewart, of Hexham Middle, (fourth), Ponteland High School’s Chloe Wellings (sixth), Roisin Lally, of St Joseph’s Middle, (eighth), Bethan Nitsch, of Queen Elizabeth, (11th) and Jasmine Couchman, of Prudhoe High, (16th) impressing at the Northumberland event.

Ponteland High’s Jamie Styles (sixth), Corbridge Middle‘s Joseph Grey (eighth) and Luke Shears, of Prudhoe High (12th) made it through in the junior boys’ category.

Again, Tynedale will enjoy a good turn out in the minors boys‘ race with Ponteland Middle representatives B. Foggin (third) and I. Narii (eighth), Steven Clark, of Hexham Middle (seventh) and St Joseph’s Middle‘s Phillipe King-Lewis (13th) into the inter-counties.

In the girls’ race, Olivia Milburn, of Hexham Middle, was just outside the medals in fourth, and Emily Allison, of Ponteland Middle, was eighth.