We closed out our winter indoor track season with a smaller, relaxing meet that showcased some fabulous races and times. The March meet is often a bit smaller because high school kids are done with their indoor season and taking some downtime before outdoor track starts. But we still drew nine teams, including collegiate running clubs from Binghamton, Buffalo, and Syracuse, plus two from Cornell, in addition to our regular youth teams: the Auburn Pulsars, GIAC Navigators, SOAR Running Club, and Candor CSD Running Club. Nasty morning driving conditions, daylight saving time, and illnesses making the rounds also hurt attendance a bit, but we still had 143 runners and 289 entries across four individual races and a relay. Full results are now available.

With everyone having been forced to wake up an hour earlier than normal, it wasn’t surprising that our fast 3000m heat started out as a tactical race, with a big clump of runners sticking together through a slow first mile. Then it started to break up, with Cornell grad student Sam Lagasse, Joshua Lacey and Kody Parrot from the University of Buffalo, and the Cornell Running Club’s Ethan Seltzer pulling away from the pack. Lagasse ended up throwing down a ferocious kick to claim the victory in 9:20, with Lacey coming in second in 9:31. For the women, Cornell’s Krista Scibisz beat 14-year-old Bethany Lorenzo of the Auburn Pulsars, 12:08 to 12:26.

Next we moved into the 60m, and after a bunch of munchkin heats with runners as young as 4, the University of Buffalo’s Nicholas Abdo won in 6.9 seconds, beating Candor’s Lance Jensen and five other runners who were in the 7.3 second range. The women’s title went to 12-year-old Makenna Keough of the SOAR Running Club, just a hair ahead of Raquel Morehouse of the Cornell Track and Field Club, both in 9.1 seconds.

In the 200m, Nicholas Abdo and Lance Jensen repeated their places, with Abdo taking the win in 23.2 second and Jensen taking second in 24.0. On the women’s side, Buffalo’s Yuleiny Fernandez cruised through the tape in 29.1 seconds, followed by 11-year-old Maggie Houp of SOAR in 30.7 seconds.

The mile race was the most popular and most competitive, with all the runners in the fastest heat seeding themselves at under 4:50. The race didn’t disappoint, with numerous lead changes that ended with the Cornell Running Club’s Oliver Rapp kicking hard in the final lap to beat James Felice, 4:35 to 4:39. The winner of the women’s race was never in question, with national masters mile champion and Hartshorne Masters Mile winner Sascha Scott coming down from Syracuse to get some competition from men since there are few women of any age, and almost no masters runners, who can run with her. Despite feeling lousy in her warmup and getting tangled at the start, Sascha ran even splits and moved up strongly in the final laps of her race to lay down a 4:54.1, her fastest time of the year and one of the fastest mile times by a 40-44 woman in the world. The next fastest woman was 20-year-old Gabriella Dunkelberg in 5:45 that just outpaced an impressive 5:46 by 43-year-old Richarda Ericson.

Finally, the University of Buffalo runners ran a strong 4x200m relay to win handily in 1:37, beating a tough Candor team that came through in 1:44.

Huge thanks go to the many volunteers who made this and the other indoor meets run so smoothly. We consistently receive compliments from coaches and runners about how our meets are among the best run anywhere, and that’s a testament to our dedicated volunteer team. Jullien Flynn coordinates all entries, seeding, and results in the Meet Manager app. Josh Brockner was once again our head timer. Tom Rishel served as starter, working with good humor through a cranky starter’s pistol. Adam Pacheck managed the finish line with help from Truck Rossiter. Tonya Engst and Jesse Koennecke wrangled registration and bib pickup (and then both went out and ran PRs in the mile). As clerks-of-course, Bill Watson and Becca Lovenheim arranged runners into heats, with help from Ellie Pell. Aaron Proujansky did backup timing and lap counting, and Carl Franck set up the PA system and helped out in numerous places. Thanks to each and every one of you for making FLRC’s track meets such a success!

See you outdoors on Lansing High School’s track on June 18th!

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.