Sunday, November 27, 2016

Groner does it again, wins 8K championship



Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey
On Sunday, November 27, 2016

 

GRONER DOES IT AGAIN, WINS 8K CHAMPIONSHIP

Randolph’s Roberta Groner continued with her winning streak, taking first place woman in the Horace Ashenfelter 8 kilometer race on Thanksgiving morning.  Groner finished in 27:15 ahead of over 1,400 other women in the race that was the USATF state championship.   The race was won by Steven Flynn of Edison in 23:56 with Justin Scheid of Succasunna second in 24:35.

Scheid was the USATF New Jersey champion as Flynn is not a member of the association.
Groner’s win will give her a near perfect score of 4,699 in the New Balance grand prix series.

Local runners scored well with Elena Rozhko, 43, of Morristown finishing fifth woman in 29:58, and Mary Christian, 53, of Flanders seventh masters woman in 32:28.  Nora Cary, 61, of Morristown finished tenth masters woman in 33:19 and topped the age grading at 93.04%.

Jonathan Frieder, formerly of Randolph and now of Rye Brook NY was the top masters man with his time of 26:30.  That put him fourth in the age graded list, with Mark Zamek, 53, of Lavallette first with his 27:19 at 89.78%.  In one of the closest rivalries in NJ masters running, Gary Leaman, 57, of Hardwick bested Beau Atwater, 58, of Bernardsville 89.25% to 88.77%.  Leaman finished in 28:26 to Atwater’s 28:50.

The adidas Garden State Track Club put four open men’s teams ahead of the next scoring team, the Garmin runners.  Garmin took first in the M50 division, with the aGSTC second and North Jersey Masters third.  The places stayed the same in the M50 division

Reno Sirrat of Rockaway led his M60 Shore Athletic Club team to first in that division with his 32:08. 
 The Do Run Runners were fifth out of 16 teams.  The Morris County Striders M70 team took fourth in 
their division.
 
Although the Clifton Road Runners women’s team could rest on their laurels after clinching their divisions,
they came to play and took first in the Open women’s division, W50 and W60 and second in the W40 division. 
 Groner’s open women’s team, the NJ Racing Project, placed second in that division.  The Garmin women 
won the W40 division and placed third in the W50 division.
 
MORE THANKSGIVING DAY RACES AND FEWER RUNNERS
 
A dozen or more races drew runners from the top half of the state on Thursday.  New races may account for
 the drop in numbers for the established races.  The Flemington Turkey Trot was down about one hundred 
runners but still drew the largest group of runners in the state at 4,094.  The event attracts fast young runners 
who are not involved in the NJ grand prix races.  Matt McDonald of Atlanta won the race in 14:49 while
 Lauren Ciambruschini, just 16, of Lebanon was the first woman in 16:30.
 
Those were the fastest 5K times on Thursday.  You had to take a second look at the winning time for the
 Somerville Turkey Trot.  The winner of that race finished in 14:26, except that the course was deemed to
 be 2.8 miles instead of 3.1.  The Krogh’s 5K in Sparta was down almost 250 runners.   The 5K race in
 Morris Township was down 325 runners from last year.  Maybe some of those runners were at one of the
 two Chatham races.  The Trot the Manor 5K had 253 finishers.   The Chatham Turkey Trot 5K has not 
printed their results but the website claims close to 950 runners.
 
Tracking down the results from some of the races is a challenge and some timing companies just don’t print 
results.  It makes for a long day at the keyboard for yours truly.
 
SHONTS PULLED IT OFF
 
Dean Shonts, who was featured here two weeks ago finished the Great Swamp Devil 15K in 
1:45:35 in fulfillment of a pledge to run 15K to celebrate his 70th birthday.  Shont’s was heard 
to repeat several times in the course of the race, “Whose idea was this anyway?” 
 
Justin Scheid of Succasunna won the race in 49:51.  Scheid came to the race specifically to honor Shonts, 
whose long history in the sport dates back to his grade school days.
 
DECEMBER RACES THEMED TO THE HOLIDAY
 
There will be several interesting races in December, many themed to the Christmas Holiday, think Jingle Bells
 and Santas.  The Rutgers Big Chill in New Brunswick on Saturday, December 3rd, has an entry fee of one 
unwrapped gift valued at $15.00 or more.  Over five thousand have registered so far.  Eleven thousand ran in 
the race in 2015.  Check it out on Compuscore.com.  
 
  ##


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.
 

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