BOLTON United Harriers continued to progress on the regional level with good showings at the Northern Cross Country Championships.

Frazer Jardine put an injury-plagued six months behind him at Blackburn’s Witton Park to lead home the Blue Vest contingent in 48mins 55secs for 62nd of the 719 field.

Karl Darcy finished in 90th place in 50:26 while Phil Marsden was less than a minute behind in 51:05 for 107th.

John Knowles (52:49) was 141st and Chris Povey (60:38) also competed.

After an excellent showing in the county championships at Leverhulme Park three weeks ago, Tommy Harrison retired due to injury, so the six counters required for a men’s team was one short.

It was unfortunate as the scoring, based on recent performances, would have likely yielded 12th position out of the 52 teams. Sale’s Charlie Hulson won in 43:16.

For the juniors, Rachel Bailey led the way in the under-17 class, clocking 22:24 for the 4.8K course.

Just two places behind in 65th of the 99 runners, Mercedes Mercer underlined her recent improvement (22:30).

Molly Philbin also had a fantastic outing for the u15s, with 19:33 for 4.2K (77th of 168).