Published by the DAILY
RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey
On Sunday, April 28,
2013
Copyright, Madeline
Bost, 2013
ALL
STAR MASTERS TEAMS AT OUR HOUSE FIVE MILE
How
often does a team captain get to put together an all star team? USATF rules do not allow them, except as
exhibition teams at some track meets.
Even when allowed, they must be created within an age division; M40,
M50, for instance. But look what is
happening at the Our House Five Miler next Sunday in Summit.
The
race was not awarded a championship in 2013 and race director Mark Zenobia was
looking for a draw outside of championship status. His organizing committee said it had the
money, if he had a plan to draw in teams that might otherwise skip the race.
“I
asked myself how often do masters teams have a chance to fill their running
club coffers with a pretty big size money.” Said Zenobia, whose company On Your
Mark Productions still puts on several races in New Jersey despite Zenobias
attempts to phase out and enjoy retirement. “Six hundred for first, three
hundred for second and two hundred for third,” he said.
Add
it up and it is a sizeable stash of cash; eleven hundred for both men and
women’s teams for a total of twenty two hundred dollars.
But
Zenobia says that the team entries have only trickled in and that is
surprising. It may be that the team captains
do not realize that they must have all of their team members pre-registered and
their team declarations in ahead of time.
Captains usually have until the night before a race and they may have
missed the information that this team competition is different than in a USATF
New Jersey championship.
And
is it ever different. Has there ever
been an opportunity to put together an all star masters team? Not an M40, M50 or a M60 team, but a team
made up with the fastest and best masters runners in their club.
The
Ashenfelter 8K was the masters men and women’s championship in 2012. What would the teams have looked like if this
opportunity had been presented at that race?
The three strongest masters men clubs are Raritan Valley, Shore Athletic
Club and the Sneaker Factory. Shore has
some amazingly fast runners in the M50 and M60 divisions. Gravesande, Price
(Larry), Brody, Cawley and Gensib. Add
those five runners’ age grade percentages and it totals 415.28%.
Raritan
Valley would have had Lehman, Price (Roger), Van Langen, Jorrison and Carr; a
mix of all ages from Van Langen at 46 to Carr at 66. Between the five they totaled 395.49%.
Although the Shore team had two men above
85%PLP, they didn’t come out on top. The
Sneaker Factory had Gary Leaman of Hardwick with their highest scoring man at
just under 85%. It was the rest of the
line-up that put them in first. Rich
Burke of Morristown was next with 84.80%, John Hogan of Washington Township at
83.54%, Doug Clark of Mendham at 82.97% and John Sabatino of Morris Plains at
82.9% for a total of 418.27% making the Sneaker Factory the winning team by
three percentage points. Take home
$600.00 men.
Of
course they aren’t taking home any prize money from the Ashenfelter but this is
my fantasy so now let’s look at the women.
Masters women’s teams always score only three runners so this Our House
purse obligates a team to find more fast women.
On the other hand they have a wider age range to choose from – 40
through 80+.
So
how would it have gone if the women’s team scored the highest five age
graded? Well Raritan Valley would have
been in fifth place. Everyone’s
sweetheart Imme Dyson, 75, of Princeton finished in 46:37 and would have been
their top person with a score of 84.55%.
But their fifth place woman scored only 40.84% and that took them down
to fifth at 343.37%.
The
Garmin women who have been taking the top spots in the W40 division would not have
done as well with age grading. Debby
Hall of Westfield would have been their top scorer with 77.14% and all of the top five women scored in the
70 to 77 percentile range but it would
have given them only 366.45% for fourth.
So
who would have been third? The Morris
County Striders Wendy Locke of Boonton scored 80.98% and Linda Mirabella of
Rockaway was next with 80.34%. Rene
Rovtar of Basking Ridge was next with 71.60%, Eva Fisher of Boonton next at
68.71% and last was Joyce Morgan of Boonton with a 68.99%. The two women with above 80% helped to give
the team 370.62%.
The
Fleet Feet Essex Running club team would have been led off with by Catherine
Smith of Wayne with her 85.54%, Amanda King of Montclair scored 82.63, Karen
Merz of Montclair scored 74.83%, Nora
Candelera of North Bergen scored 74.11% and Andi Robik of North Bergen scored
64.67% for a team total of 381.78
Amy
Rappaport of Califon lead off the Sneaker Factory fantasy team with 83.41%,
Carolyn Blackmeister of Upper Montclair was next in 77.85%, Angie Dello of
Whippany was third with her 77.70%, Susan Olesky of Mendham in 77.19% and
Sharon Briden of Glen Ridge was fifth with 71.24%. So while only one of the Sneaker Factory
women scored above 80%, their fifth woman was above 71% so hand them their
check for scoring 387.39%.
Oh,
that’s right. This is my fantasy. The team captains need to make it their
reality next Sunday, but they have to act fast.
Race Director Zenobia has given the teams a new deadline. They have until noon on Tuesday, April 30th
to get their team declarations in.
All
of the team members must be preregistered by Tuesday a.m. to be on the team
roster. All registrations must be done
on-line and there is no service fee to do so.
Team captains need to contact Zenobia at mzrace@oymp.net or call 908-902-8587 for
instructions.
##
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.
