The weather was fickle for our June meet, being hot and sunny for setup before drenching us during registration and forcing a delay in starting the events. But everyone hung out with good cheer, the rain eventually passed, and we were able to hold the entire meet, with 109 runners completing 189 events. Full results are available on the FLRC website, and we have hundreds of meet photos in our public album from Tammy Walsky and Ruth Sproul—contribute yours too!

We kicked the meet off with nine heats of the 100m, culminating in Kyren Young’s win in 11.11 seconds, just nipping Aidan Tierney’s 11.23 and Dylan Sedorus’s 11.41. 12-year-old Selena Rollins of the SOAR Running Club took the win for the women in 14.26, just edging her 12-year-old sister Serenity Rollins in 14.28.

Our next event went from short to long, with 27 runners across three heats of the 1600m. After a slightly slow start, Seth Bywater took control of the race and ran unchallenged for the win in 4:45, though second and third came down to a sprint where Adrian Haws snuck ahead of Patrick Milano by 3 tenths of a second: 4:51 to 4:52. Liz Hartman ran a strong PR-tying 5:48 to place first for the women, followed by Kylee O’Hara in 6:15 and Kathleen Sullivan in 6:23.

We focused more on sprints this month to provide more events for kids, and the 200m gave Michael Durski the opportunity to block Kyren Young’s quest for a double sprint win. Durski ran 22.42 for the win, just ahead of Young’s 23.77, with Tristin Weeks of the Groton Project third in 24.30. The Groton Project fared better on the women’s side, with Matty Lucey laying down a 27.43 ahead of Kathleen Sullivan’s 30.65 and Selena Rollins’s 31.08 for SOAR.

In the final individual running event of the day, the 400m, Carter Naginey of the Groton Project enjoyed a commanding win in 52.73, followed by David Patterson in 55.65 and Groton teammate Ross Bush in 56.04. Running her first 400m since high school, Ronke Ilegbusi surprised everyone—including herself—by winning the women’s 400m in a blazing 64.72. Grad student and former Cornell runner Kate McCormick, who coached our Tuesday night kids workouts all winter in Barton, took second in 69.39, with Liz Hartman third in 74.31. 

Throughout the meet, Brett Shelton of the SOAR managed the long jump, with 24 athletes completing a jump. David Patterson hit the winning distance‚ 18 feet, 5 inches, on his first jump, and second-place Ross Bush came close on his second, leaping 18 feet. Third place went to Matthew Funicelli with a 17-foot, 7-inch jump. SOAR’s Selena Rollins claimed her second win for the day with a 10-foot, 1-inch jump, just in front of teammate Vanessa Topielec, who jumped 10 feet. Rasa Warren took third for the women, jumping 9 feet, 5 inches.

For the first time I can remember, we featured three throwing events, the shot put, discus, and TurboJav (a short, soft-tipped javelin), courtesy of Steve Wagner of SOAR and volunteers coordinated by Scott Weeks of the Groton Project. Wet conditions reduced participation, but Matthew Funicelli topped both the shot put with a toss of 51 feet, 5 inches (16-pound shot) and the discus with a throw up 146 feet, 5 inches (2-kilogram discus). Collin Karl was second in both with a shot put of 41 feet, 4 inches and a discus throw of 96 feet, 6 inches. Janice Carter of the Groton Project took the discus win for women with an 86-foot throw (1-kilogram discus), and she was second in the shot put with a 23-foot, 4-inch throw (8-pound shot), just behind winner and teammate Jennifer Jones, who threw 25 feet, 7 inches, also with an 8-pound shot. In the TurboJav, Travis Durfee distinguished himself with a 75-foot, 3-inch throw (450-gram TurboJav), just ahead of Benson Patterson’s 74-foot, 1-inch throw. 11-year-old Molly Doran of SOAR was the top woman with a throw of 28 feet (450-gram TurboJav), beating out 9-year-old Isla Durfee, who threw 24 feet, 4 inches with a 300-gram TurboJav.

