FLRC’s February Track Meet Showcases Fast Times and Numerous Teams

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Our second track meet of the 2019 season is in the books! Although mid-winter illnesses kept nearly 50 pre-registrants from running, we still had 224 finishers and 376 entries across our traditional 5 events, including some stellar times, particularly in the mile and 3000m.  Full results are now available.

Team attendance was up, thanks to collegiate club teams from Cornell, Ithaca College, Morrisville State, Syracuse University, and Columbia-Greene Community College. They joined the Ithaca College crew team and our regular youth groups: the Auburn Pulsars, GIAC Navigators, Team SOAR, and the Corning-Painted Post school teams.

We kicked things off with four heats of the 3000m, with Cornell grad student Sam Lagasse unleashing a ferocious kick in the final laps to win in 9:10, 11 seconds in front of Ryan Buzby and James Felice, who he’d been running with until the kick. Amrita Ramamurthy of the Cornell Running Club took the win for the women in 10:50, well ahead of Rylee Campeau’s second place in 12:08.

James Felice was only warming up in the 3000m, it turned out, as he posted a 2:02.4 in the 800m for the win, just .2 seconds ahead of Owen Juan. Elora Ferrie of Corning-Painted Post West ran an impressive 2:26.8 to take the women’s crown, just ahead of teammate Charlotte Nevins in 2:27.9, with 53-year-old Michelle Rohl placing third in 2:28.1.

It took 17 heats of the 200m to get to the fastest sprinters, with Conor O’Neill finishing first in 23.90 seconds, half a second ahead of Caden Bennett’s 24.46. In the women’s race, Charlie Slusser of Team SOAR came through in 28.99, beating Maddie Olson of Corning-Painted Post West, who ran a 30.45.

The mile was the marquee event of the day, and even though several top seeds weren’t able to run due to illness, all the runners in the fastest heat (of nine!) were seeded at 4:40 or faster. They didn’t disappoint, with only one person missing the seed slightly and Louis Greco laying down a 4:32 for the win. Oliver Rapp of the Cornell Running Club kicked hard, but slightly too late—he took second place in 4:33.

Finally, in the 4 by 400m relay, the Syracuse Running Club proved dominant, winning the relay by 20 seconds with a 4:14.

The meet ran smoothly despite an unusually large number of heat and seeding changes. Our new system for downloading finishing times directly from the Time Machine into the meet management software introduced some slight delays between heats of the longer races—that’s more a testament to how fast we had been before than anything else. Jullien Flynn was once again instrumental in managing all the entries, seeds, and results. Josh Brockner managed the timing with aplomb, and lots of people, including Ian Golden, timed the sprints. Tom Rishel worked through various issues with the pistol to start each heat. Bill Watson reprised his role as clerk-of-course swimmingly, with help from Bob Talda, Ellie Pell, and Jesse Koenecke. Tonya Engst and Jesse ran registration and bib pickup, with some late help from Casey Carlstrom. Adam Pacheck recorded finishers, with help from David Rossiter, and Ethan Pacheck’s video of the finish line helped clarify some tight finishes. Aaron Proujansky handled backup timing and lap counting, and he took over as head timer for the relays. Finally, special thanks to Bill Watson, Bob Talda, David Rossiter, Casey Carlstrom, Jesse Koenecke, and Gerrit Van Loon for help with early morning setup and afternoon teardown

We hope to see you at our final winter meet of 2019 on March 10th—you can sign up now!

Fun, Food, and Magic at Our Upcoming Annual Meeting

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While most FLRC events feature fun and food, this year’s annual meeting will also bring us internationally acclaimed magician Kozmo, along with door prizes and a raffle. So join us for what may be the top FLRC social event of the year on Sunday, March 3, from 5:00pm through 8:00pm at Celebrations.

Food will be a buffet dinner, and there will be awards for Volunteer of the Year and the Pebble Head, Stone Head, and Boulder Head trails series winners, as well as short reports on what the club has been up to.

The cost is $10 per person, and you can pay in advance with a credit card online or at the door with cash or check. No matter how you pay, your RSVP would be helpful to our event planners! To RSVP, visit this page—as you go through the confirmation page, you can sign up for only yourself, or you can add people to your party—this could be the perfect date night for two runners! You’ll be able to pay with a credit card or select “Pay at the door.”

FAQs:
Q. Will there be vegetarian options?
A. Yes.

