THE opening round of this season's East of Scotland Cross Country League was held at Stirling over the weekend.

Peebles athlete Sophie Collins produced a great run to finish sixth in the senior ladies race to help Edinburgh University team to third place.

Kate Jenkins led home the Gala Harriers charge in 26th.

Daryl Hastie crossed the line in 21st to help Gala Harriers men to 11th in the standings.

Rory Anderson was first home for Teviotdale Harriers in 45th.

Team Borders were defending two age-group titles at Saturday's races.

With a good few potential points scorers missing for various reasons - school holidays, illness, injury and other sports – it was also a challenge for Team Borders to field three runners in each age-group and avoid team penalty points.

There were top ten finishes for the Gala duo of Gregor Collins, 8th in the Under-13 Boys race over 2.4km, and Faisal Khursheed, 9th in the Under 17 Men’s race over 6km.

Moorfoot Esme Minto also looked to be heading for a top ten finish in the Under 13 girls race until a debilitating stitch brought her to a standstill with less than 200m to go.

Despite these notable performances, and also the welcome commitment and promising improvements from some of those previously confined to a support runner role, across the seven age-group races Team Borders has a bit of catching up to do if any podium places are to be secured this season. But as demonstrated last season by the successful Under-13 Boys team, a round one points deficit can be turned round.

Team Borders team placings were:

Under-11 Girls - 7th (Isla Paterson, Keira McGregor, Holly Hobbs)

Under-11 Boys - 12th (Angus Carlyle, Harris Ross, Cameron Carlyle)

Under-13 Girls - 7th (Christina McGorum, Madeline Collins, Megan Hobbs)

Under-13 Boys - 10th (Gregor Collins, Patrick Cannon, Daniel Ross)

Under-15 Girls/Under-17Women - 7th (Beth Hobbs, Zoe Pflug, Anna McGorum)

Under-15 Boys – 8th (Craig Angus, Lewis Tharme, Ben Reynolds)

Under-17 Men – 5th (Faisal Khursheed, Callum Tharme, Struan Brown)