The night’s final event was the 4x200m relay, where 13 teams ran across two heats. Five teams broke 2:00 this month, with the win going to an unattached team anchored by Aiden Tierney in 1:48, followed by a High Noon & Friends team in 1:49, a Groton Project team in 1:50, and a Watkins Glen team in 1:51.

Our volunteers deserve extra acclaim for their grace under pressure while dealing with the rain, wind, and delays. Carl Franck, Tonya Engst, Paula Kilts, and Shane Eversfield showed up early to set up. Carl served as head timer when he wasn’t running his heat of the 1600m. Tom Rishel was our starter, and Heather Cobb and Rich Bernstein managed the heats. Jesse Koenecke kept everything running smoothly in Meet Manager with help from Dave Kania, producing results in record time. Tonya Engst and Rebecca Lambert reprised their roles at the bib pickup table, recruited for the relays, and answered runner questions. Lansing track and XC star Trent Thibault was unflappable while recording bibs for the 1600m and relay, Alan Lockett handled backup timing, and Ammon Koenecke counted laps for the leaders. Our sprint timing team was Amy Dawson, Scott Dawson, Amalia Skilton, Ruth Sproul, Keith Eggleston, Ammon Koenecke, and Bob Swizdor. Thanks to you all!

FLRC’s next track event is Trackapalooza, our inaugural full-slate track invitational, coming up soon on July 22, and if you want to run, please register soon! If not, we need your help volunteering!

What an experience! I’ve directed and timed a lot of track meets and small races before, but never anything on the scale of Skunk Cabbage. It was enjoyably challenging to design, implement, and conduct what is effectively a choreographed performance by numerous volunteers. Together, we created a memorable event and enabled significant athletic achievements for hundreds of runners. Thank you, all!

Attendance continues to recover from the pandemic, with 704 registrants and 559 finishers—329 in the 10K and 230 in the half. That’s 30% higher than last year, when we couldn’t use Barton Hall, and public gatherings were still a little shaky.

Nevertheless, Skunk was still a big success, capped off by a new course record in the half marathon, set by Joe Whelan of Webster, NY, who ran a 1:06:51 to break Christian Thompson’s 2014 record by 45 seconds. That’s a 5:07 pace! Joe was running Skunk as a tune-up race for the Boston Marathon on April 17th, and we’ll be rooting for him in two weeks. Second place went to Ithaca’s Giovanni Grano in 1:08:52, with Sam Morse of Syracuse taking third in 1:09:07. 42-year-old Chip O’Hara of Auburn was the top masters (40-49) finisher in 1:13:24, and 58-year-old Mookey Kent of Conklin Forks ran a 1:31:37 to take home the top vets (50+) place.

In the women’s half marathon, Katie Rey of Syracuse won in 1:32:15, followed by sisters Jenny VanEtten (Ithaca) in 1:35:49 and Kati VanEtten (Palmyra) in 1:36:52. Their mother Karen VanEtten also came up from Montrose, PA to run the 10K, making it even more of a family affair. The masters and vets prizes went to local runners, with 45-year-old Melissa Weiner running 1:43:12 and 57-year-old Caitlin Loehr clocking an impressive 1:40:00.

In the 10K, Ithaca’s Chris Halsey dropped 19 seconds from his second place last year to win in 35:54, besting the 36:07 laid down by 19-year-old Cornell student Hunter Frias of Brooklyn. Ryuki Yamasaki of Ithaca took third in 36:32. 44-year-old Doug Turnbull of Ithaca ran a 40:28 to take home the masters prize, and 63-year-old Keith Eggleston of Groton was close behind him in 40:42 to win the vets prize.

In an amazing show of masters running, the top three places in the women’s 10K went to runners in their 40s. No one was surprised when 40-year-old Olympic Trials marathoner Chelsea Benson of Ithaca placed first for the women—and fourth overall—in a relaxed 36:50. Ithaca’s Liz Hartman, also 40, took advantage of some pacing help from MITHACAL MILERS workout companion Mark Walth to break her PR by over a minute, placing second in 42:32. Third place went to 46-year-old Debra Vertoske of Lancaster, NY in 45:07. The masters prize was won by 45-year-old Shannon Oakes of Horseheads for her 45:22, and 56-year-old Brenda Osovski of Candor took home the vets prize with a 47:34.