Q. What about gluten-free, dairy, vegan, or marshmallow?
A. Unknown at this time, sorry.

Q. Any wine or beer?
A. There will be a cash bar.

Q. Did Kozmo ever perform at the Magic Castle in Los Angeles?
A. Yes!

Q. Where is Celebrations?
A. 2331 Slaterville Rd., Ithaca, New York 14850

Recap of the 2019 Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile

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I’m pleased to report that one of FLRC’s marquee events, the Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile, was once again a success, despite us having to move up both the meet and post-race banquet by 90 minutes to accommodate weather-related changes.

On Thursday before the Saturday race, we were told that the Cornell administration was considering closing the university early on Saturday due to the predicted snowstorm, and they required Cornell Track & Field to start the Upstate Challenge track meet at 11 AM instead of 1 PM. That in turn forced us to move the start of Hartshorne up by 90 minutes, and Charlie Fay, Tom Hartshorne, and I scrambled all day Thursday and Friday to alert runners, volunteers, and others to the new times. In the end, only about ten runners scratched from the race due to the weather, and only one didn’t see the scheduling email and missed her race.

So a huge thanks to Charlie, Tom, and the volunteers who made Hartshorne run so smoothly this year. Tonya Engst, Jim Miner, Carl Franck, and Bill Watson all arrived early to help set up, and Jim Miner and John Whitman continued on to manage the registration table, with Jim also running the race. Bill Watson also did a fabulous job as clerk-of-course, filling in for the snowbound Joe Simpson. Dan Hurley started all the races flawlessly, as usual. Bruce Roebal ran the lap counter and printed our results booklet in plenty of time for the banquet. Bob Dattola called splits for the runners. Megan Powers wrangled the results into the booklet with help from Kathleen Gibson. Sandy Gregorich and Shelly Marino donned evening gowns and tiaras to hold the finish tape for the elite races. Bert Bland, Sean Nicholson, Truck Rossiter, and Stacie Mann helped Tom monitor the track to keep the collegiate runners from accidentally interfering with our races. Our rabbits—Bailey Drewes (W50+), Mik Kern (M50+), and Adam Pacheck (M40)—helped the leaders of their races hit fast times. And of course, Steve Gallow once again took great photos.

As far as the races themselves, they were once again a treat to watch, and I tremendously enjoyed being able to cheer for all the runners during their races. The FLRC site now has sortable results, and the Leone Timing site has results with lap splits. Here’s a rundown:

Veteran Men & Women: In our first heat of the day, local runners ruled. Joe Reynolds ran an 8:15 to outpace Harland Bigelow in second at 8:49, and Jane Leff ran a 10:10 in only her second mile race ever (after last year’s Hartshorne), sneaking in 5 seconds ahead of Sandy Balling. 84-year-old Edna Hyer, who has been running Hartshorne for many years, came in fifth.

Women Section 1: While a certain amount of non-partisanship is required of a race director, I was overjoyed to watch Tonya Engst run a gloriously tactical race, tucking in behind her cross-country rival Collen Magnussen and 63-year-old Ivy Bell for 6 laps. Then Tonya kicked hard from 300m out, running a final lap that was 7 seconds faster than her average and beating Bell by 4 seconds and Magnussen by 9. Susan Stirrat and Christine Klein finished fourth and fifth, with local ultravet Deb Bliss running a solid 8:12 at age 71.

Men Section 3: This race was also filled with locals at the top. 68-year-old Joel Leff won it by 5 seconds in 6:28, but not before 65-year-old Ken Hodges gave him a run for his money. Phil Metzger was third, followed by the indomitable Jim Miner, who ran a 6:53 at age 70. A pair of 75-year-olds, Hal Lieberman and Vita Di Cesare, filled out the finisher ranks.

Men Section 2: 48-year-old Javier Martinez came down from Baldwinsville to win this race in 5:39, but a pair of Ithacans from our Tuesday night MITHACAL MILERS group, Bill Thibault and Steve Vanek, dueled it out for second and third, with Thibault unleashing a kick that brought him in just behind Martinez in 5:40, with Vanek through in 5:41. Talk about an exciting finish! Rich McCutcheon finished fourth, followed by GVH’s Tim McMullen, Takeshi Yamazaki (in town from New York City to watch his daughter run at the Cornell meet), High Noon’s Greg Green, GVH’s Mark Rybinski, ex-High Nooner Rod Garratt, Ric Bond, ex-High Nooner Rick Cleary, GVH’s Dave Bowen, Jack Salisbury, and 71-year-old Harold Nolan.

