This winter thousands of athletes laced up their spikes for one of three USATF cross country championships. Competitors ranged from the smallest six-year-olds racing for the first time at the USATF National Junior Olympic Championships, to veterans in their 80’s competing at the USATF National Club Championships and even our elite athletes battling it out at the USA Championships.
USATF NATIONAL JUNIOR OLYMPICS MYRTLE BEACH, S.C., DEC. 10, 2011
Highlights of the day included the first ever running of the Sub- Bantam age group (8 and under) where Alex Ford (7:56.97) and Azaan Dawson (7:37.88) won the inaugural girls’ and boys’ titles. The most exciting finish of the day came in the Young Men’s race where Enrique Soto won the 5km race (15:44) by only one second over runner-up Luis Gonzales.
USATF NATIONAL CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS SEATTLE, WASH., DEC. 10, 2011
JONATHAN GREY Mike Scott
It’s all about the team at the club championships, where $30,000 was up for grabs for the best post-collegiate teams in the nation. The men of team McMillan Elite from Flagstaff, Ariz. defended their title, and the women of adidas/ Team Rogue Elite out of Austin, Texas won their first ever team title.
In the women’s masters division, it’s hard to pick the
most impressive performance, but it is not for a shortage of accomplishments.Is it 75-year-old Libby James running the 6 km race in under 30 minutes, or 42-year-old Chris Kimbrough crossing the line first in 22:12 at sub-six minute pace? Then there is also Kathryn Martin at age 60 who beat athletes nearly 20 years younger as she finished in 24:32.
The masters men’s competition saw 40-year-old Malcolm Campbell cross the line of the 10 km course first in 32:13. But then there are other performances that may be easy to overlook, like Mike Fenerty who crossed the line in 351st place at one hour and eleven seconds. Fenerty’s race wouldn’t turn heads, until you learn that he is 80-years-old and beat other men in his age group by more than half an hour.
USA CHAMPIONSHIPS ST. LOUIS, MO., FEB. 11, 2012
Bone-chilling temperatures and sloppy course conditions didn’t stop the elite athletes from lining up in St. Louis. While most cross country races are decided long before the finish line, in the women’s 8 km, Sara Hall and Molly Huddle raced stride-for- stride towards the finish as they clocked identical times of 26:51. It was only revealed through the photo finish that Hall won the race. While the men’s race was still close, it was nothing compared to the women’s as Bobby Mack made his move over the last kilometer and pulled away from his challengers to win on the 10 km course in 35:42.
In the junior races, Shannon Osika and Jace Lowry won the women’s 6 km and men’s 8 km respectively. Joanna Ziegler was the overall winner in the women’s masters 8 km race in 30:05, and Christian Cushing-Murry took first in the masters men’s race in 26:09.