Full results are available on the FLRC site, and don’t miss RunSignup’s 10K and half marathon awards pages to see who took home the framed Skunkadelic album covers as their awards. Steve Gallow’s excellent photos will be available soon, but if you have any good ones, please upload them to our public album for all to enjoy, too (it’s easy from a phone or computer).

While there’s no room to thank every one of the 80+ volunteers who made Skunk possible, I want to call out my super volunteers. Marte Reps gets huge points for ordering and picking up the significant quantities of food that hundreds of runners consume, and Lauren Milano provided key setup and food replenishment coordination. Tonya Engst left no detail to chance—so many signs and sets of instructions!—while managing a large crew of registration and shirt-pickup volunteers. Tom Hartshorne coordinated the safety aspects of the race with multiple area agencies and set out all the cones to calm traffic in Ellis Hollow. Vinny Cappadora brought his years of race directing to bear in setting up and breaking down the course singlehandedly. Alan Lockett worked with the Tompkins County and Dryden transportation departments to close roads and provide barricades, and on race day, he trained course marshals. FLRC equipment manager Gary McCheyne schlepped all the gear we needed and managed the finish line audio. Finally, Joel Cisne was our utility infielder, helping connect with the Cornell Police, repainting mile markers, and setting up the finish line.

In terms of organizations, we appreciate the assistance we received from Cornell University Athletics, Cornell University Police, Dryden Ambulance, Girl Scout Troop 40855, the Ithaca Hash House Harriers, the Tompkins County Amateur Radio Association, the Tompkins County Dairy Princess Program, the Varna Volunteer Fire Company, Cornell Dairy, Gimme! Coffee, Ithaca Bakery, Ithaca Milk, Wegmans Food Markets, the Barton Hall facility staff, Finger Lakes Running Company, Happily Running, Leone Timing, Rentals To Go, and USA Racing. 

That’s a wrap for Skunk 2023, but if you’re looking for new inspiration for your spring and summer running, sign up for the FLRC Challenge. I’ve developed 10 new courses, and we’ll have our kickoff group run on April 15th.

Count us among those who aren’t in favor of changing the clocks twice yearly, as the switch to Daylight Saving Time cut into attendance. But we still had 4 teams and 122 runners who completed 314 events. Full results are on the FLRC website. For those taking photos at the meet, please share your images in our public album—we’d love to see what you captured!

With Barton Hall still quiet as people shuffled in, we kicked off the meet with two heats of the 3000m. In the second heat, Paul Zimmer took control right away, running a 9:15 for a comfortable win, though Lucas Baker worked hard to close the gap in second in 9:22. Our top woman was Liz Hartman, whose 11:55 was one place ahead of the second woman, Ashley Moscowitz, in 12:06.

The energy in the building picked up throughout the 60m, with 8 heats culminating in some seriously fast times. Braddock Salisbury took the win in 7.17 seconds, just a nose (almost literally) ahead of Ryan Haisler in 7.19 seconds and Aidan Tierney in 7.50 seconds. Tess Eisner was the fastest woman for the day, crossing in just 8.16 seconds, edging out Jalasia DeMember in 8.44 seconds and Megan Wong in 8.54 seconds.

After several exciting heats of the mile, the final question was if Paul Zimmer could double for the day. Although Ryan Lyppens led a tight pack for the first few laps, Zimmer soon gapped the group and pushed it in for the win in 4:37. Closing hard was Issac Mazzeo, one of our regulars at the Tuesday night MITHACAL MILERS workout, who finished in an impressive 4:38, with Lyppens third in 4:42, just edging out Alexander Simpson in the same time. Gretel Hillson-Schneider took the crown for the women in 5:36, with Liz Hartman second in 6:06. Speaking of doubling—props to 75-year-old triathlete Deb Bliss, who ran the mile in 9:14, 6 seconds faster than her time in January, and that was after doing the 3000m in 18:12.