Men Section 1: In our final non-elite section, Bill Frawley came up from Philadelphia and ran away with the race to win in 5:14, outpacing High Noon’s Scott Dawson, who came through in 5:23. Scott Armstrong was fourth, followed by GVH’s Joe Mora, then Neal Coffey, High Noon’s Jean-Luc Jannink, Syracuse Track Club’s 60-year-old Tim Riccardi, Keith Davies, Robert Mozo, Keith Eggleston, and 64-year-old Reno Stirrat.

Women Elite 50+: Moving on to the elite races, national racewalking champion Michelle Rohl came up from Mansfield, PA to run this time, and won handily in 5:37 with rabbiting help from Bailey Drewes. Apart from Karyl Sargent, the rest of the race was made up of women from the elite Athena Track Club, with Lorraine Jasper in second, followed by Louise Kelley, Julie Pangburn, Sargent, Mary Swan, Betsy Stewart, and Coreen Steinbach. Although Steinbach wasn’t entirely happy with her 6:37, at age 67, she topped the age-graded percentage competition for all runners at the meet.

Men Elite 50+: Paced by rabbit Mik Kern, this section was a tight four-man race for most of the laps. In the end, though, a pair of runners from New Jersey, Peter Kashulines and Brian Crowley pulled away, with Crowley outkicking Kashulines for a 2-second win in 4:51—impressive at age 54. Ryan Mitchel snuck past PGXH race director Mike Nier by half a second for third in 4:57, followed by Canadian Stuart Galloway, High Noon’s Alex Colvin, GVH’s Dale Flanders, Dave Lee, Chuck Shields, 63-year-old Canadian Jerry Kooymans, 61-year-old David Westenberg, and Francis Burdett.

Women Elite 40: This race was once again a foregone conclusion with Syracuse’s Sascha Scott winning for her fourth year in a row—every year since she turned 40. Scott ran a 5:02 this year, followed by the Athena Track Club’s Christy Peterson in 5:20. In third was Dianne DeOliveira, then GVH’s Heather Webster, GVH’s Donna Langerfeld, running as a sub-master, and 50-year-old Felicia Bishop, running down from the W50+ section. And no, we couldn’t find anyone fast enough to rabbit Sascha Scott, who is one of the top runners in the world for her age group.

Men Elite 40: Mark Williams was looking to retain his crown in the final race of the day, but Brock Butler wasn’t having it. After rabbit Adam Pacheck took them out at a fast clip, Butler stayed behind Williams until the last couple of laps and then made his move, which Williams couldn’t counter. Butler ended up winning in 4:34, with Williams through 2 seconds later in 4:36. GVH’s Tim Reith was third, followed by Dan Courtney, who outleaned High Noon’s Brian Lazzaro by .08 seconds.

Finally, I’d like to thank the sponsors who make Hartshorne possible. It takes a lot of money to put on a national-level meet like this, with rabbits, a professional announcer, video of all the races (coming soon), a post-race banquet, and cash prizes to attract some of the top talent in the US and Canada. The race’s 2019 sponsors include Cayuga Medical Center, Bangs Ambulance, the Hartshorne Family, Sean Nicholson, Joe Daley, Ken Zeserson, Bill Quinlisk, Felder Track & Field, and a grant from the Myrtle Dee Nash Fund of Community Foundation. The masters running community is tremendously appreciative of the support.

Upcoming Presentation! Gender Inclusivity in Running: Policy and Philosophy

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Most sign-up forms for running races have a checkbox for Male and another for Female, but what about runners who don’t fit comfortably into one of those categories? This question has come up recently in FLRC board meetings, and now Kristine Newhall, an assistant professor of Kinesiology at SUNY Cortland, will be giving a presentation about the topic. The event is free.

Gender Inclusivity in Running: Policy and Philosophy
February 21st at 7pm
Greenstar’s The Space, 700 W Buffalo Street, Ithaca NY 14850
RSVPs are helpful—please sign up here

The presentation will look at current policies governing gender inclusion in sex-segregated sports, the history of these policies, how they have evolved, and how they operate at various levels of sports, from interscholastic to professional/Olympic. We’ll also learn about how organizational philosophy should inform the creation of policies and practices governing gender inclusivity and include examples from her research.

