Club Cross Country National Meet
Under cloudy skies that promised more rain on an already rain soaked course, the national club cross country meet was held on Saturday at Lehigh University in Bethlehem PA. the meet was split into several age and gender divisions with over two thousand runners competing. It was a glorious day of racing despite the muddy conditions.
Over 220 New Jersey runners competed and some outstanding performances were recorded
Nora Cary, 64, placed third in her age division with her 26:09, beaten by two well-known and four years younger women. When the timers hit the age grading key, Cary was on top of the list at 90.7% PLP. No other masters woman scored over 90%. Cary competes mostly in New Jersey and is not well known outside the state. Race officials asked a New Jersey administrator if she was the real deal. The answer? “Yes, of course!” Congratulations to Cary for being number one in a national championship.
Top New Jersey finishers in the W40 division were Caoime Kilroy in 24:32, Dactilia Booth in 25:06 and Jessica Byrnes in 25:08.
Elena Rozhko and Hortencia Aliaga finished first in 23:21 and third in 23:45 respectively in the W45 division but were not eligible for the US title as neither is a US citizen. Joan To Taro finished in 25:50 and Diane DeOliveira in 26:03 and Gabrielle Panepinto in 26:18 as the top New Jersey women in the W45 division.
Kimberly Aspholm in 27:18, Christine Hill in 27:44 Sandi Kaspszyk were the top New Jersey W50 runners.
Two New Jersey women in addition to Cary finished in the top ten in the W60 division; Diane Rothman on the Shore Athletic team in 28:47 and Susan Olesky running on the Garmin Runners team in 29:26
Lorraine McPhillips running for the Raritan Valley Road Runners won the W65 division in 32:00, with two New Jersey women, Sandra Rinderer third in 34:40 and Catherine Akridge in fourth in 34:51. Participation falls off in the older age divisions in cross country. I placed second out of three in my W80 division.
The Garden State Track Club finished in 8th place in the W40 division and the Bella N Motion team finished in ninth out of 25 teams.
Bella N Motion was the top New Jersey team in the W50 division, placing 13th out of 25 teams. The Shore Athletic Club took fifth in the W60 division and Cary’s North Jersey Masters were sixth.
Masters Men 10 Km
Mark Zamek, 56, finished the 10 km in 36:07 to take second place in the M55 division. Zamek’s Garden State Track Club New Balance M50 team finished in fifth place. Zamek’s time age graded at 87.61%. Other high scoring men in the M55 division included Rich Byrne in 39:23 and Peter Kashulines, Jr. in 39:58. The Shore Athletic Club was 14th in the M50 division.
Atilla Sabahoglu was the top M40 New Jersey runner, finishing in 37:11. Shawn Williams in 37:52 and James McGovern, II in 38:05 were the next New Jersey M40 runners.
David Slavinski, 48, who ran unattached, placed seventh in age grading with his 86.85%. His time of 34:01 put him in second place in the M45 division and eighth overall. Todd Wily in 35:48 was the next New Jersey runner to finish, with Elliott and Jonathan Frieder next in 36:30 and 36:36, respectively.
In the M50 division Joseph Hegge who finished in 37:32, John Hogan in 39:07 and Rudi Trivigno in 39:16 were the top New Jersey runners.
The Garden State Track Club New Balance M40 A team finished in ninth place and the Shore Athletic Club placed 14th. The Garmin Runners finished in 23rd place Thirty-one M40 teams competed.
Masters Men 8Km
In the 8km M60 plus race Gary Leaman finished in 31:16 to place thirteenth in the M60 division. Other top New Jersey men in that division were Beau Atwater who finished in 32:15, Kevin Higgins in 32:04 and Kevin Dollard in 32:36 despite a slip and fall on one of the muddy turns.
In the M65 division Michael McHale was tenth in 34:26. Bill Trengove finished in 37:03 and Phil Coffin in 37:30.
The top three M70 New Jersey men were Roger Price, Harold Nolan and Richard Helmer in that order. In the M75 division the top three New Jersey men were Edward Leydon, Tony Fiory and John Nowatkowski.
The Clifton Road Runners with Roland Ratmeyer, James Leitz and Matt Lalumia placed first in the M80 team division.
Warren Seamans, better known as Arch, finished in 1:21:26 to take first place in the M85 division.
The top New Jersey M60 team was the Garmin Runners in tenth place followed by the Garden State team in 16th and the Shore club17th place. Forty-one M60 teams competed.
Open Women 6Km
The top New Jersey women in the open race were Laura Cummings in 22:33, Emily Rosario 22:34, and Nicole Burlinson in 22:47. All three women were on the Garden State team which finished in 20th place out of 47 teams.
The Raritan Valley Road Runners were that 47th place team that was made up of several masters age women, thus giving the club a team in both the masters women’s race and the open race.
Open Men 10Km
In the open men’s race New Jersey was at the top. Delbarton and University of Colorado standout Morgan Pearson won the race in 29:54 ahead of his Tinman Elite teammate Aaron Templeton who finished in 30:07. The Tinman Elite team finished first with 22 points over the Hoka New Jersey New York Track Club with 127 points for second place.
Eric Holt was the top scoring member of the Garden State Track Club New Balance. He finished in 23rd place with his time of 31:26. The Garden State A team finished in 22nd place with the Breakneck club in 27th out of 76 teams.
The top New Jersey men were Justin Scheid of the Shore Athletic Club who finished in 32:29, Andrew Berger running for Breakneck who finished in 33:24 and Kyle Price, Garden State in 33:37.
There were 617 finishers in the Open Men’s race, 406 in the Open Women’s race, 444 in the Masters Men 10Km race, 247 in the Masters Men 8Km, and 288 in the Masters women’s 6Km.
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