Our final and most popular individual races were the 15 heats of the 200m, where Aidan Tierney avenged his third place in the 60m by breaking the tape in the 200m in 24.29, edging out Ryan Haisler’s 24.57 and Ryan Lyppen’s 24.66. Mattison Lucey of the Groton Project continued her dominance of the women’s 200m with her third win of the season and fastest time: 27.58, almost a full second in front of her January time. Second place went to Gretchen Hulsey in 32.02.

Throughout the meet, Brett Shelton and Steve Wagner of the SOAR Running Club managed the high jump and long jump. Those events proved popular again, with 23 in the high jump and 40 in the long jump. In the high jump, Hunter Heyden cleared 6 feet for the win—the same height as February’s winning jump—with Braddock Salisbury and Hicham Oulida tying for second with jumps of 4 feet, 8 inches. Gretchen Hulsey was the top woman with a jump of 4 feet, 4 inches, and Hadley Murray of SOAR was second with 4 feet. In the long jump, Noah Bosket leaped 16 feet for the win. Second place was also the first woman, with Megan Wong jumping 14 feet, 11 inches. Third (and second for the men) went to Camden Hulsey in 14 feet, 3 inches, with Maren Golden (second woman and fourth overall) notching an impressive first try at the event by leaping 13 feet 5 inches.

The final event of the day was the 4x200m relay, where 17 teams ran across three heats. Four teams broke 2:00 this month, with the win going to the ad-hoc Not Fast, Just Furious in 1:46, followed by a Cornell team in 1:47, an unattached team in 1:55, and the ad-hoc 😃 TC B team in 1:56 (who says emoji can’t run?).

As always, the meet was made possible by the highly amiable and capable efforts of 25 dedicated members of our track volunteer team—an embarrassment of riches! Gill Haines-Sharp showed up early to help us set up. Carl Franck once again served as head timer and master of the PA system, with Josh Brockner stepping in as head timer later in the meet, David Rossiter did a bang-up job as starter (sorry!), and Patrick Boyle and Heather Cobb kept everyone lining up on schedule. Jesse Koenecke and Laurel Gilmer were speed demons with Meet Manager, producing results in record time. Tonya Engst and Rebecca Lambert reprised their roles at the bib pickup table, recruited for the relays, and answered runner questions (before Tonya ran her season best in the mile). Moss Dengler was unflappable while recording bibs for the longer races with help from Sandy Gregorich, Katie Gannon handled backup timing and provided enthusiastic cheering, and Tom Rishel counted laps for the leaders. Our sprint timing team was Aeron Jauquet, Crosby Woods, Bob Swizdor, IHS students Jesse and Andrew, plus others filling in from other jobs. Once again, Bethany Schiller assisted Brett Shelton with the long jump, and Elodie Fey helped Steve Wagner with the high jump. Special thanks to Mickie Sanders-Jauquet for bringing FLRC clothing to sell and promoting FLRC’s philanthropic efforts with local coaches.

That’s a wrap of the indoor track season! Huge thanks to Cornell University and specifically Cornell Athletics for allowing FLRC to use the Barton Hall track and the high jump and long jump equipment. Cornell’s commitment to helping the community is extremely welcome and well beyond the norm among US educational institutions from the stories we hear.

FLRC’s next event is the Skunk Cabbage Classic 10K and Half Marathon coming up soon on April 2nd, and if you want to run, please register soon. If not, we need your help volunteering! Our next outdoor track meet will take place on June 27th, and we’re looking forward to our first outdoor track invitational, called Trackapalooza, on July 22nd.

Thanks to excellent work by old and new volunteers alike, our first indoor meet since 2020 went off well. We hosted 134 runners, including 7 teams, who completed a total of 280 individual efforts. Full results are on the FLRC website, along with fabulous professional photos from Jamie Love. (The pictures below are representative of each event but don’t necessarily show the people mentioned.)

After a little behind-the-scenes stress caused by our meet management software crashing whenever a particular USB-C hub was attached, we kicked off the meet with three heats of the 3000m. The final heat belonged to 2022 Skunk Cabbage half-marathon champion Henry Williams, who cruised to the win in 8:59 (4:49 mile pace), with Nick Ryan hanging on gamely to finish second in a still-strong 9:40. The women’s race was even more of a blowout with Stephanie Bitcon running an impressive 10:12 that was good for fourth overall, well ahead of the strong trail and cross-country runner Donna Langerfeld in 11:21.

