Sunday, June 11, 2017

President's Cup Night Race with a twist

Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey
On Sunday, June 11, 2017



PRESIDENT’S CUP NIGHT RACE WITH A TWIST
It has often been a 5K championship race for open women and more often open men, but this year the President’s Cup Night Race, taking place in Millburn next Monday night, June 18th. has a real twist.  USATF teams will compete in a special coed division.   Most corporate coed teams count the top three on a huge team with the top three fastest runners, usually two men and one woman. 

These USATF NJ teams will score men and women equally.  They can declare four men, and four women.  These teams will count the top two men, and top two females combined times to determine the winners. 

The masters teams will be made up of the same configuration, four and four, but here’s where it will get fun.  The top two men and top two females will be selected by using the Performance Level Percentages age grading percentages of the runners, not their actual times.   The team captains are studying their members to see who would score the best using their PLP’s, not their times. 

Those teams will have a combination of ages with the club’s older runners as valuable as their younger counterparts.   For instance, Rockaway’s Reno Stirrat, 63, will certainly be on the Shore AC’s A team.  His wife Susan, 62, could be on the team as well. 

 Now that the Do Run Runners are running with the North Jersey Masters, who will bet against that club with Misa Tamura, 51 and Nora Cary, 62, on the A team.  The Garmin team should have Mary Christian of Flanders and Susan Kinsella of Millington, both in their fifties declared on the A team, along with Elena Rozhko, 44, of Morristown.   Terry Davidson, 45, of Randolph, and Gary Rosenberg, 46, of Morristown will be on the Garmin A team.

Other local clubs, like the Morris County Striders will use Bruce Langenkamp. 67, of Wharton on the team.  Beau and Gretchen Atwater of Bernardsville will be high scorers on the New Jersey Racing Project team.

It won’t end with the coed scoring.  The computer will also calculate the top three women and the top three men on the teams for a separate team division.   All this fun will give the President’s Cup Night Race a 700 point value for the New Balance grand prix, but the team scores will not be counted in the overall and team division grand prix scoring.

NEW MILFORD 5K ON SATURDAY
The whole weekend is packed with opportunities to compete.  Masters women will be heading to New Milford for the 5K state championship next Saturday, June 17.  This is the second year as a championship where in 2016 Roberta Groner of Randolph placed in the top ten with her 16:35 and Charlie Murphy of Philadelphia the overall winner in 15:32.

A lot can change in one year.  Last year Groner was racking up points for a perfect score in the New Jersey New Balance grand prix and this year she is affiliated with a New York club so no longer a member in New Jersey.

Last year the race was a championship for both masters men and masters women and this year the masters men will be having their championship at the Giralda Farms 5K in November.  Will it make a difference in the number of runners?  Last year 695 runners finished the race with 374 of them male.

TRACK AND FIELD NEXT WEEKEND
The weekend is crammed with other events, including the New Jersey USATF Track & Field Championship being held at the Peddie School in Hightstown.  The distance events, 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters will be held on Friday, June 16 and the shorter track distances on Saturday, June 17. 

The fields are really thin for these distance events.  In an effort to make them more attractive to roadies both have a 500 point value in the New Balance grand prix.  In reality though, only the winner can profit from this.  Imagine second place’s score in a ten person field.
#


Race Results can often be found at www.compuscore.com or at  www.bestrace.com 
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.

No comments:

Post a Comment