Kristine Newhall is an assistant professor of Kinesiology at SUNY Cortland, and her research focuses on gender, sexuality, race, and class dynamics in sport and physical cultures and includes work on trans inclusion and policy, women-only sport spaces/communities, and Title IX. She teaches courses in sports ethics, sport and society, and sport and sexuality, and publishes articles on The Title IX Blog, which she co-founded.

Questions? Contact event organizer Tonya Engst.

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Youth running on the rise at FLRC’s January indoor track meet

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This past Sunday marked FLRC’s first indoor meet of 2019, and it was a rousing success, with 198 runners and 436 entries across 5 events. We had so many kids—even a 2-year-old!—running the 60m that it was the most popular event of the day with 121 finishers across 18 heats, although the 400m wasn’t far behind, with 104 finishers in 21 heats. 17 hardy souls gritted out 25 laps in the 5000m, and the 1 mile once again drew strongly, with 88 finishers across 7 heats.

A lot of the kids came from our youth club and school teams: the Auburn Pulsars, Candor CSD Club Runners, Chenango Forks, Corning-Painted Post West, GIAC Navigators, SOAR, and Watkins Glen. As usual, it’s great to see so many teams at our meets, and we anticipate even more at the next two meets. Onto the results, which are now available!

The 5000m was mostly a warmup race this month, with Roy Wedge winning it in 17:44 for the men, 8 seconds ahead of Jake Pusey, and Megan Luckner the first woman across the line in 18:57, 35 seconds in front of Amelia Kaufman.

In the final heat of the 60m, Lance Jensen of Candor ran a 7.4 to best Patrick Skinner’s 7.5. For the women, Haley Dean of Watkins Glen took the crown with an 8.9-second finish, outpacing Emma Frost of Corning by .2 seconds.

Lance Jensen tried to repeat his win in the 400m, but couldn’t catch the speedsuit-clad Henry Gilbert, who laid down a commanding 51.1 time for the win, notably faster than Jensen’s 53.9. The first woman was Marissa Silba in 1:06.9, well ahead of Sophie Stewart’s 1:10.2 for second.

The 1 mile is often our most contested race, and this month looked like it was going to be another nail-biter, with James Felice leading for a number of laps before 2018 MITHACAL MILE SERIES champion Adam Pacheck took the lead in the middle of the race. But Pacheck wasn’t able to hold on past six laps, and Felice cruised in for a 4:30 win, 9 seconds ahead of Pacheck’s second place 4:39. For the women, 16-year-old Alyssa Walker ran a strong 5:29 for the win, followed by Megan Luckner in 5:37.

We closed with a relay, a 4x200m this time, which was won by a team anchored by 400m winner Henry Gilbert, just barely outpacing the Candor A team anchored by Lance Jensen, 1:43 to 1:44. Impressively, Adam Pacheck and his brother Ethan (who also ran a 4:49 mile) doubled up in the 4x200m to run a 1:52 for fourth, just behind Candor’s B team in 1:51.

As always, this meet was made possible by the superhuman efforts of a dedicated cadre of volunteers, and I can’t express how appreciative I am for their help. Jullien Flynn worked wonders with a new meet management app, despite its ancient Windows interface causing her flashbacks to middle school. Josh Brockner was quick and accurate as head timer. Newcomer Bill Watson stepped into the demanding clerk-of-course role and handled it with aplomb. Tom Rishel once again did a great job as starter. Adam Pacheck, before and after his excellent races, recorded finisher bibs, a job picked up by Bree Zogaria of Candor when he was running. Rod Weeden of Watkins Glen helped with lap counting. Tonya Engst and Jesse Koennecke ensured that registration and bib pickup moved smoothly all day long. Jesse, Bob Swizdor, Aaron Proujansky, Carl Franck, and Shannon Oakes of SOAR all helped manage heats. And many of the people above, aided by Emily Funk and Casey Carlstrom, were key in timing the lane-based 60m and 400m.

We hope to see you at our next meet on February 17th. You can sign up now.

