Hartshorne Results and Recap

The 51st running of the Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile is now in the books! We had some great times and exciting races. No new records this year, but Robert Jackson of New Brunswick missed setting the Canadian 60-64 indoor mile record by just 0.59 seconds. We hope to have the videos of all the races posted next week, but in the meantime, you can check out the results here.

Before some quick race summaries, I’d like to thank the volunteers who made this event run so smoothly. Jim Miner and Megan Powers handled registration; Nancy Kleinrock and Herb Engman entered results; Joe Simpson was clerk-of-course; Bruce Roebal manned the lap counter and rang the bell; Steve Shaum called splits; Bert Bland, Sean Nicholson, Joel Cisne, and Aaron Proujansky kept college kids from wandering onto the track; Megan Powers and Tonya Engst held the finish tape for the elite races; Dan Hurley was the starter; and Peter Taylor did the announcing.

All of the elite races were ably paced by rabbits: Matthew Herbert for ME40s, Mik Kern for ME50s, Genna Hartung for WE40s, and Jullien Flynn for WE50s. It’s a surprisingly tough job, and they all did it with aplomb.

I’d also like to thank my assistant race directors, Tom Hartshorne and Charlie Fay. Without their help everything would have been immensely harder.

Finally, putting on an elite event like this is possible only with the help of our sponsors: Cayuga Medical Center, The Ainslie Reilly Group at Morgan Stanley, Bangs Ambulance, the Hartshorne Family, Sean Nicholson, Joe Daley, Ken Zeserson, Bill Quinlisk, Felder Track & Field, and a grant from the Community Foundation of Tompkins County’s Myrtle Dee Nash Memorial Fund.

Now, on to the races!

Men Elite 40s 

Mark Williams of Columbia, NJ led from the start and held off challenges from Dave Welsh of Haddon Twp., NJ (second) and Scott Weeks of Groton (third) to win in 4:31.81.

Women Elite 40s

Sascha Scott of Syracuse ran away from the field for her third-straight Hartshorne win in 4:59.05, less than half a second slower than last year’s winning time. Christy Peterson of North Wales, PA was second and Dianne DeOliveira of Brick, NJ was third.

Men Elite 50s

Kent Lemme of Pittsfield, MA defended his title from 2017 in 4:42.76, also about a half-second slower than his 2017 win. Second and third places repeated from 2017 as well, with Mike Nier of Rochester, NY taking second and Stuart Galloway of Fonthill, Ontario in third. Running in his first elite 50s race, Ithaca’s Alex Colvin came through in fourth, improving on last year’s time by 7 seconds.

Women Elite 50s

Running down with the elite 40s for more competition, Alisa Harvey wasn’t able to match her 2017 time but still won the division easily in 5:26.44. In the actual elite 50s race, Anne Shafer-Nolan of  McDonough, NY was first in 6:06.67, with Mary Swan of Jamesville, NY and 66-year-old Coreen Steinbach of Pompey, NY second and third.

Men Section 1

This race proved one of the most exciting of the day, with 44-year-old Scott Dawson of Trumansburg running off the shoulder of Groton’s Keith Eggleston (58) for most of the race before throwing down an impressive kick to win in 5:23.91. Eggleston was second in 5:31.32, and third place went to Jean-Luc Jannink of Ithaca, who also made up numerous places in the last lap.

Men Section 2

Another kick for the win came from Steve Vanek of Ithaca, 46, who blazed through his final lap to hit 5:58.88 and to beat 62-year-old Mark Rybinski of Manlius, NY and High Noon alum Rod Garratt of Santa Barbara, CA, 54. Ithaca native Caleb Rossiter, 66, was fourth in his 25th — and, he claims, last — Hartshorne Masters Mile.

Men Section 3

Ithaca newcomer Joel Leff, 67, and 64-year-old Ken Hodges, also of Ithaca, battled to the wire in this heat, with Leff out-leaning Hodges by 7 hundredths of a second in 6:25.85. (The race was timed by Leone Timing with fully automatic timing, so we really do have accuracy to the hundredths of a second). Third place went to Jack Salisbury of Tully, NY. Honorable mention to David Keifer (71) and Jim Miner (69), both of Dryden, who placed eighth and ninth, but were the oldest runners in the heat.

Men Section 4

71-year-old Joe Reynolds of Newfield, a fixture at FLRC races for decades, powered through 8 laps to win handily in 8:49.92. He beat Harland Bigelow of Lisle, 73, and John Saylor of Brooktondale, 71. But the most exciting part of this race was when 93-year-old Dixon Hemphill of Fairfax Station, VA, outkicked 89-year-old Richard Sullivan of Buffalo, NY in the final 60 meters.

Women Section 1

Kim Jackson of Cortland, 49, led the entire race, winning in 6:47.95, trailed closely the entire time by Newfield’s Christine Reynolds, 47. The next four places were decided in the final 100 meters, with Louise Mahar of Ithaca, in third, Amy Dawson of Trumansburg in fourth, Tonya Engst of Ithaca in fifth (separated by less than 2 seconds), and Lorrie Tily of Locke in sixth.

Women Section 2

Jane Leff of Ithaca, 67, running her first Hartshorne, ran away with this race, beating the Buffalo area Belle Watling team in 10:26.54. Sandy Balling of Tonawanda, NY (71) was second, Christa Maier of Williamsville, NY (77) was third, and at 83 years of age, Edna Hyer of South Wales, NY was fourth in her 22nd Hartshorne Masters Mile.

Congrats to all our winners, and thanks to everyone who came out to run. And if you showed up to watch, I hope you enjoyed the spectacle!

– Adam Engst, Race Director