Brunel’s Rebecca Murray and Southampton’s Alex Teuten win Gold at the largest ever BUCS Cross-Country Championships at Graves Park in Sheffield.
St Mary’s took the top place in the Men’s Long and Short Team races.
Conditions were cool and dry but the course was wet from heavy rain overnight. Thick mud, hills and jumps provided technical challenges to the 1991 athletes across three races.
Murray was in a fierce battle with the South of England champion, Emily Hosker-Thornhill and the 2014 under-20 European XC championships silver medalist, Jessica Judd during the first half of the race before opening a 10 metre gap.
The Brunel University athlete eventually took the title by around 50 metres from Hosker-Thornhill who finished second and Judd who finished third.
Talking to Athletics Weekly, Murray said: “It was really nice to win on my fourth year competing at BUCS. It was especially nice after finishing second last year behind Pippa Woolven.
“It would be great to defend my title next year on my final year in university.”
Loughborough took the team gold with St Mary’s in 6th and the University of London in 7th.
One off the bucket list
In the men’s race, St Mary’s Paulos Sufrafe and Ellis Cross of St Mary’s had to settle for the spoils as Southampton’s Alex Teuten won Gold by an 8-second margin.
Speaking to Athletics Weekly, Teuten said “A win at BUCS is something that has been on my bucket list in terms of achievements. This was one of the better courses that I have competed on in six years of trying to win this title.”
Cross and Sufrafe did enough to clinch team Gold for St Mary’s with the help of Petros Sufrafe and Jack Rowe.
Women’s Team Top 10
| Position | Team |
| 1 | Loughborough University |
| 2 | University of Birmingham |
| 3 | University of Edinburgh |
| 4 | University of Leeds |
| 5 | Loughborough University 2 |
| 6 | St Marys University |
| 7 | University of London |
| 8 | University of Birmingham 2 |
| 9 | Brunel University |
| 10 | University of Cambridge |
Men’s Team Top 10
| Position | Team |
| 1 | St Marys University |
| 2 | Loughborough University |
| 3 | University of Cambridge |
| 4 | Oxford University |
| 5 | University of Nottingham |
| 6 | University of Sheffield |
| 7 | University of Leeds |
| 8 | University of Edinburgh |
| 9 | Durham University |
| 10 | Leeds Beckett University |
