THE 2019 SPRING SEASON COMES TO AN END
15K TEAM RESULTS: IT WAS WINDY. COLD. AND SPARSELY ATTENDED. GSTC Racks Up 78 Points in First All-Division Championship of 2019
The Clinton Country 15k Run continues to be held in a tricky time of year. Just eleven days after Boston, the same weekend as the popular NJ Half & Marathon, and the same day as the USATF National Masters 10k Championships, it's simply an inconvenient time for NJ runners. The continued result: a small race and a small association contingency. With just 322 finishers this year, that makes it the smallest championship race on the schedule. For a point of reference, the Cherry Blossom 10k, April's open and masters women championship, had 1237 finishers. The 10k had twice as many women 40s teams (12 vs. 6) and almost doubled open women's teams (19 vs. 11).
Regardless, the GSTC won four divisions en route to racking up 78 points: open men, M50s, open women, and W40s.
Fabian Daza, in his GSTC debut, won the race in 50:00.94, as teammates Blake Brancato and Matt Eder helped Daza sweep the podium. Out of only ten scoring teams, the GSTC went 1st, 3rd, and 5th.
There were only six women teams, and Laura Cummings won the race in 56:10 to help the GSTC finish 1st. Shannon McKenna, Jess Byrnes, Kate Ashley, and Gabrielle Panepinto teamed up for the win- beating the second place team by 47 total minutes.
UNOFFICIAL APRIL TEAM SCORES (10K +15K) GSTC 128 Clifton 101 RVRR 80 SAC 67 Fleet Feet 63 Garmin 39
PRESIDENT'S CUP 5K: Open Men Crush It; Filipazzo Easily Wins Title After a long hiatus, the USATF-NJ 5k Men's Championships came back home to the President's Cup, long believed to be the best road race in New Jersey since the Midland Run folded in the 1990's. A unique staple in the running scene, it was always held at 8pm on the second Monday in June. Two big perks of the event: an eletric crowd that would come to watch and the cozy beer-garden party afterward.
The last time the "P-Cup" was a USATF-NJ 5k Men's Championship race was 2015; 23 complete open men's teams competed with 1242 overall finishers. Kyle Price won the race in 14:49 for, at the time, was the club road 5k record. In 2014, there were 30 scoring men's teams and 1243 finishers.
Since then, race management has been asked to change the day and time of the event. Hesitant, they moved it to a Sunday afternoon in late May in 2019; they were then awarded the team championship status for the first time in four years.
The result? 19 teams, 502 finishers, and slow times mired by an overwhelming heat.
The GSTC swept the first seven places: Nicolo Filipazzo (15:18), Matt Gillette (15:51), Kyle Price (15:56), Blake Brancato (16:08), Sean Donohue (16:09), Stephen Rathbun (16:24), and Matt Eder (16:27).
This helped the squad's teams finish 1-2-3-5, good for 36 team points (12+10+8+6). They would have finished 1-2-3-4-6, but one scoring team had two runners absent.
Hopefully all parties involved agree that keeping it as a Monday night June race is in the best interests of the NJ running community....just look at the data.
NEW MILFORD 5K: MASTERS MEN RUN THE TABLE; KNOWLES WINS MASTERS TITLE The masters men brought their A Game to the New Milford 5k. Despite not having the Frieder brothers and Sam Teigen taking two weeks off prior to the race, the M40s A and B teams averaged 17:04 and 18:15, respectively, to finish 1-3. Thanks to a big PR by newcomer Matt Leingang, the C team mustered a 20:57 average to finish 7th out of 13 teams.
Thom Knowles won the masters title in 16:37, followed by Teigen (16:44), Chuck Schneekloth (17:13), Dave Ferrugia (17:15), and Jason Timochko (17:33). Shawn Williams, a likely top-5 finisher, faded like Chuck's hairline to the 7th man position.
The 50s team dominated with an impressive 18:08 average. Mark Zamek, in his club debut, lead the charge (17:36) with teammates Rich Osifchin (17:56), John Hogan (17:59), John Montgomery (18:17), David Lacouture (18:53) just behind him.
The M60s team finished on the podium in third with newly minted 60s guy Gary Leaman (19:01) up front. Peter Auteri (21:38) and Fran Beideman (23:47) rounded out the scoring squad.
LAGER 5K: WOMEN TEAMS GO 1-3-4-7 The open women finished their season in a high note as twenty-three women raced at the USATF-NJ Open Women's 5k Championship. The result were four teams finishing 1-3-4-7, out of 21 scoring teams, with team averages of 18:27, 19:54, 20:34, and 22:30.
The squad was lead by Olympic Trials marathon qualifier Alexandra Niles; she ran 17:44 for 2nd overall. Emily Rosario (18:05) was the #2 runner who PRed by seven seconds while Hortencia Aliaga (18:14), Adrianne Speranza (19:00/PR), and Aimee Chegwidden were the A Team's top five.
Robyn Evangelist (18:42) cracked 19:00 to help the C team finish 4th, and Marianne Miller (20:41) and Gabrielle Panepinto (20:51) propelled the D Team to finish 7th.
The women hauled in 29 team points (12+8+6+3) in the event.