2019 Board of Directors

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Written by: FLRC Secretery Nanncy Kleinrock

Thanks to all FLRC members who voted in the just-concluded election. The 2019 board of directors will consist of the following volunteers (note that one nominee has since withdrawn from consideration due to a timing conflict):

Co-President: Denice Cassaro
Co-President: Sue Aigen
Executive VP: Charlie Fay
VP Trails: Gary McCheyne
VP Roads: Alan Lockett
VP Track: Adam Engst
Treasurer: Mike Allinger
Secretary: Nancy Kleinrock
Members-at-Large:
Lesa Carter
Peter Dady
Tonya Engst
Jullien Flynn
Emily Funk
Pete Kresock
Daniel Longaker
Steve Shaum
Mickie Sanders-Jauquet
Gerrit Van Loon
Bill Watson

Moreover, a winner has emerged for 2018 Volunteer of the Year and will be announced at the 2019 Annual Meeting to be held this winter. Stay tuned for details.

Happy holidays and happy trails!

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Runners, It’s Time To Get Your Track On!

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Registration is now open for FLRC’s three winter track meets and the Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile! The schedule is:

If you’d like to join our MITHACAL MILERS training group on Tuesdays at 7 PM at Barton Hall, the kickoff time trial will be on Tuesday, December 18 (the next two Tuesdays are off due to holidays; we may do a one-off session on Thursday, January 3 if enough people are up for it). The time trial
and training group are free, but you must register on Webscorer to sign the waiver and be enter into the system for timing.

One final note: We sometimes hear from people that they don’t run track because they’re too slow, or they’d be intimidated. Let’s make it painfully clear—all of FLRC’s track meets, including the Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile, are open to ALL runners, regardless of age or ability. (Well, you do have to be over 40 for Hartshorne, since it’s a masters-only event, but we often have 80- and 90-year-olds running.)

We seed all our races by your predicted time, so you’ll always be running with people of roughly similar pace, and we’re supportive of every runner, whether you’re in the slowest heat or the fastest, whether you’re winning your heat or coming at the end. And by “we,” we mean the meet as a whole: volunteers, runners, coaches, and spectators alike.

Ithaca has a great running community, and we’d love to have you join us for some fun on the track this winter.

Vote for 2019 FLRC Officers and Volunteer of the Year

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You might have thought that the local election season was over, but you still have the opportunity to cast two more votes: (1) 2019 slate of officers for the Finger Lakes Runners Club’s Board of Directors, and (2) FLRC volunteer of the year. (I’m sure you couldn’t be more excited!)

Please direct your votes to secretary@fingerlakesrunners.org on or before December 15 — no votes will be accepted after that date — and include your name for membership verification. We appreciate your membership in the club and your participation in the selection of its governing board and exemplary volunteer.

(1) 2019 Slate of Officers

(These are are volunteer positions — they are the go-to workhorses of the club.) Here’s how the election works: The 2018 Board of Directors presents the slate below for 2019. You can vote it up in its entirety, vote it down in its entirety, vote it up generally but reserve your vote for one or more candidates, and/or provide write-ins for any position (making sure that your write-in candidate would accept the position if elected).

Vote for up to two people in the following position:
Co-President: Denice Cassaro
Co-President: Sue Aigen

Vote for one person in each of the following positions:
Executive VP: Charlie Fay
VP Trails: Gary McCheyne
VP Roads: Alan Lockett
VP Track: Adam Engst
Treasurer: Mike Allinger
Secretary: Nancy Kleinrock

Members-at-Large (vote for up to 12; accepting write-ins up to 14):

Lesa Carter
Peter Dady
Tonya Engst
Jullien Flynn
Emily Funk
Angelika Kraemer
Pete Kresock
Daniel Longaker
Steve Shaum
Mickie Sanders-Jauquet
Gerrit Van Loon
Bill Watson

(2) 2018 Volunteer of the Year:

As 2018 comes to a close, it is time to consider who among us have contributed most substantially to the fun and smooth functioning of the Finger Lakes Runners Club. If you have in mind a volunteer who has gone above-and-beyond this year, now is the time to weigh in. (Note that the following folks are not eligible, as they have won this award within the last 5 years: Mickie Sanders-Jauquet, Katie Stettler, Steve Shaum, Gerrit Van Loon, Carl Franck, Adam Engst, and Gary McCheyne.) The following individuals have been nominated by club members and/or Board members. Feel free to vote for one of these deserving people (or pairs) or write in one of your own. (These are listed alphabetically, so please peruse the entire list!) Again, please direct your votes to secretary@fingerlakesrunners.org on or before December 15 (no votes will be accepted after that date) and include your name for membership verification.

