CROSS COUNTRY RULED ON OCTOBER 23RD

Written by Madeline Bost

Originally published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey

On Sunday, October 30, 2011

Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2011

Deer Path Park in Readington saw a record number of cross country runners last Sunday [edit: October 23, 2011] for the USATF 5 kilometer championship for all divisions.  The recently formed team, the Garden State Track Club showed their strength and numbers with a win in the Open men division for their A team and second place for their B team.  Raritan Valley Road Runners took third but the start up club also took fourth and fifth.  The Sneaker Factory open men were sixth with the Morris County Striders taking eighth out of eleven teams. [results here]

Raritan Valley took top honors in the M40 division with Sneaker Factory second.  The North Jersey Masters were tops in the M50 division with local clubs all out of the top three.  The Rose City Runners were fifth and the Do Run Runners were sixth and the Striders seventh.  The Striders placed third in the M60 division.

The Open women’s division was won by the Running Company solely on the strength of their W40 squad.  The Sneaker Factory women took third, the Rose City team was sixth and the Striders were seventh.  Rose City had the best local team in the W40 division finishing in fourth place with the Striders placing sixth.

Sneaker Factory has been dominating the W50 division and they did it again at the cross country meet.  Rose City was second and the Striders took fourth.  It was all Morris County Striders in the W60 and W70 division taking in first in both divisions with no other club able to field teams.

This morning, weather and course conditions permitting, the teams will all be back for the 8 kilometer contest on the same grounds.  A lot more is up for grabs with the top open men and women’s teams earning that five hundred dollar travel stipend to Seattle in December for the national club championship cross country race.

NEW JERSEY MASTERS TEAMS HAD A GOOD DAY AT NATIONAL MEET

It can’t get any better than what the Clifton Road Runners and the Raritan Valley Road Runners teams experienced this past weekend.  Both teams, the Clifton club’s M70 team and the Raritan Valley club’s M60 team came home with gold from the USATF national cross country 5 kilometer championship in Fairpoint NY that was held on Saturday. [results here]

The Clifton team was unchallenged in their division with Hilary Peterlin of Oak Ridge leading his squad in with a time of 26:37.  Hard on his heels was James Leitz of Bayonne who finished just six seconds back in 26:43.  Joseph Saley of Teaneck was the next man to finish, in 28:32 with Al Swan of Clifton fourth man on the team in 31:17.

The Raritan Valley team was far from unchallenged with seven other teams to contend with in the M60 division.  Roger Price of Randolph led in the team in 20:27 placing him third in the M60 division.  Terry Delph who lives in Coopersburg PA was the second man on the team and his 21:39 gave him third place in the M65 division.  Carl Weaver of Morris Plains was third scoring member with his time of 22:35.  Doug Brown of East Brunswick was fourth on the team in 24:52.

ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHON THINS OUT THE NEW JERSEY RACES NEXT WEEKEND

Race directors shy away from holding races on the first weekend in November fearing a loss of runners thanks to the ING New York City Marathon.  But not all runners are marathoners, and not all marathoners run in New York each year.

Some race organizers recognize that and in the case of the Friend2Friend half marathon trail run next Sunday, the race is billed as “The perfect antidote to the N.Y.C. Marathon Lottery Blues.”    The race offers cash awards and trophies to the top three overall as well as medals in five year age divisions.  The location is at Kittatinny Valley State Park in Andover.

If a half marathon is not what a runner is looking for, then the Transitions Autumn Fest 5K in Hackettstown is another alternative on Sunday.  It has the added perk of being one of the last Category three 500 point New Balance grand prix races on the calendar.

Head east and south and catch the Not Quite Fall Classic four miler on Saturday in Cranford.  The race was postponed in August when Hurricane Irene blasted through.