Local Masters Runners had a good weekend in Boston

Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey

On Sunday, March 23, 2014

Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2014

 

LOCAL MASTERS RUNNERS HAD A GOOD WEEKEND IN BOSTON

 

New Jersey runners were well represented at the USA national masters indoor Track & Field championship at the Reggie Lewis arena in Boston over the past weekend, including several from the Morris area.

On Friday Gary Rosenberg of Morristown placed fourth in the 3,000 meters.  Rosenberg, who is the team captain for the Garmin racing team, located in Morristown, finished the race in 9:35.98.

In the M60, M65 combined division race Roger Price of Randolph was put into the spot of pace setter.  Setting an even pace, two runners in the M60 division and one M65 dropped in behind him while he led the way.  Lap after lap Price pulled the trio along behind him, knowing full well they were waiting to pounce and pounce they did.  At the bell lap the three moved out of their comfortable positions and went streaming by him.  When it was over, Price had placed second in his age division finishing in 11:20.75, and fifth overall.

The next day Price came back to compete in the Mile, not his favorite distance, but one he enjoys racing.  Without all the drama of the 3,000 meters he finished in fourth place with a time of 5:44.24.

Two men who both live in Morristown and both in the M55 division also competed in the Mile.  Joel Garrell, a Garmin team member finished eleventh in 5:20.49.  Anthony Boyadjis, who runs for the Sneaker Factory team finished in 6:25.79.

In one of the closest and most exciting races, Mark Williams of Columbia, formerly of Hopatcong, ran a near perfect race.  Williams sat in second place for four laps then going into the fifth lap he took over the lead.  Going into the bell lap two runners who had been trailing him threw in surges and Williams dropped to third.  It’s where he stayed until coming off the final turn.  Then heading for home he moved back up and the three men ran nearly stride for stride.  With ten meters to go Williams was in front and crossed the finish line in 4:42.50.  Second place finished fractions back in 4:42.81.

 On Sunday Williams ran another brilliant race in the 800 meters.  Williams sat in third place until the bell lap when he began to move up on the back stretch.  As they rounded the turn for home he went wide and with the crowd cheering the two men fought for the win.  This time the other runner hit the wire first in 1:59:09 with Williams timed at 1:59.24.  

Williams will be flying to Budapest next week to compete in the world masters championship.

Williams wasn’t the only runner to have a near photo finish.  In the M50 race Do Run runner Peter Kashulines, Jr. of Mountain Lakes fought for the win, just missing with his time of 2:08.69 to 2:08.43.  In that race Bill Zink of Wyckoff placed third in 2:10.50.

While the tracksters were running in Boston there was plenty of running going on in Morris County.  Over twelve hundred runners ran in the St. Patty’s 5K on Saturday in Morris Township.  Ben Clarke of Morristown won the race in 16:15   Danielle Czohla of Lafayette was the first woman to finish in 18:30.

Robert Skorupski of Rockaway was the first masters to finish with Debby Hall of Westfield the first masters woman in 21:01.

This column often carries a tag about where to find a schedule for races.  Runners looking for a calendar of USATF sanctioned events that are noted as being a New Balance Grand Prix race must remember to limit their search to the USATF website at www.usatfnj.org.  Other race calendar sites cannot be relied on for current grand prix information.

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