Ron Cunningham and Kerra Quinn: Both have volunteered at several of the FLRC races over the years by helping with race cleanup. They have also taken the initiative to institute a composting program at many of our races. They have set up food scraps collection buckets, developed and improved signage, and carted away compostables to their designated composting site. This pair has been involved with either running or volunteering for several years and hang around to cheer in finishers as they help with clean up. When they don’t run, they still come to races to either help or just be part of the FLRC scene.

David Keifer: He tirelessly volunteers at the track registration table and does other odd jobs at track meets, occasionally assisting at nontrack events, as well.

Alex Kleinerman: She directs two of FLRC’s biggest races—Skunk Cabbage and Finger Lakes 50s—and does so very professionally. Both races are large productions and require many months of planning and preparation. At the 50s this year, which was her first experience in the trail and ultra scene, Alex kept thing under control in the extreme heat and handled things well when runners went off course early in the race. She also directs Ithaca’s two largest non-FLRC events—the Cayuga Lake Triathlon and the Gorges Ithaca Half Marathon.

Pete Kresock: His involvement in the club is steadily growing as a member of the board, working on the website, handling the club’s social media presence, and learning the timing system.

Shelly Marino: She has taken the initiative of leading group runs on the Black Diamond Trail and also serves as the club’s membership coordinator.

Aly Sanders-Jauquet: This young lady has established herself as a reliable helper at many FLRC events, helping alongside her mom, Mickie. The club member nominating Aly appreciates how engaged our younger members can be, noting that Aly is a wonderful role model.

Bob Talda: He directs the Winter Chill series, helps with track meets, and regularly assists with timing-related tasks.

FLRC Turkey Trot Raises Over $2,500 for Local Charity

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Thank you to all the Turkey Trotters and volunteers who came out to run in the barely double-digit temperature! Together we raised $2,549 for Loaves & Fishes of Tompkins County. Matt Bishop won a Purity Ice Cream pie for having the closest predicted time, finishing five seconds off his prediction and edging out Jay Hubisz’s six-second differential. (Full results as a .PDF)

According to long-time Race Director Bruce Roebal, the 14°F start is the coldest on record in the event’s 46-year history! Not one to be deterred by the cold, race founder Bob Congdon kept his perfect streak alive, running the route for the forty-sixth time. A handful of other runners were added to the Turkey Trot Honor Roll upon completing the run for the fifth time. Additionally, Devon Magliozzi of the Ithaca Voice was on site and wrote a nice piece about our run and included some pictures.

Missed the run or still interested in helping out Loaves & Fishes? Please visit their website for ways to donate and for volunteer opportunities.

Thank you again for coming out on a frigid holiday morning! The Turkey Trot is our final even of the year. But don’t worry… registration for January’s Winter Chill 5K Series is open, and we have a variety of indoor track meets coming up soon!

PGXC 2018 Individual and Team Awards for Local Runners

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Written by Adam Engst, High Noon AC team captain

We all run road and trail races, but cross country is a different beast, and the Pete Glavin Upstate New York Cross Country Series is special. Unlike most races, cross country is both an individual and a team sport — how well you run on your own is one thing, but it’s how high you place in the race that matters for team points. A team will usually have five scoring runners, with another three who don’t score but displace other teams’ runners.

Scoring is simple: you add up the number of points that correspond with each scoring runner’s place and then compare to the other teams’ scores — lowest score wins. It’s great to have someone who is usually in the top three in the race, like Adam Pacheck was for the High Noon Open team this year, but the fifth runner is often more important for the team score. (In the PGXC series, the smaller age group divisions need only five on a team with three scoring, and you only compete with people in your division.) As PGXC Race Director Mike Nier says before each race: every place counts.

That’s scoring for a single race. Because PGXC is a series, there are both individual and team competitions across the entire series too. The individual scoring is a little funny, with the top 15 runners getting points associated with their places. The first runner gets 20 points, the second 17 points, and so on with this scale: 20-17-14-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-4-3-2-1. You have to run the championship race to score for the series, but you can drop or miss one of the five races — the series score is calculated based on the top four scores. Then, for the team scoring, first place gets six points, second receives four, third receives three, fourth receives two, and fifth place gets one point. There’s no race dropping for teams. Unlike individual race scoring, the most points wins in the series standings.

