Published by the DAILY
RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey
On Sunday, December
21, 2014
New Jersey cross country runners have a ball at the national meet
New Jersey runners who made it to the US national cross
country club championships last Saturday came away with mud on their spikes,
smiles on their faces and new found appreciation for cross country racing. The meet, with a record number of runners,
was held at Lehigh University in Bethlehem Pennsylvania under overcast
skies. The course was a mix of solid
footing and gooey mud, around corn fields and open space, up hills and down
- a classic cross country course.
First on the schedule was the masters women’s 6km at 10:30
a.m. Over two hundred and fifty women
age 40 plus toed the line when the starter’s pistol sent them off. Jennifer Found of Hopewell, running in the
W40 division was the first New Jersey woman to finish. Her time of 22:50 put her in 12th
place overall.
Local
teams were well represented with the Garmin W50 team picking up a bronze
medal. Mary Christian of Flanders was
the first woman on the team to finish (24:41) with Susan Kinsella of Millington
next in 24:50 and Janice Morra of Morristown third in 27:07.
Christian said that she had
not been part of a cross country team competition since college and she really
enjoyed it, along with wearing spikes for the first time in 30 years.
“It was great for New Jersey
teams to have the meet so close to home! Overall, except for a few muddy spots,
I thought the course conditions were good,” said Christian.
Other
local teams were the Do Run Running team that finished 16th in the
W50 division, the Morris County Striders W50 that finished 21st and
the Rose City Runners that finished 6th in the W60 division. Although the Club is not local the Adidas
Garden State Track Club W40 team finished in an impressive fourth place in
their division.
Going into the masters men’s race, the
never-shy Frieder twins, Elliott of Montville and Jonathan of Hartsdale, NY, predicted
they would have the best men's 40+ team in NJ. The twins and their Pearl Izumi teammates
backed that up with a strong showing at the meet.
In the largest and deepest masters
field ever assembled, the team finished a solid fourth out of forty teams. They finished ahead of perennial powers such
as the Asics Aggies Running Club and the Baltimore Washington Athletic Club,
which had edged them out of second place at last year's National 5km Cross
Country Championship held in Flemington, New Jersey.
Local M40 teams included the Garmin
racing team that finished in 23rd place, hampered by the loss of key
runner Gary Rosenberg of Morristown who was a late scratch. Bill Bosmann of Rockaway, who at age 64 was
meant to be the back-up man, became the fifth scoring member of the team. The Do Run Runners placed 30th and
the Morris County Striders placed 39th.
No local clubs had an M50 team. Although Brian Crowley of Hillsborough ran on
the Garmin 40 team, he placed third in the M50 division with his 34:20.16; an age graded 89.41%.
Reno Stirrat of Rockaway placed
second in the M60 division with a 38:50.54 which helped his Shore Athletic Club
team to place fourth in their division. The
Shore’s M70 team took first in that division with the help of second place
Przemysla Nowicki who finished in 48:58.62, and third place Ed Smith of
Mountain Lakes whose time was 49:58.98.
The Clifton Road Runners took home the bronze, and Clifton’s Matt
Lalumia placed second in the M75 division.
In the open women’s race
Haddonfield’s Erin Donohue finished in 20:32.14 for 30th
overall. Cheyenne Ogletree of Port
Reading, who had just been announced as the winner of the NBGP placed 86th
with her 21:35.11. Ogletree’s Adidas Garden State Track Club’s A team finished
13th place.
The club’s open men’s A team finished in 20th place in their
race. Another familiar face; Colt’s
Neck’s Craig Forys place fourth overall in 29:13.98.
Phil Coffin of
Bloomfield who races for the Fleet Feet Essex club offered his observations. He
came to cross country as an adult and finds it unusually rewarding he said, and
the national race especially so.
“Being part of a
national race is special, even when you know you are going to be part of the
back pack,” he said. “Seeing the huge
field in the men's masters race dash off the starting line -hundreds of runners
arrayed across the turf was spectacular.”
Coffin noted the
group support among the New Jersey runners.
With four races in the meet, racers could be spectators and cheerleaders
for three other races. He said he got a
little extra burst of adrenaline with each cheer from his teammates and that
wasn’t all.
“The other New Jersey teams were rooting for us as
well,” he said. “Even runners I did not know from Raritan Valley, Clifton and
Shore were yelling for us when they saw our Essex singlets. It may sound silly,
but there was some Jersey pride out there.”
“The cheers of my
teammates and others helped me finish as hard as I could, and that was a rush.
So what if I was 452nd,” said Coffin. “It was a great course, and I raced as hard
as I could with a throng of runners loving it as much as I did. You can't ask
for much more from a race.”
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