Next up were the sprints, where numerous heats of the 60m were filled by runners in the 10-and-under set, particularly kids from the GIAC Navigators and the new Groton Project Track Club. Ultimately, the win went to Skylar Lagramada from Watkins Glen in 7.70 seconds, edging out Candor teammates Wyatt Stouffer (7.90) and Matt Fitch (7.92). Candor took the top two spots for the women, with Jess Wells winning in 9.01 seconds and Angelina Porras second in 9.62. 12-year-old Lauren Younkin of the SOAR Running Club was third in 9.78.

In the mile, our Hartshorne Masters Mile rabbits tested out their legs. First, Henry Williams showed that he had plenty of speed to pace the elite men by running 4:30 for the win not long after his 3000m victory. This time, his competition came from Lucas Baker, who crossed just 4 seconds later in 4:34. Then women’s elite rabbit Bella Burda ran a controlled 5:13 to prove that she’d be able to pace three-time Olympian Michelle Rohl to a W55 American record. Donna Langerfeld settled for second again in 5:46. Finally, a shout-out to our pack of older milers, with 63-year-old Laura Helmerick (8:14), 68-year-old Steven Clark (8:46), 65-year-old Joe Sullivan (8:59), 75-year-old Deb Bliss (9:20), and 74-year-old Jim Miner (9:34) all testing their legs in advance of running Hartshorne. Apart from Bliss, who was a handful of seconds slower, the others all ran significantly faster at Hartshorne, with Helmerick dropping 19 seconds, Clark 20 seconds, Sullivan 19 seconds, and Miner a whopping 77 seconds.

Our final individual event was the 200m, where Candor’s Matt Fitch avenged his third place in the 60m by nudging out Watkins Glen’s Skylar Lagramada by 3 hundredths of a second, 25.65 to 25.68. (We’ll pretend that our hand timing is accurate enough for that to be meaningful; in reality, it’s not.) However, the women’s side wasn’t even close, with Mattison Lucey of the Groton Project breaking the tape in a speedy 28.51. Nearly 4 seconds later, second place went to Candor’s Jess Wells in 32.45.

Throughout the entire meet, Brett Shelton and Steve Wagner of the SOAR Running Club managed the high and long jumps. This was the first time we’ve officially hosted field events at an FLRC meet, and both proved popular with kids, with 34 competing in the high jump and 43 in the long jump. In the high jump, Candor’s Ayasha Schweiger cleared 4 feet, 8 inches for the win, followed closely by her teammate Angelina Porras, who jumped 4 feet, 6 inches. In the long jump, Ross Bush of the Groton Project soared to the win by jumping 16 feet, 9.75 inches, with Patrick Milano (our third Hartshorne rabbit) leaping 12 feet, 9 inches for second.

The final event of the day was the 4x200m relay, where 16 teams ran across three heats. Five of the teams ran 2:00 or faster, with a team of Ithaca High runners running powerfully and employing blind handoffs for the win in 1:42. Second place went to Candor in 1:52, with a Watkins Glen-anchored team third in 1:55.

As always, the meet was made possible by the highly amiable and capable efforts of the dedicated track volunteer team. Carl Franck reprised his role from the summer as head timer, Tom Rishel once again served as starter, and Patrick Boyle and Laurel Gilmer stepped into the clerk of course role to keep everyone lining up on schedule. Jesse Koenecke managed Meet Manager with help from Dave Kania, who also timed and performed other essential tasks that cropped up. Tonya Engst and Amelia Kaufman held down the bib pickup table, recruited for the relays, and answered runner questions. Rich Bernstein recorded bibs for the longer races, Katie Gannon handled backup timing, and David Rossiter counted laps, and they all teamed with Bob Swizdor, Rebecca Lambert, Aeron Jauquet, and Bob Talda to time the sprints. Thanks to all, and extra appreciation to Steve Wagner and Brett Shelton of the SOAR Running Club for volunteering their expertise with the jumps!

See you again on February 19th and March 12th!