So the goal for an individual is to place high in every race for the age group and to make sure to run the championship race. If you have one bad race, or can’t make an early season race due to a conflict, it’s not the end of the world. Alas, David Keifer was off running the Philadelphia Marathon instead of the championship PGXC race on Sunday, so he missed out on what would have been a guaranteed second place in the Ultra Vets category. And for teams, the goal is just to score as many points as possible, which sometimes means moving runners down from older age groups to fill out teams — we often didn’t have enough 40-year-old runners for Masters and had to bring 50-year-old Vets down to complete the team. Keep in mind that our Ithaca teams are competing against clubs from large cities like Syracuse (Syracuse Track Club), Rochester (Genesee Valley Harriers), and Buffalo (Checkers Athletic Club) — we’re often the underdogs purely on population size.

Read our recaps from: Race #2 | Race #4 | Race #5 (Series Championship)

Now that you understand the complexity of the competition, on to the awards! Congratulations to all our Ithaca runners, and especially to the following:

First Place Series Finishers

Adam Pacheck: First and most impressive is Adam Pacheck, who won the entire series, beating STC’s Andrew Dionne by just two points, 68 to 66. Adam won the Taughannock race outright, took second twice, and third once. It was great seeing Adam in the lead pack of STC runners at every race with his trademark pink gloves, and we were ecstatic to see a High Noon runner taking the series again, something that hasn’t happened since Billy Way ran for us a few years back.

Deb Bliss: Next in line for congratulations is Deb Bliss, who won the women’s Ultra Vet category for runners over 70 with a perfect score of 80 points. Sure, she didn’t have much competition in her age group, but the fact is that she placed well in the 60-69 Super Vet team competition in every race as well.

Second Place Series Finishers

Adam Engst: Adam had one win and four second places, which was enough to give him a category-leading 71 points for the Vets, but Mike Nier beat him three times and took fifth once, tying Adam’s point score in the final race. And then Mike won the tie-breaker by besting Adam in the championship race (by two places and 25 seconds).

Third Place Series Finishers

Eric Sambolec: Thanks to two second place finishes, a fifth, and a sixth, Eric Sambolec was High Noon’s top Masters scorer and third in the series with 55 points.

Julie Barclay: Julie put together a third place, a fourth, and two sixth place finishes to score 46 points and take third for the series, beating the next woman by just one point.

Top 10 Individual Series Finishers

M20-39: Adam Pacheck first (68 points), Mik Kern tenth (17 points)
M40-49: Eric Sambolec third (55 points), Brian Lazzaro sixth (39 points), Scott Dawson seventh (29 points), Ian Golden eighth (25 points)
M50-59: Adam Engst second (71 points), Alex Colvin fifth (50 points), Casey Carlstrom eighth (32 points), Sean Nicholson tenth (25 points)
M60-69: Alan Lockett sixth (35 points), Charlie Fay seventh (33 points), Jorge Ramirez tenth (15 points)

F40-49: Julie Barclay third (46 points), Kim Jackson seventh (30 points)
F50-59: Sandy Gregorich sixth (34 points), Tonya Engst eighth (22 points)
F60-69: Anne Shakespeare seventh (32 points), Ruth Sproul tenth (19 points)
F70+: Deb Bliss first (80 points)

Team Standings

Men’s Open: High Noon took second with 15 points, well behind STC’s perfect score of 30 points, but sneaking past Checkers with 14 points.
Men’s Masters: High Noon took second with 24 points, just two points behind GVH’s 26 points.
Men’s Vets: High Noon took second, but with only 16 points compared to GVH’s perfect score of 30 points.
Men’s Super Vets: High Noon took third with 11 points, behind GVH with 26 points and STC with 20 points.

Women’s Open: FLRC took fourth with 7 points; Checkers dominated with a 30-point perfect score.
Women’s Masters: FLRC took third with 11 points behind GVH with 28 points and STC with 22 points.
Women’s Vets: FLRC took second with 18 points, beating out Syracuse with 12 points and behind GVH with 27 points.
Women’s Super Vets: FLRC took third with 15 points; Syracuse won with a 30-point perfect score and GVH was second with 20 points.

You can see all these results and more pete glavnat http://run4results.com/querypgxc

Start thinking about cross country next summer, since our first race will once again be in early September. Check back in the summer of 2019 for details on how to join our 2019 teams.