Published by the DAILY
RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey
On Sunday, June 21,
2015
PRICE WINS PRESIDENT’S CUP, ROCHDI SECOND
Monday night presented some challenges for runners trying to
reach Millburn for the President’s Cup Night Race 5K. Showers off and on all day began to move away
but it seemed like every major highway had traffic stalled because of the bad
weather. Having the police close the roads
of the course at 7:15 did not help the already frazzled runners who had to park
a good distance away and then hustle to the race location at Charlie Brown’s.
Although the race was the open men’s championship there were
plenty of masters men and women and fast open women as well. But the focus was on the young open men and
they promised a great fight for first place.
When the starting gun was fired seven or eight men
immediately took to the lead in a fast moving pack. Clearly it was going to be a tight race. Passing a spectator check point just over a
mile into the race, the pack was still tightly packed with Youssef Rochdi of
Rockaway appearing to be in the lead with Kyle Price of North Brunswick close
by with Justin Scheid of Sparta and Stephen Mennitt of Edison forming the
leading arrow in the pack.
At that point the racers head out to the Millburn High
School for the quick turnaround in the school’s front driveway. When the racers reappeared on Millburn Avenue
two of the four had separated from the others.
Rochdi and Price were running side-by-side as they headed up Millburn about
two and a half miles into the race. The
spectators on Essex Avenue eagerly began straining to see who would be the
first coming down the hill to the finish line.
It was the easily recognizable Price with his spiked Mohawk who came
flying toward them and the finish line. The
winner of the duel would be Price who finished in 14:49. Price had pulled away from Rochdi at the top
of the hill and he fell ten seconds back to finish in 14:59, with 2010 winner Scheid
third in 15:03. Stephen Mennitt of Edison
was fourth in 15:07 and Chris Heibell of Hillsborough rounded out the top five
with his 15:23.
Alyssa Douma of Millburn was the women’s winner in what may
have been a personal record time of 18:06.Second place was Erika Meling of
North Brunswick in 18:49. The top Morris
area woman was fifty year old Mary Christian of Flanders who finished tenth in
20:05.
As has become commonplace now in open competition the Adidas
Garden State Track Club dominated. Price
was on the B team that finished first and Rochdi was on the A team that was
second. The D team finished in third
place. Sandwiched in between the C team
that finished fifth was the Pearl Izumi Mid-Atlantic team that benefitted with
having Scheid leading the team in, followed by Elliott Frieder of Montville in
16:20 and Jonathan Frieder of Hartsdale NY in 16:25. Last scoring man on the team was Rich Burke
of Morristown in 16:56.
The Morristown based Garmin team finished in sixth place
with Mike Soroko of Kinnelon first to score in 16:03.
Next up and finishing up the championship spring season is
the Fitzgerald’s Lager Run 5K next Sunday evening in Glen Ridge. For the first time since it has been a
championship it is hosting the Masters Women.
SUNSET CLASSIC AND MORRIS COUNTRY STRIDERS RACES
Tradition has the Sunset Classic five mile race on a
Thursday in June. But don’t miss it, the
Bloomfield race is tomorrow night, Monday June 22nd. It’s not a bad move. Beginning with the Roxbury Community Benefit
5K each Monday night in June had a race.
Two of those races have dropped out, leaving just the Roxbury race and
the President’s Cup race. Putting the
Sunset Classic in one of those slots is a smart move. The race will start at 7:30 p.m. on Broad
Street with the finish on the track in Foley Field.
Another slight change in the calendar is the earlier date
for the first race of the Morris County Strider’s summer series cross country races. The first is this Tuesday night, June 23rd
at 7:00 p.m. at Johanson Field in Boonton.
The series will have two races in July, the 7th and the 21st
and one on August 4th.
##
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