TRIATHLON ACTION Roberts, Zottoli Win AG Awards by Escaping Leah Roberts and Stephanie Zottoli had great triathlon performances this spring. Steph was 3rd in her AG in the Escape the Cape Triathlon, requiring athletes to jump off the Cape May Ferry. Her time of 2:31:35 for the Olympic distance finished her 21st overall.
Leah was 2nd in her AG and fourth amateur female at the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. In a race with unique distances and challenges, including swimming from Alcatraz, running a mile through sand, and biking San Francisco's hilly roads, she finished in 2:37:59.
MATEESCU QUALIFIES FOR OLYMPIC TRIALS Niky Mateescu executed a perfect race at Grandma's Marathon over the weekend, finishing in 2:42:37 to punch her ticket to the Olympic Trials. Averaging 6:13 pace, she went out in 81:44 and rallied in the second half in 80:51. The trials standard is 2:45:00.
Adrianne Viola also took a crack at the standard, going out in 84:34. Although she PR'ed in an impressive 2:51:14, she did fall a few minutes shy of hitting the standard she will take one final shot at this fall.
Portugese Day 5k Trophies Collected GSTC'ers Fabian Daza and Heather McDermott won the Portugese Day 5k races, while others like David Olivera (16:50/PR), Jamie Hartop (16:57), Jaris Rousseau (17:34), and Norbert Kuter (20:06) joined in on the fun. Above, Heather appears to be reliving her college days.
TRAIL RACE ACTION Knowles, Montgomery, Lacouture Compete in Various Trail Races This Spring Thom Knowles won the North Face Endurance Challenge in MA, setting a masters course record in the process. He covered the challenging 12.59 mile course in 1:55:03. It appears that, by this picture, he won a Abercrombie tshirt in a Abercrombie bag.
More recently, John Montgomery and Dave Lacouture competed in the 2019 Summer Solstice 5 mile trail race last week. John was 6th overall- and first masters- in 38:19, while teammate Dave was 9th overall in 44:52.
SWAT LAST CHANCE PALEST RELAY IN HISTORY WINS 4x400 They could sure use a suntan, but they sure crushed it at the Swarthmore Last Chance meet. Peter Girardi, Robert Garvey, James Bias, and Nate Wojick (l to r) teamed up to win the 4x400 in 3:15.98. That's 49.0 a runner! A few ticks off the club's best performances of 3:12 and 3:13 during the adidas Grand Prix days, it's still quite impressive for a cold, wet night in Pennsylvania.
There were lots of other athletes competing, but due to the cold rain, times were slow. And does it get any better than this group right here?!
PENN RELAYS: Men Finally Win 4x100 Gold Medal The Penn Relays Olympic Development races are the final frontier for the club. While often second of third, it's hard to beat teams that throw together all-star relays just for this meet itself. Thus, the club has never won the coveted Penn Relay watches for winning such an event....until this April.
After sitting through a 90-minute rain delay, the squad of Jovanni Parkinson, James Bias, Robert Moise, and Talyn Washington ran a 41.53 in a cold, late evening, nipping second place by .02. In fact, Washington got the baton two strides in second, but thundered home the final straightaway in a blazing anchor for the win.
The B Team was 5th (43.28) and the C Team was 7th (43.64) out of eighteen teams.
On Saturday, the GSTC finished 3rd, 6th, and 7th in the Olympic Development 4x400 field.
RIDER INVITE TEIGEN BREAKS 16:00; JOVANNI WINS 200M; GORMAN 2ND IN 1500M The outdoor track season kicked off with the Rider Invitational in April, and several had big performances. Some of those included Kelly Gorman finishing second in the 1500m, Jovanni Parkinson winning the 200m, and masters Sam Teigen breaking 16:00 for the first time in 15:59.53. The men's 4x400 also crushed the field with a 3:15.48, with anchor Peter Girardi earlier winning the 400IH in 52.23.
Mooney Medals in Masters Meets Lee Mooney continued his fine spring season on the masters track scene. In that last three meets, he finished 3rd at the USATF East Region, 1st in the USATF Mid-Atlantic, and 1st at the USATF-NJ Championships. Just look at him showing off those shoulder muscles in this picture!
GSTC HALF MILERS REVEAL THEIR SUMMER TINDER PROFILE PIC "We're going for the sporty, inclusive, curious, down-for-whatever, but..." Ricky stated, "ready for an adventure look."
LOCAL MAN RUINS FAMILY COUCH FOR IG STORY ABOUT RAINY RUN
AFTER A SIX MONTH COMEBACK, PARISEN RACES AND WINS A DONUT IN A BOX
PARISEN'S TEAMMATE WONDERS WHY HE WOULD DO ALL OF THAT FOR JUST A PATHETIC DONUT
Teigen, Masters Superstar, Has Some Candy in His Van He Wants to Share with You
FRIEDER TWINS HAVE SUMMER PLANS THAT ABSOLUTELY CRUSH YOURS "Palm trees. 5 star hotels. Egyptian cotton slippers. Luxury buffets. Black ties events. Bamboo sheets. And you're going to Manasquan for a day trip? Also, you only age-grade 78% for a 5k? It's no wonder you've never heard of Egyptian cotton slippers." Memes of the Month
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