Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris
County, New Jersey
On Sunday, Aug 31, 2014
To no one’s surprise the Garden State Track Club is leading
the USATF New Jersey club and team grand prix.
With squads that go far beyond A and B teams they dominate the open team
competition on both men and women’s divisions.
At the College Avenue Mile races in June, the club was able to put an H
team on the starting line and that team came up with four points to help with
their total count of 351 points.
No, the club has first sewed up, but that doesn’t detract
from the competition for the next spots.
Currently the Clifton Road Runners club is in second place with 227
points with the North Jersey Masters in third with 173. Fourth is held by the Do Run Runners club at
166 points with the Garmin team close at 164.
The Garmin open men’s team is the first non Garden State
Track Club team in that division, at fourth place. Open men have raced in five championships so
far, while the open women have raced in six.
The Garmin racers are in second in that division, after the GSTC women team
that is well ahead with 70 points to Garmin’s 46.
The Garmin clubs M40 team is in the lead with 36 points
while the Do Run Runners team is second with 30 points but the Clifton Road
Runners team is but one point back at 29.
By far the closest contest is in the M50 divisions. Clifton has the lead with 37 points but the
Do Run Runners and the Shore Athletic Club are only one point back – tied with
36 points. And they are only two points
ahead of the North Jersey Masters with 34 points.
The Shore club has a four point lead in the M60 division at
38 points to the North Jersey Masters 34 points. Clifton is in third with 19 points but the
Raritan Valley Road Runners are right behind with 18 points.
All of the masters men’s teams have the greater chance to
bring in points. They have raced in only
four championships out of the nine championships.
Still up for them is the 10K and 8K in November as well as
the 5km cross country on the 14th of September. All divisions race at the Liberty Waterfront
half marathon on the 21st and the 8km cross country on October 26. With those five still on their schedule any
team could make a huge move.
That is really still true for all of the clubs. While Garden State Track Club has a lock on
the Overall standings there is plenty of opportunity in all of the masters
divisions.
As was mentioned in this column last week, disqualifications
in some divisions in spring races have occurred. If a team has only the required number of
runners needed to score and one of them is dq’d the team is gone from that
race.
That can really hurt now that teams can no longer drop their
lowest scoring race in the team grand prix.
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A calendar of USATF sanctioned events can be found at www.usatfnj.org or at www.raceforum.com for running and tri and
biathlon events.
Contact Madeline Bost at madelinebost@verizon.net.
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